Room Escape Artist

Botanist Manor is one of Belgium’s best escape rooms. Here are our other escape room recommendations in the area.

Lightbulb Moments

Location:  Ixelles, Belgium

Date Played: June 21, 2024

Team size: 3-6; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 80 minutes

Price: from 180€ per team for teams of 3 to 270€ per team for teams of 6

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration:  Players need to climb stairs and crawl.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

From its opening moments through its theatrical conclusion, Botanist Manor was a polished production at an epic scale. Every inch of the enormous set was deliberately designed and carefully crafted to realize a particular environment, be it a place in their fictional world, or a top notch escape room.

Yes, an escape room. There was a meta element to Botanist Manor, in which we were playing an escape room. This gave Escape Rush a reason to build escape room sets, and they built them to the 9th degree. It also justified escape room puzzles. Given some of their escape room-y choices, we wondered if the game might even be an homage to some time-honored escape rooms. They used all of this inside of a larger story… which was a thematic mashup with an outlandish twist.

As escape room players, we loved this meta component, and we only wished Escape Rush had pushed it further, giving us more leeway to play with our roles within the experience.

Botanist Manor had some challenging puzzles, but the well-integrated technology gave great feedback, and everything solved cleanly. We especially enjoyed the callbacks within the game, building up knowledge we’d already gained.

Botanist Manor was the full package: a gorgeous set, challenging and interesting puzzles built into unusual props, and a weird story that we were totally sold on. Furthermore, the lobby was exceptional, and the transition from the lobby to the game was… extra. Escape Rush went above and beyond to take escape room players on a wild adventure and they succeeded.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Escape room fans
• Best for players with at least some experience
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• A fully realized game world from start to finish
• An interesting, expansive, and coherent narrative, especially for an escape room
• The technology and set design were impressive
• The meta elements of playing an escape room within an escape room were a joy

Story

Last week journalist Sarah Fisher had disappeared while investigating Ewan McAllister, the eccentric owner of the escape room company TimeGates in Kirkwall, Scotland. Our mission was to pose as regular escape room customers, investigate McAllister, and find Fisher.

Setting

Escape Rush ranks amongst the most polished escape room companies that we have encountered. Everything from their lobby, to their briefing room, and every corner of Botanist Manor was deliberately crafted. The game was beautiful, and heavily automated with technology governing every second of the experience.

It was very easy to get lost in their world.

Gameplay

Escape Rush’s Botanist Manor was a standard escape room with a meta component, making it especially fun for escape room fans.

It had a moderate-to-high level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around observing, making connections, solving puzzles. The more substantial puzzles leaned heavily on logic. It was also important to follow the narrative, as that factored into some of the puzzles.

Analysis

➕ The production value was stellar. This was one of the most gorgeous escape rooms we’ve encountered. The set was enormous, and every inch was deliberately designed. The props and set pieces were expertly crafted.

➕ The opening scene was high energy. Escape Rush committed a lot of square footage to our transition into the game. It felt like an unreasonable amount of space… but was worth it. Very Disney.

➕ Throughout the game, the transitions were exceptional. Sometimes telegraphed and other times surprising, they led us into new spaces, each distinct but impeccably designed. They elevated their transitions with mid-game one that floored us.

➕ The opening scene was just “wow” to take in. It was beautiful. The gameplay was well designed to on-board us into a puzzley, logic-y game, and also give us time to fully explore this space.

➖ One early puzzle was beautiful, and fun to interact with, but could use additional player affordances such a “back” or “undo.”

➕ In its own fantastical and ludicrous way, the story made perfect sense.

➕/➖ Escape room inception. This was so extra and we were thrilled by it. That said, our gamemaster went out of their way to tell us to be regular escape room players and in practice, we didn’t have space to play with this conceit. It felt like a missed opportunity to let us get into character, in characters that we could excel at.

➕ The puzzles were varied, and often involved layers and connections. Throughout the Botanist Manor, inputs gave good feedback. Escape Rush justified the existence of more traditional escape room puzzles, and incorporated them alongside more narrative-driven ones; different scenes had different play styles. This felt balanced. All types of puzzles were fun and satisfying to solve.

➕ The callbacks continually surprised and delighted us. Escape Rush repurposed elements of gameplay. This was expertly crafted. It was clear when we were finished with interactions, and clear when and how they were returning. We felt clever reworking anything we’d previously mastered… or just noticed. In one case, what initially seemed frivolous (albeit thematic), later turned into a personalized moment.

➕ Botanist Manor was largely automated. Tech controlled much of the experience and it worked flawlessly.

➕ The lighting and sound design was outstanding.  The video elements had high resolution and felt appropriate in the experience.

➕ Botanist Manor excelled at misdirection. There were secrets to unlock as we played, revealed with playful narrative twists.

➖ One scene had a distracting aesthetic. It worked narratively, but it made it challenging to follow the thread of gameplay.

➕ The finale was exceptional. Escape Rush realized their vision at a scale that few escape rooms attempt. They delivered on their ridiculous fiction in the most over-the-top way and we loved every minute of it.

❓ Note that Botanist Manor can be creepy at times, but was always playful rather than scary.

➕ The lobby at Escape Rush was just as beautiful as the games.

Tips For Visiting

• You can play in English, French, or Dutch.
• There is metered street parking.

Book your hour with Escape Rush’s Botanist Manor, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.