Room Escape Artist

The bottom of the uncanny valley.

Location: Manchester, NH

Date Played: December 16, 2017

Team size: 2-8; we recommend 4-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $25 per ticket

REA Reaction

The Lost Soul was a search-heavy, locked-compartment, older-style escape room with a rundown set, tenuous connections, and uncomfortable 3D renderings. Lok’d! Room Escape did present quite a charming twist at the end… but it was not enough to make this a recommendable escape room.

Who is this for?

• Diehard M. Night Shyamalan fans

Why play?

• Weird twist

Story

The ghost of old Alistair Winthrop locked us in his study. He would not let us leave until we brought his soul peace by uncovering the truth about his wife Margaret’s mysterious disappearance.

Setting

The Lost Soul was set in a study with old furniture and a laptop. There was one corner of the room partitioned off and rendered “out of play.”

Aesthetically, this escape room was uninspiring and drab.

Gameplay

The Lost Soul was an old-school search-and-puzzle escape room.

The gameplay largely revolved around searching for hidden items and solving puzzles loosely connected to the story in order to pop combination locks.

Standouts

The Lost Soul included a strange and amusing twist. We never saw it coming.

Some of puzzle solutions and materials foreshadowed the plot twist.

Our gamemaster was attentive and helpful.

Shortcomings

For the most part, the puzzles didn’t have any reason to exist in that gamespace. They were random and disconnected. This was particularly true of the Sudoku and the crossword… which were literally from a newspaper.

At two points we didn’t know whether we had found a clue or trash… They were clues.

The Lost Soul flowed such that we could unlock ciphered material before finding the keys. Given that Lok’d! Room Escape used common ciphers, we could have easily skipped over things and lost the thread of gameplay. I’ve written about this issue in the past.

While lovely and attentive, our gamemaster lacked sufficient camera coverage. The cameras weren’t pointed at the things we struggled with. Her hints led us astray because she couldn’t tell what had been solved.

The Lost Soul included some weird and creepy animation that persisted throughout the experience. This guy presided over haunted our entire game. Fun fact: if you look into his eyes you can see the bottom of the uncanny valley.

 

The Lost Soul was dated and rundown.

Disclosure: Lok’d! Room Escape provided media discounted tickets for this game.