Saint Angelo’s Castle requires players to wear costumes… Is it good enough to pull it off?
Location: Queens, New York
Date played: September 12, 2015
Team size: 3-5; we recommend 3-4
Price: $30 per ticket
Long Island City?
For those who don’t know New York, Long Island City is nowhere near Long Island. It’s in Queens, just across the East River from Manhattan.
It is incredibly easy to get to from Midtown Manhattan.
Theme & story
You’re prisoners in an Inquisition dungeon. You’re scheduled for execution in one hour: escape, repent, or perish.
Saint Angelo’s Castle was a real place. The story that played out felt like a mixture of myth and history; it worked damn well.
The setting was magnificent in a dungeon-y sort of way.
There was a good reason why we were locked in the game and there was an equally good reason why we needed to escape. The story was peppered throughout the game. It was both dire and fun.
Costumes
Prior to the game’s beginning, our gamemaster instructed us to put on robes and hoods.
None of us were thrilled about the robes, but we all went along with it.
Only a few of us were ok with the hoods. As in OMEscape’s The Penitentiary, this presented a hygiene problem that made some us uncomfortable. As a reviewer, I’ll go along with just about anything, but I have to admit that I wasn’t thrilled about it. My hood smelled of fabric softener, so I was confident that it had been washed recently, but I didn’t know that until it was on my head.
Legal release
Like many escape companies, Komnata Quest had us sign an aggressive release form. I tend to find these things a bit silly, but Komnata Quest did something that really bothered me: They made me sign away their liability for lost items. Then they asked us to put our phones and bags into a locked chest outside of the game.
When I said, “No, I just won’t use my phone during the game,” I was met with more suspicion than I deserved.
That chest was probably safe, but I think that it was pretty ballsy to make me take full responsibility for my belongings and expect to take those belongings from me.
Bound beginning
As the game began, the gamemaster led our team into the dungeon and locked us up. One player was locked up in a far more interesting, and far more uncomfortable manner than the others.
I really liked the way that this game started. However, Komnata Quest’s website did not make it clear that we would be restrained. Some of the people we escape rooms with on a regular basis would not be cool with restraint and it should be clear that restraint is involved before money changes hands.
Creative puzzles & interactive play
Once the game got going each puzzle offered a different challenge. There weren’t a ton of puzzles in this game, but the puzzles were fun, interesting, and memorable.
This room also had more than a few things that we had never seen.
3-5 Players
Small escape games are basically unheard of in New York. One of the best parts of Saint Angelo’s Castle is that it is an intimate game.
It plays 3-5 players and it comfortably fits 3-5 players.
Should I play Komnata Quest’s Saint Angelo’s Castle?
So long as you aren’t a jittery player, this is a must play game.
The level of detail in this room is only rivaled by a few of the best rooms we’ve encountered. Komnata Quest does a lot of work to weave story, puzzles, and intrigue into a compelling hour of play.
Komnata Quest has recently opened in the United States and while they are working out a few kinks in their customer service system, their game is exceptionally sound.
While this is Komnata Quest’s first room in the States, this is not their first rodeo. The Komnata Quest Russian website has a listing of many games that sound incredibly interesting. I hope they import all of them.
Hop a subway to Long Island City and play Saint Angelo’s Castle; there aren’t many games in this league.
Book your hour with Komnata Quest’s Saint Angelo’s Castle, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you by using the coupon code, escapeartist to receive 10% off.
Does this location ask for a volunteer or decide at random who gets the more interesting/uncomfortable restraint?
They decide, but from what we experienced / have heard from other teams who have play, it’s not really random. They seem to pick the tallest, most level person they can.