The many ghosts of Professor Pepper.
Location: New York, NY
Date Played: October 29, 2019
Team size: 2-8; we recommend 2-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: Starting at $39 per player
Ticketing: Public
Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
REA Reaction
Escape Virtuality opened in Manhattan earlier this year with a large, street-level storefront, offering a mix of virtual reality experiences and real-life escape games.
Ghost Collector was a (real-life) escape room with a solid set, interactive solves, and illusions. The opens were largely tech-driven, which worked well with the theme.
The puzzles lacked balance: either too easy, or challenging for the wrong reasons, and without appropriate feedback… and most of them felt more like tasks than puzzles.
The overall experience will likely impress newer players even if they struggle with the gameplay. For more experienced players, this is the type of escape room that some will solve too quickly and others will be haunted for most of the game by a single stumper. If you’re looking for your escape room fix in Manhattan, there certainly are some things to love in Ghost Collector… and it has a lot of unrealized potential.
It’s clear that the owners have put a lot of love into this business and we believe that they could do great things in our home market.
Who is this for?
- Adventure seekers
- Aspiring Ghostbusters
- Any experience level
- Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
Why play?
- A strong opening and closing
- Some fun effects
- One very elegant, clever puzzle
Story
A mysterious man had spent his life capturing the malevolent ghosts haunting New York City.
We had been given the opportunity to enter his containment chamber and view the entities. However, viewing them would set them free if we couldn’t complete a ritual to re-bind them within their eternal prison.
Setting
Ghost Collector’s set was fairly well designed, if a little uneven.
The big set pieces generally looked and felt good, especially in the opening and closing sequences.
The rest of the set wasn’t necessarily fantastic, but was painted and decorated so as to be innocuous. Honestly, that made it better than most sets. I thought it was a clever approach.
Gameplay
Escape Virtuality’s Ghost Collector was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, following instructions, and puzzling.
Analysis
➕ The ghost collecting theme worked with Escape Virtuality’s style. Given the context of the game, we could interpret the technologically-triggered opens as magical or haunted. The gating style meshed well with the ghosty illusions.
➕ The set looked pretty good and felt solid. We especially enjoyed one large interactive set piece.
➖ As much as we enjoyed the main set piece, the interactions were entirely task based, and felt a bit neutered (one puzzle notwithstanding). This prop delivered the main events of the experience. There was an opportunity to do more with it.
➖ In many of the puzzles, Escape Virtuality struggled to balance difficulty. The puzzles were either straightforward tasks or challenging for the wrong reasons. A lack of feedback for certain solves magnified this imbalance.
➕ We loved the aha moment when we got a handle on one puzzle’s originally overlooked complexity. We loved this puzzle and wish that Escape Virtuality played more with concepts along these lines.
➖ Ghost Collector included a runbook. While we appreciated that we could separate the pages of the spiral-bound diary and rely on it for multiple puzzles at once, we wished that the cluing had been integrated into the world of the game instead.
➖ /➕ Ghost Collector was haunted by a soundtrack. While we appreciated the ambiance, we found it to be discordant with some of the room design.
❓Ghost Collector is expensive. This pricing is in line with some other local escape rooms. After all, entertainment in Manhattan is expensive. That said, Ghost Collector didn’t offer a ton of gameplay for that price. Experienced players could solve it quite quickly. Booking Ghost Collector is a value judgment.
Tips For Visiting
- Parking is a challenge in Manhattan. Take the subway (1 to 28th Street or the R/W to 28th Street.)
- There are tons of restaurants in this neighborhood. We enjoy Hill Country Barbecue and Market.
Book your hour with Escape Virtuality’s Ghost Collector, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: Escape Virtuality provided media discounted tickets for this game.
