Considerably less scary than my freshman year roommate.
Location: Astoria, NY
Date played: March 20, 2017
Team size: 2-8; we recommend 3-5
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $28 per ticket
Story & setting
Locked in the dorm room of a missing college girl, we had to solve the mystery of her disappearance.
The room was a compelling college dorm, which wasn’t an inherently exciting environment. What made it interesting were the tech-driven spook effects which were peppered throughout the game. Spooky Room 479 was exactly that: spooky. It never came close to horror and that was good, given the way that the room was marketed.
Puzzles
Clever yet beginner-friendly, Locked did a good job of blending old-school searching and combination solving, with some far less common technological interactions. It offered some challenge but nothing was overwhelming.
Standouts
The puzzle design and flow were solid.
There was some great tech.
Spooky Room 479 had fun and memorable moments.
Shortcomings
The technology was far too overt for the ghostly theme. The tech should have felt magical in a haunted room, but instead it felt a little like Scooby Doo, where it was incredibly clear that someone had built tech to simulate a haunting.
While the intro video was solid, its pacing was comically slow.
Combination locks didn’t feel out of place in a dorm room. However, there were too many locks with similar digit structures. This prevented our team from inherently knowing where to input a correct answer and killed momentum in moments where we should have made progress.
Should I play Locked’s Spooky Room 479?
From the moment we stepped into the lobby at Locked, we could feel their passion for their business. That passion was evident in Spooky Room 479.
It was an incredibly sound game with fun moments and solid puzzle flow… and that’s the beating heart of a good escape room.
Spooky Room 479 looked good, not great. The technology was well executed, but not well embedded into the setting and narrative.
It was a delightful experience, with room for refinement and growth.
Beginners should absolutely give Spooky Room 479 a shot. It had a little bit of everything: searching, puzzles, intrigue, and tech.
While not necessarily a must-play for seasoned room escapers, they can absolutely enjoy Spooky Room 479; we certainly did.
Book your hour with Locked’s Spooky Room 479, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Locked – Spooky Room 479 comped our tickets for this game.
