Room Escapers – Streaming [Review]

The Quest for the Golden Remote

Location: Boston, MA

Date Played: January 12, 2023

Team Size: 2-8; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $35 per player for 5+ players to $45 per player for 2 players

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: Players must traverse small passageways, but there is a way around.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

The premise for Room Escapers’ Streaming was instantly intriguing: we were told that we’d been sucked into a collection of mashed-together TV shows and had to find our way out before the shows were canceled and we were stuck there forever.

While the environments we experienced throughout Streaming were cheery and playful, their connections to the purported story felt tenuous. Little of the intermediate theming screamed “TV show,” and a handful of references to specific shows largely felt extraneous. I appreciated some abrupt transitions between contrasting spaces, but this felt more like a journey through Escape Room Theme Land than through Streaming Land.

Thematic incoherence aside, the core gameplay was whimsical and contained some fun ahas. However, we also encountered some recurring issues throughout the puzzle design. Certain puzzles were overclued, with multiple redundant solution paths leading to the same answer or clues leading to the locations of other clues that were discoverable on their own — all of which ultimately muddied the flow. Other interactions were underclued, especially when it came to object placement. A smattering of data we collected throughout our game wasn’t used until later on, which could have been a reasonable meta layer if not for unclear lock mapping along the way.

We still had a blast playing Streaming. The passion and artistry put into this game came through strongly, and given the intended fever-dream aesthetic, many of my critiques of the theming only became salient looking back on the game.

I’ve seen what Room Escapers is capable of creating with their delightful older game Panacea, and many similarly wonderful elements already exist in Streaming — but the gameplay hadn’t quite found its flow yet. We played shortly after the game opened, and they were still iterating on many of the puzzles. I truly hope Room Escapers can zoom out and tighten up the narrative and gameplay so that Streaming can stay on air for seasons to come.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Any experience level
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• Cheerful sets
• Fun puzzles and interactions

Story

We’d fallen asleep on the couch while watching our favorite TV show, only to wake up and find ourselves stuck in the very shows we’d been watching. We had to make our way through Streaming Land and recover the golden remote if we wanted to return to our reality.

Setting

Streaming took place in the fictional Streaming Land — a collections of worlds from various TV shows. These included a spy’s starkly decorated apartment, a vibrant carnival fun house, and more. Mixed in were a handful of other references to specific TV shows or genres, which were not necessarily related to core theme of each space.

Gameplay

Room Escapers’ Streaming was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around solving puzzles, playing mini-games, and searching.

Analysis

➖ Streaming established an alluring narrative hook, but this barely came through in the actual set or gameplay. The contrasting worlds we encountered were on their own compelling, but they didn’t really match the story that we were set up to expect. The environmental storytelling was blurry from the very start; with an opening setting of an apartment with a TV and couch, it was unclear whether we’d yet been transported from our living room to somewhere in Streaming Land.

➕ Core puzzle mechanics included some delightfully tactile interactions and thematic ahas that fit the spaces they were in.

➖ The gameplay was replete with redundant cluing, red herrings, and small issues in cluing that seemed like errata in their current form. Many of these issues would be easily fixable with small tweaks to puzzle presentation.

➕ The individual sets throughout Streaming were fun, colorful, iconic, and nostalgic. We enjoyed exploring the details of each new space that opened up.

➖ We encountered some small issues with the game’s tech, including a minigame that didn’t reliably register inputs, auditory feedback that made us think we were doing the wrong thing, and a signal that didn’t seem to work in the obvious place.

➖ Low-clearance passageways would have benefitted from some extra padding. Even while trying to be careful, we banged our heads a few times.

➖/➕ A purchased prop toward the end of the game felt tacked on, throwing us an unnecessarily tropey narrative curveball. It functioned reasonably well as a meta element, but at the expense of the quality of the puzzle flow up to that point. Additionally, the prop should have been physically anchored down: we almost immediately pulled it out of its power source and accidentally reset its electronics, not realizing it needed to stay in place.

Tips For Visiting

• Streaming is at Room Escapers’ School Street location.
• It is easily accessible by subway. Get off at Park Street or Government Center.
• If you’re driving, the Pi Alley Parking Garage is right nearby.

Book your hour with Room Escapers’ Streaming, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Room Escapers comped our tickets for this game.