Cryo currency
Location: Oceanside, CA
Date Played: March 7, 2022
Team Size: 2-6; we recommend 2-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $45 per player for 2 players, $35 per player for 3 or more players
Ticketing: Private
Game Breakage: a few key props were broken at the time of playing
Accessibility Consideration: stairs (all players), crawling (at least 1 player)
Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit
Physical Restraints: [A] Push To Release
REA Reaction
Neutrino 42 had the potential to be a sci-fi epic. The room’s multi-level scrap-metal set felt reminiscent of a Burning Man art installation, and a unique outer facade made our entrance into the space feel ruggedly immersive.
The game started fairly strong. Players were placed in individual cryochambers that dominated the first space of the set and were well utilized for a sequence of intro puzzles. However, we encountered some rough edges from the start, and I was mildly concerned find some minor safety concerns, including the sharp tip of a nail protruding into my pod.
As we descended into later areas of the room, Neutrino 42 increasingly lost momentum. Due to some choppy sections of gameplay and inconsistent room maintenance, the game fizzled to a frustrating finish. Interspersed with a handful of satisfyingly tactile and diegetic interactions, much of the gameplay felt like a low-energy version of Space Team, leading us to press buttons and turn dials without any real sense of urgency. With a sharper increase in intensity and pace, a crescendo in audiovisual effects, and a clearer progress indicator, these same interactions could have been chaotically exhilarating.
I loved many of the individual interactions in Neutrino 42, and the set provided a fun space to spend an hour. With more meticulous upkeep and greater attention to detail paid to puzzle flow, these individual highlights could have come together into something great.
Who is this for?
- Adventure seekers
- Scenery snobs
- Sci-fi fans
- Any experience level
Why play?
- Creative split-team start
- Artsy sci-fi ambience
Story
We’d been sent undercover by the Reuleaux Rebellion to infiltrate an enemy prisoner transport ship. We had to escape our cryochambers and obtain the enemy’s battle plans in order to end The Third Realm’s evil regime.
Setting
Neutrino 42 took place on a futuristic space ship. Cyberpunk-ish cryochambers lined the walls of the detention level. Beyond, the spaceship command center was filled with all sorts of strange buttons and controls.
Gameplay
Boss-Play Escape Rooms’ Neutrino 42 was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around puzzling, searching, and making connections.
Analysis
➕ Neutrino 42 opened with a thematic split-team start as each player was placed into their own cryochamber pod. Players collaboratively solved simple intro puzzles in order to be released. Single-player pods accommodated odd numbers of players.
➖ The pod puzzles, while quite straightforward, were also padded with red herrings. Extra decorations could have been added to the chamber walls without also looking like parts of puzzles or ghost puzzles.
➕ The space-age set was visually attractive, with a sort of industrial-meets-Burning-Man scrap metal aesthetic and a range of textures and construction techniques.
➖ Parts of the set weren’t sufficiently sanded or finished. I encountered a sharp nail tip protruding inside my starting pod, and certain metal elements later in the room had some rough edges.
➕/➖ A novel interaction cut through the noise as we transitioned between spaces. Its implementation didn’t quite match its intention, but it was still fun.
➕/❓ A metal robot in the room was a cool work of art. We learned after our game that this robot used to have a few extra features which had since broken, and we wished we could have seen this character in its full form.
➕ A clever interaction subverted our expectations and blasted the narrative forward.
➕ Neutrino 42 was full of sci-fi Easter eggs. We spotted a handful of them, and I’m sure there were others we missed.
➕/➖ A set of hexagonal cabinets looked appropriate space age-y and on theme. However, they opened up in such a way that made it difficult to see which had already been opened and that allowed the doors to shut and re-lock if we weren’t careful.
➖ The latter half of Neutrino 42 increasingly lost energy, fading into an anticlimactic ending. This was further compounded by the final interaction being broken at the time of playing, with no indication of this either in-game or from our gamemaster. Our team was left stranded for over 15 minutes thinking we’d missed a step, when, in fact, the ending of the game had been modified to skip over a prop, leave a confusing ghost interaction in its place, and no in-game cluing to support the change.
Tips For Visiting
- There was a parking lot.
Book your hour with Boss-Play Escape Rooms’ Neutrino 42, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
I like a good space themed room, especially with sound effects. I sense that the set would be visually pleasing and interesting to interact with its features (wish there were more pics). This one will be on my list to play as soon as I can determine the fails have been corrected.