Without question, this is the worst escape room I have ever played.
Experience. Frankly, unacceptable. Neither escape room enthusiasts nor new players should book this room. It fails on every level. I am saddened by the thought that people new to escape rooms might book this experience and think that this is what escape rooms are like. The fact that the operators of this facility a) don’t care enough about their current customers to repair and improve their game and b) have no concern about the escape room industry losing potential future customers tells me that they are not in the business to entertain and delight anyone. There is no way that someone who actually loves immersive experiences and puzzles would even consider allowing unsuspecting customers to play this catastrophe, much less pay money for it!
Story. It seemed that this game had a story at one time, and we were given an introduction that provided a sort of weak objective, but there was no effort to integrate room elements into any kind of cohesive narrative. Everything felt incredibly random. So random, in fact, that it was quickly apparent that we were not playing the game as it was originally designed.
Production Value. Appalling. This may have been an adequate, cookie-cutter room at one time - nothing spectacular, but undoubtedly up to the standards of most basic escape rooms. However, over time, the props and sets have been destroyed by players and technical elements have broken. And rather than making repairs, the operators have left all the broken elements in place and made the cheapest, easiest changes they could to overcome the fact that almost all the props, set pieces, and puzzles are no longer usable.
Immersion. None. The set pieces are broken. There are sections of wallpaper that have been ripped off by previous players. The props are worn. There’s a hole in the ceiling. Replacement puzzle elements are cheap and not thematically consistent, including instructions written on a laminated piece of paper with no effort to even make it look like part of the game world.
Gameplay. The room is full of red herrings because it still contains props, signposting, and clues to puzzles that no longer exist - elements that are no longer used because the original puzzle to which they belonged has been scrapped. There are no a-ha moments because technical elements that should be triggered upon reaching the right solution no longer work; instead (as explained by the game master prior to starting the game) players must manually enter each solution into a prop that was clearly once a single, unique puzzle (the cabinet in which it is housed obviously once opened at the appropriate time, but now it is already open when the players enter the room).
Our game master was an incredibly enthusiastic, friendly, eager young man who truly wanted us to have a good time. He had a tough job because he had to explain the workaround solution checker before the game began. Unfortunately, I don’t think our game was the only one he was in charge of because when we called for help, there was often a delay, and when he did respond, he didn’t know what we had already tried or what step we were on.
Honestly, the thing that makes me most sad about this game is that anyone new to escape rooms will think this is the norm and never play another escape room again. For experienced players, it was just infuriating. There were puzzles that required manually figuring out patterns with physical objects, but the physical objects were in such bad shape that even arranging them correctly didn’t reveal anything useful. There was no way to tell what to engage with and what to ignore. There was no way to tell if we were stuck because we had solved a puzzle incorrectly or if we were trying to solve a puzzle that no longer exists.
Final grade. F - if there were a grade lower than F, I would give it that. It was an exercise in futility and frustration and a complete waste of time and money.
I don't think I'd use the word "play" to describe the experience. It was a nightmare.
If it had been a house, it would have been condemned.
This was the one area where the room wasn't a complete disaster. Our GM was enthusiastic. It wasn't his fault the room was so terrible.
Particularly interesting or different
No
I suppose you could say it was different in that it was remarkably unplayable.
There really wasn't one. There was the ghost of a story that once existed, but the current room has no story.
Difficulty
I would say "impossible," not because it was challenging but because it had been so poorly designed (or, I'd say, REdesigned).
I'm pretty sure the room had some technical elements at one time, but they are not working now!
Zero people should play this game.
Physically active
Not at all