The Big Dig

Mini escape room where almost all the gameplay takes place on a single two-sided wall. The team is split by the wall and communication between the sides is crucial to gameplay. Managed to capture the communication-based gameplay of split-team escape rooms quite well. Puzzles and theming are fun. Not a must-play, but pretty enjoyable.

Enjoyable game with satisfying solves. I really liked this concept, forcing players to communicate. There is no room, all the puzzles are built into a small wall. The objective of the puzzles were to open padlocks (no tech) but they still managed to make it a tactile experience with many objects to manipulate. The puzzles were the right amount of difficulty for us, not too hard or easy. There is a bit of math in this one, but it's basic arithmetic you can do in your head. My team of 3 did need 1 hint (but it was something we should've been able to figure out), the hints were written on cards, there is no GM watching you. My only wish is that they had a progressive hint system giving you smaller bits of information instead of walking you through the entire puzzle at once. Make sure your strongest puzzler is on the correct side, they should tell you which one they should be on when you start. I played this and Wayward Spacers at Gen Con and enjoyed them both similarly, though Wayward Spacers is more difficult.

This was a quick room we played at GenCon - it’s slated for 2-4 players with a 25 minute time limit and we finished in 20 minutes with 2 players. It has 4 padlocks and a handful of puzzles that require people on both sides of the wall to finalize the puzzle. It took communication and some trial and error to figure everything out, although they do leave you 4 clues (1 for each lock) if you need it. We ended up using no hints, but it’s great if you get stuck. At $20, this is a bit pricey for a 25 minute experience, but as a GenCon event, it was great way to end the night! I also love cooperative games and rooms, so we walked away happy!

This was our first time doing Co-Operatives and it was a really enjoyable experience! Since New England tends to be more puzzle-focused than story/immersion focused, these puzzle walls compliment the Boston escape room scene very well. The Big Dig is labeled a 4/10 difficulty on the website, and I'd say that's an accurate difficulty level. Our team of two was able to consistently move through puzzles without using any hints or feeling stumped for any extended period of time, however we also didn't leave feeling like the wall was too easy or we were unchallenged. Folks who like to closely track their completion time may want to set their own timer on their phone, as the staff did not notice that we'd completed the wall until about 3-5min after we had already finished. Due to immense difficulty finding parking (I highly recommend future players take the T if possible), we were embarrassingly 20min late to our booking time. Staff were incredibly kind and understanding and allowed us to enter the experience when we arrived with no issue. We greatly appreciate how considerate they were when they definitely didn't have to be so gracious. The price feels reasonable for the experience, and while there are some similar experiences to this that are virtual that you could get for cheaper (Alone Together by Enchambered Escape Room is what comes to mind), there's something special about physically manipulating your surroundings as opposed to point-and-click on a screen. We had a great time and will definitely return to Co-Operatives!