Mindquest – Legacy of Noo’Zaca [Review]
Tomb Raider without the short shorts.
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Date played: August 25, 2017
Team size: 2-5; we recommend 2-3
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: 10,000 HUF ($39) per team per team of 3-5 players; 6,000 HUF ($23) per team of 2 players
Story & setting
In the jungles of South America we set off on an expedition into a cursed temple to recover a mystical artifact.
Legacy of Noo’Zaca had a beautiful jungle temple set. It looked superb and the puzzling was deeply integrated into the surroundings.
Puzzles
Setup as an immersive adventure in the vein of Tomb Raider, Legacy of Noo’Zaca’s puzzles were all built into the set as physical and mechanical interactions. These all fit well and were good fun, even when they weren’t particularly challenging.
Standouts
Legacy of Noo’Zaca was an adventure. It told a story through the puzzles, which integrated beautifully into the set.
As we moved through the puzzles, the gorgeous set continuously revealed hidden secrets. We became increasingly curious about what we’d uncover next, which enhanced the feeling of adventure.
Mindquest seamlessly integrated analogue and digital technology. We particularly loved a few late game mechanical puzzles.
Shortcomings
One essential prop was in rough condition. Because of this, the interaction became frustrating.
While most of this experience was beautifully polished, we occasionally encountered exposed tech, which detracted from the magic of the space and could easily be covered up.
All too often, solving a puzzle triggered something to happen almost silently. Consequently, each time we solved a puzzle, we had to re-search the entire space to determine what had changed. A little bit of auditory or visual feedback from these opens would have gone a long way.
Finally, Legacy of Noo’Zaca felt a little light on content. An extra puzzle or two would have made it a more complete room escape.
Should I play Mindquest’s Legacy of Noo’Zaca?
Legacy of Noo’Zaca was one of the prettiest and most professionally built games that we encountered in Budapest. It was a fun adventure with entertaining puzzles and good surprises.
As experienced players, we truly enjoyed the details in the set and the fantastic puzzle integration. We wished that it had lasted a little bit longer and gave better feedback when we unlocked something.
Beginners will absolutely love Legacy of Noo’Zaca as it was pretty, entertaining, and still approachable.
If you’re in Budapest and love escape rooms, I would not miss Legacy of Noo’Zaca.
Book your hour with Mindquest’s Legacy of Noo’Zaca, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Mindquest provided media discounted tickets for this game.
The Room – Beast of Berlin [Review]
The roar in the roaring twenties was the sound of the Beast of Berlin.
Location: Berlin, Germany
Date played: September 4, 2017
Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: from 35€ per ticket for 2 players to 22€ per ticket for 6 players
Story & setting
The notorious serial killer known only as “the Beast of Berlin” had claimed another life. His most recent victim was found boldly placed within the office of Chief Inspector Ernst Gennat, the man hunting for him. Gennat assembled a special commission to track down this killer and bring him to justice.
Beast of Berlin set us off on our adventure within the latest crime scene, Chief Inspector Gennat’s beautiful office. It looked and felt like a real and functional place.
Puzzles
From a puzzling standpoint, Beast of Berlin played similarly to The Room’s other early game, Go West… but with moderate horror tossed in for intensity.
Beast of Berlin was a puzzler’s room escape. Some of the puzzles carried narrative weight; others were simply good puzzles.
Standouts
Beast of Berlin began in a compelling and strangely beautiful detective’s office from a bygone era. It was a comfortable but intriguing space to explore.
The Room’s commitment to set detailing showed in every area of the experience. They fully decorated spaces that we barely spent any time puzzling through. This attention to detail elevated the ambiance and intensity of the surrounding experience. In spite of the level of detail, Beast of Berlin was not plagued by red herrings.
We enjoyed most of the puzzles that we encountered in Beast of Berlin.
Shortcomings
There were a few puzzles that seemed a bit too opaque or worn down.
This detective’s office included a few gorgeous props that were just… props. We would have liked to see them worked into the puzzles.
We spent the majority of Beast of Berlin moving through the escape room without any urgency. The early gameplay was emotionally level, at times even monotonous, and didn’t foreshadow – or push us towards – the excitement that was to come. Then, after the tension escalated, the ending felt small. It didn’t return adequately on the built tension.
Should I play The Room’s Beast of Berlin?
Beast of Berlin started comfortable and relatively standard, but it became far more interesting than it originally appeared.
Note that Beast of Berlin turned dark, both physically and metaphorically. If that’s not your thing, choose one of The Room’s other escape rooms.
Otherwise, regardless of your experience level, there was an intriguing set along with satisfying puzzling to enjoy in Beast of Berlin. It will be challenging, but approachable and exciting.
Following our visit, The Room closed Beast of Berlin for refurbishing. We expect that some of the heavily worn or less integrated puzzling has now been reworked for future players.
Book your hour with The Room’s Beast of Berlin, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
For a local perspective, see Escape Maniac (in German).
Full disclosure: The Room comped our tickets for this game.
REA Weekly Roundup – October 15, 2017
It’s good to be home this weekend after a whirlwind of travel.
Announcements
Watch our talk from Up The Game, the escape room conference in The Netherlands this past May.
David will be giving an updated version of this talk at WroEscape, the escape room conference in Wrocław, Poland from October 27-29th. Find him there!
Komnata Quest was named the best escape room by the USA Today Readers’ Choice 10 Best vote of 2017.
Featured escape rooms
During our recent trip to Budapest, we played the Pirate Cave Escape Room. This adventure was large, interactive, and highly entertaining.
During our recent trip to Berlin, we played The Room’s Go West. This puzzle game communicated a political and historical message.
Something different
Many people have asked us about Paradiso’s Path of Beatrice. If you’re drawn to immersive experiences, Path of Beatrice was an alternate reality experience (ARX) that delivered a lot of intrigue and actor interaction.
From the community
Looking for a tough puzzle? Maybe you can decipher this encryption for the British Library’s Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy exhibition.
Watch our talk from Up The Game!
Last May, we spoke at Up The Game, the escape room conference in The Netherlands.
We are honored to have been invited to speak at this conference. We had an incredible time.
Watch our talk
Up the Game is now releasing recordings of the talks from the conference. Here is our talk on The Player Experience:
Spoiler warning: We do give a couple of spoilers for games during the talk. One is for a well-spoiled moment in a famous game. The other is in a little-known one.
In each of the following vignettes, we tell a story about something that happened to us in an escape room.
Here are timestamps for the talk’s segments, as well as links to other posts on the same subject.
- 1:20 – A Study in Yellow: that time we found a urine sample in an escape room.
- 3:00 – Introductions
- 4:40 – Lost in Translation: that time when shelf and drawer were translated backwards
- 6:30 – Individual Isolation: those times when we played on our own
- 10:10 – The Coffinary Tale: that time we were locked in adjacent coffins
- 11:40 – DO[DOOR]OR: those times we saw clever design around safety (door) (handcuffs)
- 14:40 – The < 5%: that time our escape was lucky
- 16:40 – Here Comes the Judge: that time our gamemaster accused us of cheating
- 18:20 – Mandatory Hints: that time hints were actually the clue structure
- 20:30 – The Fall of Team Tequila: that time our random teammates arrived drunk
- 24:30 – Sustainable Dystopia: that time we played a game constructed from recycled material
- 25:30 – Diary of an Atrocity: those times Holocaust escape rooms made the news
- 28:40 – Brilliance on a Budget: that time the designers used their other skills to create something special within their escape room
- 30:30 – Would you could you? those times we played escape rooms around our dining room table
- 31:30 – The Car Ad: that time we played a free escape room advertising the Ford Escape
- 33:40 – A Nutcracking Event: that time theater, dance, drinks, and puzzles all came together for Christmas
- 35:20 – Your Job: Create Enthusiasts.
- 36:40 – Q&A
Silly correction from the video – Anaheim is South of Los Angeles.
We have more stories!
If you’d like to hear more, David will be giving an updated version of this talk at WroEscape, the escape room conference in Wrocław, Poland from October 27-29th. Find him there!
Pirate Cave Escape Room [Review]
Pirates of the Great Hungarian Plain.
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Date played: August 27, 2017
Team size: 2-7; we recommend 2-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: from 6,000 HUF ($23) per player for a team of 2 or 3 to 2,800 HUF ($11) per player for a team of 7
Story & setting
We were captured by pirates and cursed. We had to escape captivity and break the curse in this movie-inspired pirate adventure.
Pirate Cave had a homemade pirate aesthetic. The space was a lot of fun, even when the details fell short of convincing immersion. The sense of adventure was also aided by a few large set pieces that set the tone for each act of the game.
Puzzles
Most of the puzzles were born of the props and set pieces within the game. They played well. A handful of the puzzles felt a little escape-roomy, while still working within the theme.
Standouts
Pirate Cave Escape Room was first and foremost an adventure. It conveyed story through the set, props, gameplay, and even hint system. Each mission was personalized, ever so slightly, and we loved this little touch. It enhanced our adventure.
Pirate Cave Escape Room incorporated standard escape room puzzle types through different implementations. The puzzling was entertaining.
In Pirate Cave Escape Room, we encountered many locks we’d never seen before. Some of these were pretty old. These locks – as well as many of the other carefully selected props – truly enhanced the environment and made the adventure more immersive.
There was a surprising transition. The designer’s willingness to build this made it that much more exciting.
Shortcomings
With a story-first design, Pirate Cave Escape Room could feel a little light on substantial cerebral puzzling. We would have liked to see more complexity and challenge.
Pirate Cave Escape Room nailed so many little details that the few places where these were overlooked stood out a little too much.
For tourists in Budapest, Pirate Cave Escape Room wasn’t far, as the crow flies, but it was well off the beaten path and difficult to find.*
Should I play Pirate Cave Escape Room?
We truly enjoyed each and every game that we played in Budapest and Pirate Cave was our favorite of the bunch. It was large, interactive, and highly entertaining. There were a number of larger interactions that simply didn’t need to be a part of the game, but the fact that they were made it so much more enjoyable.
Within Budapest, we played more interesting puzzle games. We also played games with more elegant set design. However, the way these things came together in the Pirate Cave put smiles on our faces.
Regardless of your skill level, we wholeheartedly recommend Pirate Cave.
*Do note that if you’re looking to visit Pirate Cave, you’ll likely need a taxi. We used the Uber clone Taxify in Budapest and it worked well. You should also follow the directions on Pirate Cave’s website and navigate to their GPS coordinates, not their address. We made this error and it would have been avoidable if we simply read the instructions.
Book your hour with Pirate Cave Escape Room, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Pirate Cave Escape Room comped our tickets for this game.
Haunted Scarehouse – The Cookhouse [Review]
Where you’re on the menu.
Location: Wharton, NJ
Date played: September 11, 2017
Team size: 2-10; we recommend 3-5
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $29 per ticket
Story & setting
The murderous Hayden family cannibalizes their victims in the The Cookhouse. We’d been caught trespassing on their property and now we had to figure out who had been killed there last in order to win our freedom… or become their next meal.
In The Cookhouse, the old appliances hadn’t been touched or cleaned in years. The set looked exactly the part. It was a small and uninviting, but oddly charming 1960s kitchen.
Puzzles
The puzzles required us to closely observe the set and connect these observations to tangible interactions.
Standouts
The incredibly weird and quirky kitchen set a fantastic tone for The Cookhouse. The look and feel of the space were impressive.
There were transitions and surprises hidden within The Cookhouse that delighted us.
Two different tech-driven interactions were unexpected, fun and funny.
Haunted Scarehouse added a brilliant extra touch with their introduction and conclusion.
Shortcomings
The Cookhouse included many locks with the same digit structure. It then relied repeatedly on a similar puzzle design for each of these locks. Thus in the beginning we had to try every solution in multiple places and by the end the gameplay felt repetitive.
One area of The Cookhouse focused on a single set piece and consequently felt under-utilized.
Should I play Haunted Scarehouse’s The Cookhouse?
The Cookhouse was an unusual interpretation of a mundane space. The aesthetics made us want to both shy away and also interact. It was strange like that.
The Cookhouse was more funny horror than actually scary, but to enjoy it, you had to be ok with a bit of gore, of the not-too-realistic variety.
If you’re new to escape rooms, The Cookhouse will show you how to observe, connect, and open. If you’re looking for more creative and complex puzzles, we recommend The Great Room.
Enter The Cookhouse for an entertaining space and the particularly fun moments within.
Book your hour with Haunted Scarehouse’s The Cookhouse, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Haunted Scarehouse comped our tickets for this game.
Paradiso – Path of Beatrice [Review]
Adventures in (public) space.
Location: New York, NY
Date played: September 8-12, 2017
Team size: 1-4
Duration: spread out over a week with shorter options available
Price: from $300 per ticket with a $100 price break with each additional participant
Story & setting
Path of Beatrice was not an escape room, nor was it a puzzle game or immersive theater. Path of Beatrice was an alternate reality experience (ARX) produced by Paradiso, the creators of the escape rooms The Escape Test and The Memory Room.
All of Paradiso’s experiences are set in the same world against the same Dante’s Inferno-inspired narrative: The Virgil Corporation is running experiments on the human brain with unknown goals and there is an underground movement trying to infiltrate, investigate, and stop Virgil from achieving its ends. Path of Beatrice dropped us in the middle of New York City, in between these two warring factions.
Over the course of the 5 days leading up to our booking of The Memory Room, we spent our evenings meeting clandestinely with representatives of both the Virgil Corporation and the resistance group, Stop Virgil. Both gave us assignments and tasks to spy on the other. It was up to us to pick a side and execute on the missions assigned to us.
Paradiso staged Path of Beatrice in Midtown Manhattan across a variety public spaces. It can be played leading up to either The Memory Room or Escape Test.
Interaction
We had daily interactions with the characters of Path of Beatrice. Text conversations, email exchanges, in-person clandestine meetings, and missions in public spaces made up the bulk of the experience.
As we explored Path of Beatrice’s real world segments, we could not tell who was a simple pedestrian and who was an actor in our experience.
Participating in Path of Beatrice also changed the gameplay of the culminating escape room experience. Playing Path of Beatrice had a surprisingly significant impact on our playthrough of The Memory Room.
Standouts
Paradiso chose the public spaces that they incorporated into Path of Beatrice wisely. They put these locations to good use. They also reframed how we thought about public spaces that week.
The actors that we encountered were impressive. When they weren’t invisibly blending into New York City, they were comfortably improvising with us as we interrogated one another.
Paradiso included some shockingly unnecessary, yet impressive details in Path of Beatrice.
Path of Beatrice conveyed the story of Paradiso quite well. From playing the escape rooms alone, the story could be a little difficult to understand; this filled in so many gaps.
We were given the freedom to enjoy Path of Beatrice as we wanted. We chose the side that we wanted to support.
Shortcomings
Scheduling a recurring week-long experience was a little bit tricky. We keep a busy schedule (not complaining, just stating the fact) and it was difficult for us to get to the locations that we needed to visit at the allocated times. Paradiso worked with us to make this work, but they don’t share scheduling in advance, largely because the story was unfolding as we played. This made Path of Beatrice a challenge for us. It would be similarly difficult for people with families and anyone traveling to New York with a rigid schedule (say, traveling escape room enthusiasts).
Path of Beatrice was expensive. There was no way around it. $300 per ticket with a $100 price break with each additional participant bought a lot of actor interaction, planning, logistics, and customization. When we stopped and thought about how much was involved, the price point didn’t feel crazy. The fact that the price made sense, however, did not lower it.
The text message and email exchanges seemed like they were trying to create a Morpheus-esque, first 45 minutes of The Matrix vibe. The trouble was that we couldn’t control when these were coming in, so sometimes we’d have to wait hours to reply.
Additionally, I had a problem of trust. The actors were great, but all of the characters operated under the assumption that you trusted them, even when everyone was telling you that everyone else was a liar. When I attempted to make a character earn my trust, I got a “you’re-with-us-or-against-us” type response. Ultimately I just gave in and the experience became a lot more interesting… but I also had to betray my own nature and that kind of stung.
There were a lot of things that we had to read, some of which required a computer. When we received something from a character, we’d then go about our evening in the New York City, frequently getting home after midnight. It would be hours, or even the next day, before we could dive into the Path of Beatrice material. We continually received texts asking if we had done the thing yet. This was clunky. Then we ultimately rushed the reading and missed the important detail (even though it was literally the first thing that I read).
Should I play Paradiso’s Path of Beatrice?
Paradiso does things differently and I mean that as a compliment. Their escape rooms, The Escape Test and The Memory Room, stand on their own as unique experiences. That is a true achievement in an industry where there’s a fair amount of sameness.
Path of Beatrice was another artful and unique experience. This came with unusual idiosyncrasies. The road less traveled has a lot more bumps along it; creating new things is not for the faint of heart.
We interviewed a few different people who played Path of Beatrice 4 and 6 weeks prior to us and they had profoundly different experiences than we did. Ours was significantly improved and Paradiso confirmed that the ARX is always evolving as they and their actors create new and interesting ways to iterate upon their real-world game.
Price is ultimately going to be the big deciding factor for many and that’s understandable. Path of Beatrice stands out as the first experience that Lisa and I have reviewed that we would not have been able to afford if the tickets were not complimentary. I call this out because it’s the first time that price would have kept us out of an experience. This is an expensive experience.
If you’re a puzzler, Path of Beatrice is not for you. You can fully enjoy Paradiso’s escape rooms without completely understanding the deeper story that ties them together.
If you’re drawn to actor-driven immersive experiences, Path of Beatrice is an interesting one that delivers a lot of intrigue and actor interaction. If you’re going to miss the money you spend to experience Path of Beatrice you should not go. If you won’t miss the money, there’s a clandestine world hidden within NYC for you to enjoy.
A few pro tips for those who go: Have access to a computer. While this is no big deal for locals, if you’re traveling it could be a significant issue. Give Paradiso a phone number and email address for each individual ticket holder. They communicate differently with everyone. Make sure that you’ve left ample time in your schedule to accommodate Path of Beatrice. We enjoyed it, but I think we would have liked it a whole lot more if we weren’t always rushing to our actor appointments.
Surrender to the experience, have fun with the characters, and become a character yourself in Paradiso’s Path of Beatrice.
Book your experience with Paradiso’s Path of Beatrice, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Paradiso comped our tickets for this game.
House of Tales – The Executioner [Review]
Welcome to the Pit of Despair.
Location: Berlin, Germany
Date played: September 2, 2017
Team size: 2-5; we recommend 3
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: from 35€ per ticket for 2 players to 22€ per ticket for 5 players
Story & setting
Abducted and restrained within an ancient dungeon by an evil cult, we had an hour to escape before the executioner arrived and carried out his gruesome ritual.
Puzzles
The majority of the puzzling in The Executioner was in how to interact with the dungeon set and props. By finding and connecting the appropriate objects, we’d eventually open up our escape route.
Standouts
The set of The Executioner was dramatic and exciting; there was a lot more to the world of The Executioner than was immediately apparent.
We loved one particular sequence of puzzles. It was thematically relevant, but still unexpected. House of Tales used technology well to create satisfying interactions.
House of Tales created a character, played by the gamemaster, who delivered both hints and tidbits of story throughout the experience. Our gamemaster excelled at intermingling atmosphere with helpful nudges. She could moved us forward and keep us on our toes.
The ending was phenomenal.
Shortcomings
Early in The Executioner, the gameplay bottlenecked. We ended up waiting for one player to uncover and complete an action. There was nothing for the other players to do except wait.
While many of the puzzles were worked into the set, some of them were more escape room standards that didn’t make sense in the space.
We couldn’t always tell how forceful we needed to be with the game components. At times our gamemaster needed to push us forward because we were hesitant to take an action that might harm the set or props.
Should I play House of Tales’ The Executioner?
The Executioner had one of the most exciting and enjoyable puzzle sequences I’ve ever seen. With a bit of tech, House of Tales used props and puzzles to create narrative and adventure. Not all of the interaction-based puzzling was on this level, and not all of it made sense in this dungeon escape, but overall, it was a lot of fun.
The Executioner leant on adventure and atmosphere over puzzles. To facilitate this, the gamemaster was a character in our narrative. To get the most out of the experience, we needed to accept the hinting as part of the game design. Without hints, we’d have missed an important component of The Executioner.
Note that you need to be relatively nimble to traverse the entire gamespace of The Executioner. Additionally, parts of the gamespace are dark and the entire experience is a bit creepy, but not really scary.
If none of that turns you away, and you’re looking for an adventure through an exciting space, visit The Executioner.
Book your hour with House of Tales’ The Executioner, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
For a local perspective, see Escape Maniac (in German).
Full disclosure: House of Tales provided media discounted tickets for this game.
LogIQrooms – Napuche [Review]
A fantastic puzzle game with a variant in Las Vegas.
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Date played: August 26, 2017
Team size: 2-6; we recommend 4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: 12,000 HUF ($46) per team of 2-6 players, student pricing available
Story & setting
We entered an archeological dig somewhere in Central America where we had an hour to explore the artifacts and equipment of the dig site. With some luck and skill, perhaps we could make a discovery of our own.
Set within an old brick basement in Budapest, Napuche’s unusual location immediately set the stage. The well chosen antiques and custom created props completed the vibe. It was a bit musty and felt especially compelling.
Puzzles
There were a lot of puzzles to solve in Napuche and they were far from trivial. Interestingly, it was easy to see what was relevant, but challenging to determine how to use the various components to move forward.
Standouts
LogIQrooms artfully designed the old space in which Napuche took place to enhance the drama of the experience. The rustic look contributed to our archeological exploration and set up some exciting reveals.
The crux of this escape room was truly the puzzles. Napuche combined layered thinking with prop manipulation. The execution was smart.
Napuche incorporated some outstanding mechanisms into its puzzles.
Shortcomings
We had trouble with some of the props in Napuche. Since some of the objects seemed breakable, we explored them too gently and thereby couldn’t determine how they worked. In one instance we had to use a beautiful antique to solve a puzzle. We would never have explored its functionality enough to operate it correctly without invitation. This could be fixed with a little in-game cluing.
The set sometimes responded oddly, such that we didn’t know whether we’d triggered something or it was functioning on a timer. One puzzle, once solved, only remained solved for a limited period of time. This was confusing.
Napuche was nonlinear and not particularly well gated. It was easy to waste time on puzzles before they were solvable. With a larger team, this would have been less detrimental to gameflow than it was for our team of two, but it would still lead to wasted effort on the part of a least a few teammates at any given time.
Should I play LogIQrooms’ Napuche?
We played a number of escape rooms in Budapest basements and Napuche used that old dingy setting better than any of the other games that we had encountered. The game setting and props looked ancient.
I highly recommend Naupche for experienced players. This was one of the more challenging games that we’ve played in a while and we truly enjoyed it.
Newbies would probably be best served by starting with something a little less difficult to learn their way around an escape room.
A variation of Napuche exists in Las Vegas, Nevada. The US version is known as Curse of Mapuche at Xterious Escape. I have no idea how effectively Xterious Escape compensated for their lack of an ancient Budapest basement, but it’s a shorter trip to Vegas for most of our readers. If you’ve played Curse of Mapuche, I’d love to hear about your experience.
Book your hour with LogIQrooms’ Napuche, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
The Room – Go West [Review]
Escape the crap.
Location: Berlin, Germany
Date played: September 4, 2017
Team size: 2-5; we recommend 2-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: from 35€ per ticket for 2 players to 24€ per ticket for 5 players
Story & setting
Go West was set in a 1980s Soviet-controlled East Berlin apartment beside the Berlin Wall. Our application to emigrate to the “Golden West” had been rejected and the Stasi was after us. We had received a tip from a secret source about a way out, but we had to hurry or suffer.
As an American and student of Cold War history, it was immediately clear that Go West captured the look of a 1980s home in Soviet territory. The color scheme, furniture, and props were almost entirely authentic. I have to imagine that any former East Berliners stepping into this set would experience a strange journey back to when their entire city was held prisoner.
Puzzles
Go West was primarily a puzzle game. That said, The Room created puzzles from period-specific props or used puzzles to carry the narrative and message of the escape room.
Standouts
As Americans, we frequently see different types of 1980s escape rooms built around pop culture references. Go West was not our 1980s, but it was a detailed, accurate, and poignant representation of the time period. The gamespace felt lived in, but not distracting.
Go West made a conscious and deliberate political statement through interaction design. The Room used in-game transitions as the primary vehicle for conveying their opinion.
We were particularly fond of one of the mid-game layered, collaborative puzzles in Go West.
Shortcomings
Much of the puzzling in Go West was from an older era of escape room design. It involved significant searching. Many puzzles were for puzzles’ sake rather than narrative-driven.
Go West was emotionally level for much of the experience. The gameplay didn’t instill urgency until deep into the experience.
Should I play The Room’s Go West?
Yes, you should play Go West. This was The Room’s first game and it was a beautiful and interesting experience.
It was one of the few games that I’ve encountered that communicated a political and historical message.
While Go West has been open for a few years now, it has been meticulously maintained. I have to imagine that it was far better than the norm when it first opened. It still played remarkably well, even if some of the gameplay suggested its age.
You will have to crawl to complete Go West. If that isn’t an issue, you should absolutely experience this room escape regardless of your level of experience with escape rooms.
Book your hour with The Room’s Go West, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
For a local perspective, see Escape Maniac (in German).
Full disclosure: The Room comped our tickets for this game.