Deep office politics
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Date Played: September 23, 2022
Team size: 4-8; we recommend 4-5
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: from $59 per player for teams of 4 to $49 per player for teams of 8
Ticketing: Private
Accessibility Consideration: All players need to walk down stairs. Talk to your gamemaster if set movement is a problem for you.
Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
REA Reaction
Dark Wyvern was an interesting beast. It was far and away the most impressive product offered by The Escape Room Indianapolis; nothing else came close.
Dark Wyvern was a bigger, more beautiful build than anything else that we found in Indianapolis. It also had a few of the more remarkable puzzles and interactions that we found in the city.
Dark Wyvern was a standout escape room for Indianapolis.
That said, I would stop short of recommending that anyone travel to Indianapolis for Dark Wyvern. It was a regional standout, for sure, not a general standout.
Dark Wyvern had some needlessly frustrating game design that extended the gameplay closer to the 90-minute mark, and honestly… it still felt like it had only 60 minutes worth of gameplay in it. So much of our time was consumed by unclued searching and under-clued puzzles. These were recurring struggles for The Escape Room Indianapolis.
The other big downside here was that the unique and compelling premise of Dark Wyvern slowly evaporated over the course of the game until we were just solving puzzles because we were in a themed escape room.
Overall, it was clear that The Escape Room Indianapolis put a lot into this game, and it paid off. If you are in Indianapolis, you should play Dark Wyvern, without question. It is pricier than their other options, but it will give you by far the best time that The Escape Room Indianapolis has to offer.
Who is this for?
- Adventure seekers
- Story seekers
- Scenery snobs
- Best for players with at least some experience
Why play?
- Detailed set with exciting scene changes
- Nifty interactions
- Clever, unusual narrative
Story
The Dark Wyvern Mining Company had suffered a breach and our expertise was required to explore the depths of the mine to regain control of its systems.
Setting
Dark Wyvern started us off in an elegant corporate office before sending us into the deep, dark, depths of the company’s mine. This was The Escape Room Indianapolis’ largest and most impressive build. Aesthetically it was a standout for Indianapolis.
Gameplay
The Escape Room Indianapolis’ Dark Wyvern was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, making connections, and solving puzzles.
Analysis
➕/➖ A puzzle appeared with dramatic, thematic effect. That said, the interaction needed a touch up… and chlorination. The risk of Legionnaires’ disease should not be ignored, even at small scale.
➕ The Dark Wyvern set was pretty. The first cozy set with a study aesthetic opened up through a fun transition set into a grand, cavernous gamespace. The use of effects further enhanced the atmosphere.
➕/➖ We enjoy an unusual theme and setup. In this regard, Dark Wyvern delivered. That said, there was an opportunity to further link the storytelling to the gameplay.
➕ We especially enjoyed an early puzzle that punctuated the theming.
➕ The strongest puzzles and interactions in Dark Wyvern came in the first act. This game was at its best when scaling up interactions or recontextualizing classic escape room puzzle types.
➖ Dark Wyvern bound up at points. This was caused primarily by lack of clue structure. With unclued search, we couldn’t be sure that the issue was not finding the prop or information… so we just had to poke everywhere for something we hadn’t noticed before. With unclued “escape room logic” we just had to try seemingly random ways to associate props with inputs.
➖ The stalled momentum was exacerbated by lack of lock mapping and overlocking. Without lock mapping, we had to try each 4-digit code in a few places, tampering a victory. Then when a space was barred by multiple locks, a puzzle victory yielded no reward in the form of forward motion.
➕ The large space facilitated a collaborative communication sequence that we enjoyed.
➖ We would have loved a more dramatic finale for such an unlikely adventure into such a memorable world.
Tips For Visiting
- The Escape Room Indianapolis is located directly above The Old Spaghetti Factory at the corner of Georgia and Meridian.
- Downtown is quite walkable. We aren’t quite sure what your best parking option is, but there are a lot of garages in the area.
- We recommend Nada (just one block away!) for upscale Mexican cuisine.
Book your hour with The Escape Room Indianapolis’ Dark Wyvern, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: The Escape Room Indianapolis comped our tickets for this game.
