Cabin fever dream.
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Date Played: July 4, 2023
Team Size: 2-8; we recommend 2-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: Varies by day and team size; $37 per player, 3 or more players, on a non-weekend day
Ticketing: Private
Accessibility Consideration: One player has to crawl. Due to flashing lights, this game is not recommended for people with epilepsy.
Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push to Exit
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
REA Reaction
Maze Rooms’ Avalanche was an ambitious and unexpected take on the idea of being trapped by a catastrophe and having to puzzle our way out. It started in a frigid cabin, with icicles hanging from the ceiling and snow threatening to burst through the seams. From the intro story and initial set, I expected a cabin-rescue mission. I was not prepared for direction the game would take… and how that would manifest physically.
We weren’t always clear how each gamespace fit with the story. In fact, as the experience progressed, the story became increasingly hard to follow, with unexplained beats that didn’t make sense. Although we were solving the game, we wondered what we were actually doing, narratively, and the ending seemed out of place. We had a lot of discussion afterwards, each of us having a different interpretation of the experience.
That said, through intriguing set design choices and fun, if not groundbreaking puzzles, Avalanche kept us engaged and focused through a lot of the game. An impressive mechanic I’ve seen only a handful of times in other escape rooms provided a memorable wow moment that I won’t soon forget.
Overall, Avalanche was a mixed bag for me. There were parts that wowed me, parts that frustrated me, and parts… I just didn’t understand conceptually. Am I glad I played it? Yes; it was a unique experience. I appreciated the direction the designer took the narrative arc, even if some segments didn’t quite land. It was trying to make a statement, and that it did. This escape room won’t satisfy players looking for strong narrative with solid plot lines, but there’s value in playing just to experience an escape room that goes beyond the typical.
Who is this for?
- Adventure seekers
- Best for players with at least some experience
- Players who don’t need to understand the story
Why play?
- Unusual experience
- For the post-game discussion
Story
We’d been caught in a crazy snowstorm while hiking in the mountains. It seemed like a good idea to duck into the nearest cabin… until an avalanche buried the cabin and trapped us inside! We knew there would be a way out, but it wouldn’t be through the front door.
Setting
Maze Rooms’ Avalanche started off in a cozy mountain cabin. The windows were completely white due to the snow packed against the windowpanes. A deer head was mounted on the wall, blankly watching over the activities in the cabin.
As the game unfolded, the set changed in unexpected, unpredictable ways.
Gameplay
Avalanche was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, making connections and puzzling.
Analysis
➕ Avalanche was memorable for its creative interpretation of the “stuck in an avalanche” story. Design decisions were creative – even artistic – and an impressive mechanic took us by surprise, eliciting more than a few wows from our team.
➕/➖ The look and feel of the gamespace changed throughout the experience. We started in an eclectic mountain cabin, with artsy touches and prominent items that didn’t seem to do anything significant. But soon the game took a turn, progressing through some unusual – and completely unanticipated – spaces. In fact, they were so disjointed, I wondered if I was still in the same game.
➖ The story started out reasonably enough, but it soon became hard to follow, with some plot points trailing off, never being resolved, and others just… confusing. However, we couldn’t just ignore the story because it was presented extensively within the experience. Although we enjoyed how our team became an integral part of the story, by the end, we’d stopped trying to make sense of it all and just focused on puzzling our way out.
➕ The puzzles were fun and well-designed, using escape room techniques in creative and unusual ways. We loved discovering several set pieces that blended into the scenery, but turned out to be key parts of the game, providing interesting aha moments.
➖ One key transition would benefit from additional padding, especially since we had to move through it several times.
➕ We especially enjoyed one layered puzzle with unique elements and mechanisms. Discovering how it all worked together was satisfying, especially when we succeeded on the first try.
➖ The finale was confusing and anticlimactic compared to the previous scene. It did not help that the final puzzle was finicky, and we tried numerous times using the correct solution before it triggered. To top it off, there was an annoying voice repeatedly telling us what to do (we knew what to do); this didn’t help at all.
Tips For Visiting
- There is a parking lot.
- This game is located at the Robertson Blvd location of Maze Rooms.
- This a version of the TERPECA ranked game in Andorra.
Book your hour with Maze Rooms’ Avalanche, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: Maze Rooms comped our tickets for this game.