Old asylum, fresh blood (available in English, well, kinda)
Location: Antibes, France
Date Played: September 30, 2018
Team size: 2-5; we recommend 3-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: 20-35 € per person depending on team size
Ticketing: Private
REA Reaction
The Room was an old-school puzzle room. The weathered and detailed set gave it a creepy feel that never turned into horror.
Lockout could fix a few missteps in assembly that currently hamper the flow of this otherwise interesting and challenging puzzle-focused game. While there was plenty to like in this escape room, especially for puzzlers, we walked away wishing that some of the details of gameplay had received as much attention as the set design.
If you play escape rooms for the puzzles and you find yourself in Antibes, France, this was an interesting game, but I’d recommend playing Lockout’s Europa instead.
Who is this for?
- Puzzle lovers
- Any experience level
Why play?
- Some interesting layered puzzles
- Dramatic opening set
Story
We conducted an investigation of an old, abandoned asylum in search of evidence regarding the disappearance of a patient.
Setting
The asylum set of the room was grim and weathered. It was clear that something bad had happened within these walls.
The level of set detail put The Room on the upper end of what we saw from escape room sets in southern France.
Gameplay
Lockout’s The Room was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, and puzzling.
Analysis
➕ The Room’s initial set was well-detailed and established a grim tone. It staged the experience well.
➕ We enjoyed a few substantial, layered puzzles with satisfying solves. Lockout built some excellent puzzles into The Room.
➖ One puzzle required order preservation. Our gamemaster interrupted us to tell us not to move these particular props, which were not just easy to move, but seemed like they should have been moved. We recommend Lockout glue these down.
➖The Room included multiple locks with identical digit structure and no indication of which puzzle resolved to which lock. Varying the types of lock inputs or connecting locks with puzzles would facilitate smoother gameplay.
❓ The Room was mostly in English. There were a few critical clues that weren’t translatable. Having translations on paper would have been helpful for those of us who were less-fluent in French. (Lisa was fine.)
➖ We uncovered quite a lot of reading material as we solved The Room. In the end, those who spoke French had their noses buried in papers. While it wasn’t necessary to read everything in order to escape, the reading contributed to additional win conditions focused on the plot. We would have liked to see this part of the game more integrated into the physical gameplay.
➖ The ending was anti-climactic. We had finished all of the puzzles, but we stayed in the room to try to solve additional plot questions. This conclusion had no energy and seemed meaningless.
➕ The Room was a solid, puzzle-focused, older-style escape room. We had some lengthy criticism, but most of these things were fixable and none of them destroyed the game.
Tips For Visiting
- Note that while this game is playable in English, you’ll miss one major component of the game with you can’t play it in French.
Book your hour with Lockout’s The Room, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
