The Black Queen

This was my third visit to Adventure Rooms in Adelaide, and while we still had fun, some aspects fell short compared to my previous experiences. This time, we tried The Black Queen, which is advertised as one of their easier rooms—and ironically, it was the first time I didn’t manage to escape. I’d say the difficulty wasn’t so much in the puzzles themselves, but in the lack of clue access and the low lighting, which made progress slower. The staff were friendly and welcoming, but I did have some feedback afterwards. Our game introduction was rushed; the staff member spoke so quickly that we had to ask him to repeat several things. When I asked about the storyline (which I think really helps set the atmosphere), he simply said, “Oh okay, I’ll play the introduction video for you.” This surprised me, as I thought a proper introduction would be a standard part of any escape room experience. The game itself had a clear, linear structure, which we enjoyed, but it relied heavily on multiple locks. We weren’t told beforehand that we couldn’t request clues, so when we tried, we got no response. Clues did eventually appear, but a couple of them came after we had already solved those particular puzzles. Another challenge was the low lighting. Many locks were hard to read, and without our phones (which we left outside, as is standard), we wished we had some kind of torch. This made progress trickier than it needed to be. Unfortunately, we didn’t escape this time—which was disappointing given how close we felt we were. As my past visits to Adventure Rooms have been excellent, I do think this was more of an off day. Our games master was kind and polite, and my feedback is only intended to help fine-tune the experience so it’s as smooth and enjoyable as possible. I’d still recommend Adventure Rooms as a whole, but I think The Black Queen could benefit from clearer instructions, better clue timing, and improved lighting.