The Mystery of Broom Closet 13

After recently doing Pixie's Candy Emporium, we were really excited to try another new Arcadia room! The Mystery of Broom Closet 13 opened a few days before we got to experience it, and I was really interested in how this room came to life. The somewhat random and mysterious theme allows for a lot of creativity and control in terms of the rooms setup and gameflow. I did feel like the game lacked some immersion and storyline. Where in other rooms (dollhouse, dungeon, pixies) the sets were amazing, creative and had an overall set that made you feel like the story came to life, this one lacked some component that made you feel like you were integrated into a story. Instead it felt like we were solving puzzles just to solve puzzles. We also had one puzzle that was turned off that we were stuck on for a while, (>20 min) and we were given an extra 5 minutes to complete the room. We also asked for multiple hints and the puzzle not working was not noticed until our second or third time asking. It does make sense with a new room that it proposes new challanges and takes time to get familiar with, but it definitely impacted our experience. I really liked the concept and idea, maybe just wish it came together in a more satisfying way! Arcadia has always been a very great experience and the staff is always very friendly, so I am excited to see what they come up with in their future rooms as they continue to fill out the new space.

I will start by saying this room is definitely designed for a certain age group. I personally loved this room, even though it was not as immersive or strong on story compared to other rooms at Arcadia it was still a very fun room. The puzzles were very different compared to their other rooms but still enjoyable to solve. Some tech will be an issue for younger players but for me and my partner it was fun to use it again! The room was hilarious and we loved the Easter eggs for multiple shows and games, they were subtle and not in your face which I liked. The room was lacking story but it looks like they left Dollhouse as the story driven 2 player room where this was more of a puzzle and video game esque room. I loved the room and the puzzles but I can definitely see it being confusing or not someone’s brand of humour, especially if they have not worked in a corporate environment. I look forward to their next big adventure, but this was a nice small room for 2 players.