Room Escape Artist

In gold we trust

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Date Played: October 10, 2025

Team Size: 3-5; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 75 minutes

Price: from €147 per team for 3 players to €195 per team for 5 players

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: There are a few small steps within the game and one uneven surface.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit

Physical Restraints: [A+] No restrictive physical restraints. See the end of the review for details.

REA Reaction

Aurum: Order of Gold was a remarkably fair escape room, and I don’t just mean that the puzzles solved in a logical way. It was fair because it was built to engage each and every player equally. I’m having a difficult time thinking of a game that provides a more even experience to every single player.

Each player was given a wrist-bound device, and this contraption made it clear who was going to do what throughout the game. It wasn’t like having an in-game “superpower.” We all had the same capabilities within the game. Instead it was a means of distributing the fun and challenge, and it was extremely effective.

To top it all off, BackSpace Escape Rooms built an unusual game world, and filled it with nifty interactions that we were delighted to share with one another. Aurum: Order of Gold was a mechanics-forward game with an undercurrent of narrative, and it came together in a well-executed package. I highly recommend playing this game if you’re in Amsterdam.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Players looking for something unusual
• Any experience level
• Team players

Why play?

• Wonderful team-based gameplay
• Some interesting set-based interactions
• A novel story and setting

Story

We visited the Amsterdam Money Museum looking for information about the Order of the Golden Dawn: a secret society that went dark in the 1930s and had focused on alchemy, or the mythical process of turning lead into gold.

Setting

Amsterdam Money Museum was a strange place from a distant time that never existed. It felt a little steampunk, and a bit mystical with some more modern flourishes. It was a unique space that was well-constructed.

Gameplay

BackSpace Escape Rooms’ Aurum: Order of Gold was an atypical escape room with a moderate level of difficulty, and a heavy focus on teamwork, collaboration, and communication.

Core gameplay revolved around teamwork, puzzling, searching, and communication.

Analysis

➕ Aurum: Order of Gold had an unusual vibe that melded different aesthetics into something entirely its own. From thrifted antiques, to unique lighting fixtures, to custom built mechanisms, to choice wallpaper and outstanding vacuform work, the experience felt crafted, and part of a distinct and, perhaps, magical world.

➕ BackSpace Escape Rooms created an atypical, in-world onboarding. It allowed them to place the Magic Circle when we entered the building.

➕ In addition, this intro – sent as a text message, and completed as a text dialogue with a character – provided more than backstory and mission briefing. It offered “defanging” for nervous players, where they could have minor details spoiled (increasingly explicitly) to make them feel comfortable playing the game. The Netherlands is dominated by horror games, and Aurum: Order of Gold was decidedly not horror, but it did have one mechanic that can make some players nervous, so this onboarding let players self-select into as many spoilers as they needed to be comfortable. It also reminded all players that the game is not horror.

➖ After the opening scene, it was a bit awkward to enter the game itself. We understand why blindfolds were used, but wished there was a better way. The start had us a bit tangled, which diminished our confidence in the game.

➕ Onboarding continued in the game with a simple puzzle to teach each player key information that would be continually recontextualized throughout the game. As we played, the puzzles became more complex, but we continually built mastery. The progression was immensely satisfying.

➕ Teamwork was central to every solve in Aurum: Order of Gold. Each of us had our role, and it was critical. The game demanded participation, but in a way that gently brought everyone into the action. This design also made it impossible for the game to be unbalanced in favor of a dominant teammate; we each had the same amount of and quality of experience.

➖ While we delighted in the mechanisms that were central to many of the puzzles, they didn’t always work in intuitive ways, but also not in ways that were meant to be puzzling. This added confusion, and also means higher risk of players inadvertently damaging the game. There were opportunities to refine handles, levers, and knobs.

➕/➖ BackSpace Escape Rooms used one scene change mechanic that never ceases to amaze us. They presented it in a novel way such that each of us could really take it in. That said, for some players the effect was tempered by lack of sound insulation.

➖ Late in the game a presumed ghost puzzle distracted us from focusing our attention on what mattered. 

➕ BackSpace Escape Rooms used lighting expertly as feedback for completed puzzles, and to gently guide us.

➖ One key set-based input was heavily damaged, detracting from the grandeur of the moment.

➕ Our actions in Aurum: Order of Gold built toward a decision point. The narrative was clear, and our place in it made sense. We understand what ramifications our decision would have. The ending had meaning.

Tips For Visiting

• This game is playable in Dutch or English.
• Make sure you communicate the correct number of players to the company before you arrive.
• Don’t forget to read the text message you receive before you arrive at the game. Your onboarding starts there.

Book your hour with BackSpace Escape Rooms’ Aurum: Order of Gold, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: BackSpace Escape Rooms comped our tickets for this game.