Room Escape Artist

A tale of trash and treasure

Location: Utrecht, Netherlands

Date Played: October 18, 2025

Team Size: 2-5; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 60-75 minutes

Price: from €129 to €139 per team, depending on the day of the week

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: There is a flight of stairs up to the game.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

We’ve long felt that there is a lot of escape room opportunity with time loop mechanics, and in this regard, Timescape delivered. AdventurEscape designed interesting gameplay into the loops where they’d recontextualize a previous puzzle mechanic. With each loop the puzzles became more complex, building upon mastery we’d previously built. This was immensely satisfying gameplay.

In other ways, however, Timescape fell short. It was poorly maintained, with some clue structure that had almost entirely worn away. Unfortunately, encountering such significant wear early on eroded our confidence in the game design.

Furthermore, Timescape only partially delivered on the fantasy of time travel. We commend their clever use of space, and ability to morph a small footprint into so many different scenes. However, the set design was uneven, sometimes lacking world-building and often lacking fit and finish. It never made us fully believe that we’d been transported. This would have been easier to look past had the puzzles been maintained.

Timescape was an unusual game with an exciting premise, some interesting game design, and a lot of opportunity. In a region that is packed with transportive escape rooms, it’s hard to recommend Timescape to most players unless AdventurEscape can improve finesse and maintenance. However, for students of time loop game mechanics, you’ll want to check out Timescape.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Time travel fans
• Best for players with at least some experience

Why play?

• A clever conceit
• An interesting approach to time travel gameplay

Story

Three irresistibly interesting objects of historical importance were being stored in a low security research facility. We elected to “investigate” these objects and learned their true origin: time travel.

Setting

Timescape had us put on lab coats and set us loose in the office of a researcher who was investigating time travel and antiquities. The initial setting felt like a very traditional escape room.

The later scenes, while not aesthetically beautiful, did make interesting use of the space as we explored different eras in time.

Gameplay

AdventurEscape’s Timescape was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, making connections, and solving puzzles.

Analysis

➕ As we learned about this research facility and the objects stored within it, we learned its mischievous secret, which was an unusual and fun premise.

➕AdventurEscape leaned into the time loop theme with one puzzle sequence. We continuously saw new iterations of this mechanic, which built on the knowledge we’d gained previously. The design allowed us to build a mastery in a way we don’t often experience in escape rooms.

➕/➖ Timescape largely sidestepped the typical pitfall of the time loop mechanic, in which players have to repeatedly solve puzzles they’ve already solved. In Timescape, these puzzles offered good ahas the first time they appeared, but only took a few quick steps to repeat on later loops. However, one prop had suffered a lot from wear, as it gets solved multiple times a game. It would benefit from a change in mechanism.

➖ In the first act, some significant cluing wasn’t visible enough, and was already well worn. With the light pollution in the room, one solution was impossible to see. Touchup paint was necessary.

➕ AdventurEscape used space creatively to make a small footprint feel larger than it was. The second set was the most designed, and was a surprising reveal.

➖ Although we were traveling through time and space, with the exception of the second act, the gamespace didn’t look or feel like a specific place. There was opportunity to elevate the set and prop design to better deliver on the time travel premise.

➖ We bypassed one puzzle by bumping into a “push to exit” button in a crammed space, without realizing this happened.

➖ Attention to detail was lacking. We wasted a lot of time on a reset error. Some of the puzzles lacked clue structure, or inadvertently added confusion. There was opportunity for fit and finish on a lot of props.

Tips For Visiting

• The website notes that there is parking available. We took a tram, which was also easy.
• This location is inside a climbing gym. Enter the lobby of the gym and mention the escape room there. Then you’ll walk through the gym to the stairs up to the escape room.
• This game is playable in Dutch or English

Book your hour with AdventurEscape’s Timescape, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: AdventurEscape comped our tickets for this game.