Room Escape Artist

Take a seat

Location: Sydney, Australia

Date Played: March 14, 2024

Team Size: 2-6; we recommend 2-3

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $55 AUD per player for 2 players, $50 AUD per player for 3-6 players

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: The game is fully seated, at least 1 player must be able to reach some low shelves

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

The Cool Space designed Seance around an uncommon premise: players are seated for the duration of the experience.

This decision was smart; it allowed The Cool Space to more quickly launch their first game in a small space with a compact yet polished set, without overextending their design abilities or budget. As escape room players increasingly come to expect more expansive and immersive environments, The Cool Space used their unique format to their advantage. The gameplay was thoughtfully designed around the seated constraint, taking advantage of our places around our table as well as layers of elegant decor in the surrounding environment.

While Seance showcased many original ideas, it also included a questionable number of elements bearing strong resemblance to distinctive props, puzzles, or production techniques from other top local escape rooms. Imitation is flattery, perhaps, yet going forward, I strongly hope that The Cool Space will focus on further developing their own personal style.

Of the 500+ escape rooms I’ve played to date, I’ve only encountered one other seated game that was actually marketed as an escape room: the now-closed Spellbound Supper at SCRAP in San Francisco. Plenty of puzzle hunts and ballroom games are mostly seated, yet bear much less resemblance to a standard escape room. There are countless clever design directions one might explore within the subgenres of seated games and games with small-yet-clever sets, and I’m frankly surprised there aren’t more experiences in these economical styles.

If you’re in Sydney, Seance is small but mighty and well worth a visit.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Any experience level

Why play?

• A thoughtful take on a fully-seated escape room
• Clever puzzling

Story

The new owner of the Abercrombie mansion had acquired a mysterious locked box. He enlisted us to perform a seance to contact the box’s original owner and obtain the key to open it.

Setting

Seance took place in a cozy seance room. A ring of chairs surrounded the central seance table, with spectral handprints lining the tablecloth. The decor around the small room was simple and elegant.

Gameplay

The Cool Space’s Seance was a fully-seated escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around listening, observing, communicating, and solving puzzles.

Analysis

➕ Seance was a puzzle-centric experience, and the puzzles were creative, satisfying, and layered. They encouraged constant collaboration and communication, taking advantage of each player’s fixed vantage point around the table.

➕ Running a session of Seance was a magic trick in and of itself. A mix of well-hidden tech and impressive manual monitoring led to some surprisingly reactive moments.

➖ There was further room to develop the story and characters, particularly regarding a primary character’s supposed motivations or trustworthiness.

➕ Puzzles were progressively delivered to our table, keeping things fresh and providing straightforward gating.

➕ Some of our favorite interactions utilized the compact layout of the space in bright ways.

➖ As the game continued, we accumulated a heap of papers. While some of this was justified, there were opportunities to replace some paper props with more tactile physical props.

➖ As puzzle and narrative threads converged into the finale, we found that a key decision lacked meaningful stakes. There was a missed opportunity for more open-ended play with a character.

➕ We received a nicely designed keepsake to commemorate our experience. It was cute and distinctive.

Book your hour with The Cool Space’s Seance, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.