Room Escape Artist

Forest of Echoes is one of the best escape rooms around Sydney, Australia. Here are our recommendations for great escape rooms near Sydney.

Update : If you enjoyed this article, we hope you’ll check out our interview with Aaron Hooper and Leanne Yong, from Next Level Escape on S4E3 of The Reality Escape Pod.

Oh great spirit of the forest…

Location: Sydney, Australia

Date Played: March 15, 2024

Team Size: 2-8; we recommend 2-4

Duration: 90 minutes

Price: $70 AUD per player for 2 players down to $55 AUD per player for 8 players

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: Fully accessible

Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Forest of Echoes pulled off a subtly spectacular feat: sharing a small-stakes, personally meaningful narrative.

Specifically, Forest of Echoes was comprised of 6 character vignettes, each with its own distinctive tone and tempo. Rather than being asked to save the world from imminent doom, we were simply asked to empathize with and assist some strangers who needed a helping hand.

In each puzzle, we were led to experience the same environment through a different perspective. The characters we encountered represented a range of demeanors, motivations, and backgrounds, with a balance of serious and playful, of intense and whimsical.

Within Next Level Escape’s current canon, Forest of Echoes was unequivocally their magnum opus. It incorporated countless learnings from the tireless experimentation evident throughout their previous experiences, truly leveling up in every dimension. They kept all the good parts — the live narration-commentary, the innovative game mechanics and game structures, the bounty of nerd and internet culture references — while also showing new levels of maturity, restraint, and refinement. All this was accomplished within essentially a single-room game that managed to feel endlessly dynamic and magical.

Each and every experience at Next Level Escape is a delightfully creative gem, and Forest of Echoes especially establishes Next Level Escape as a company worth traveling to visit if you are in Australia.

Who is this for?

• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Best for players with at least some experience

Why play?

• Innovative storytelling techniques
• Delightfully creative puzzling
• Exceptional use of dynamic lighting
• A touching final act

Story

Our scouting trip led us to a forest that was totally not haunted by any spirits. We boldly trekked into the woods…

Setting

Amidst a clearing in the forest, a small moss-covered stone circle beckoned as an altar of sorts. Above, the stars twinkled through the tree canopy. All surfaces looked organic and texturally detailed, with mushrooms, birds, and fairy lights further bringing the environment to life.

Gameplay

Next Level Escape’s Forest of Echoes was a narrative-driven escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around solving puzzles, making connections, and viewing the environment through different characters’ perspectives.

Analysis

➕ Forest of Echoes communicated a coherent narrative through a mix of mediums: pre-recorded and live audio narration for a varied cast of characters, countless small details in the environment, and our interactions throughout the gameplay. Notably, this included practically zero reading. Though there was an overarching story arc to the game, the majority of the gameplay emphasized narrative over plot; that is, the development of emotion-driven characterization rather than any discrete sequence of events. I was frequently reminded of the quote: “A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.”

➕ Much like in a film where a slightly overdramatic voiceover narrates the protagonists’ thoughts and actions, our entire experience was also narrated in real time. A healthy balance of scripted and improvised bits hit the key points and set a clear tone without ever being too verbose. While this approach to gamemastering, if one can even call it that, requires skilled actors who are actively monitoring a single game, the extra effort paid off massively.

➕ The scenic design throughout Forest of Echoes made a modestly-sized space feel magically expansive. There was a strong sense of place presented through a consistent artistic lens, which is difficult to pull off for an organic environment like a forest. Each puzzle revealed new layers and ways of interacting with our surroundings.

➕ Each character was connected with a specific monolith, which also provided a dedicated place to physically track our progress as we completed a character’s gameplay arc. We never encountered any actors or visual depictions of the characters, and so these monoliths came to function as elegantly poetic embodiments of the characters.

➕ Forest of Echoes’ spatial lighting and sound design was astoundingly creative and effective. In narrative moments, the lighting directed our gaze and environmentally situated the dialogue, rather than having us just hear disembodied voices from above. The musical scoring throughout the experience was subtle and tasteful. A brilliant game mechanic, reminiscent of many a video game, gave us god-like control of our surroundings and allowed us to travel through time, all while meaningfully interweaving with multiple puzzles.

➕/➖ The pre-game introduction was cutely themed, framing us as scouts earning our badges and going on a little camping trip. While this was a creative way to present the rules for the escape room, these initial stakes never reappeared or mattered in the game itself. Furthermore, the light attempt to cast us in a role felt unnecessary, especially without any followup. I’d have preferred to have just played ourselves from the start.

➕ A puzzling exposition wove the narrative into the gameplay and organically introduced us to the cast of characters.

❓  In theory, the 6 main puzzle paths of Forest of Echoes could be completed in parallel. Don’t do this. Regardless of team size, stick together to fully experience everything. This game is not about finishing the puzzles the fastest; it’s about experiencing a soft, thoughtful cast of characters.

➖ A creative frame-breaking interaction could have been more meaningful with a progressive escalation and clearer context.

➕ A multi-layered finale provided closure for each character’s emotional arc, as well as our own. A typical post-game interaction was cleverly integrated into the game itself. A narrative twist was sublime rather than cheesy, solely through its expert execution. From start to finish, Forest of Echoes demonstrated just how far excellent script writing can go in an immersive context.

➖ Forest of Echoes included so very many narrative innovations, providing an exciting canvas to envision how this style of storytelling might be even further refined. As much as I enjoyed each character’s persona as a standalone unit, there were opportunities to further weave these characters — or the archetypes they represented — into something bigger in the narrative. In certain moments, we jumped into a character’s life a bit too abruptly, which could have been mitigated by intermediate gameplay representing a building of trust or a gradual raising of emotional stakes. In the future, I am giddy to see how Next Level Escape continues to take their escape room storytelling to the next level.

Tips For Visiting

• Forest of Echoes is for players ages 16+ and contains some light sexual and drug references.

Book your session with Next Level Escape’s Forest of Echoes, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Next Level Escape comped our tickets for this game.