Room Escape Artist

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Cliffhanger

Location: Champagne-sur-Seine, France

Date Played: March 19, 2026

Team Size: 3-6; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 100 minutes

Price: €35 per player

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: All players need to be able to step up, climb, crawl, go up a rope ladder, and walk on uneven and unusual surfaces. At least half the team needs to be able to do basic rock climbing, like you’d see at a climbing gym. All players need to have basic physical fitness and agility.

Emergency Exit Rating:  [A] Push To Exit

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

When I’d been told that sKpad was a “blend of escape room with rock climbing gym,” I was expecting more climbing gym with locked boxes than immersive world… and that assumption was dead wrong.

sKpad wowed us with each set that it introduced. From the jungle to the caverns, it was beautiful, detailed, and designed to be a playground. I’ve rarely been as excited to find out what scene awaited us beyond the next threshold. We bounded into each new environment with a glee I can only compare to children running toward the playground.

Entering Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone as escape room players, this game challenged us in new ways. I was once a gymnast… but that was more than two decades ago. Today, I would say my fitness level is passable. In this game, I pushed myself physically, and I’m really proud of what I achieved. The game encouraged us to be bold, and to trust ourselves and our teammates. Teamwork was essential, and not just in communication and collaboration. We also had to spot each other and help each other maneuver through the game world.

sKpad is located in Champagne-sur-Seine, which is only about a 15-minute drive from Fontainebleau, a city known for its bouldering. Rock climbers travel to this area from all over the world. I love that sKpad has adapted a regional specialty and blended it with escape room design. That said, if you are in the area for the bouldering, don’t visit Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone for the physical challenge, but rather to experience how rock climbing can be integrated into an immersive set and collaborative gameplay.

Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone was at its best when everything was integrated and the puzzle solves felt organic to the world. Its biggest area for improvement was in puzzle design, as we encountered some traditional escape room puzzles that seemed to be there solely for the sake of having puzzles rather than to enhance the overall experience.

We see escape rooms as a framework for collaborative, immersive gameplay with unlimited potential. sKpad took that potential in a direction we’d never experienced in over a decade of playing and reviewing these games. This implementation was gorgeous, inspiring, physical, and unusual. If you are physically up to this challenge and can safely participate, we highly recommend taking the train from Paris to get a foothold on Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Scenery snobs
• Physicality fans
• Any experience level (provided a baseline level of fitness and agility)
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• For a mashup we never would have expected – and it worked
• To challenge yourself in ways escape rooms rarely do
• A beautiful and awe-inspiring game world

Story

Renowned archeologist Dr. Stone had been tasked by the FBI to find and retrieve the legendary Philosopher’s Stone. However, it had gone missing, and his last known whereabouts were a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. Our assignment was to find the missing professor as well as the artifact.

Setting

If I had to describe the set of Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone in a single word, it’s “surprising.”

sKpad built an expansive world of terrain that was as fun to navigate as it was to look at. From floor to very high ceiling, there was always something to admire.

Of all of the varied terrain that Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone contained, the most convincing portions were rock formations, which were especially fitting for a game of this nature. And while there was a spot late in the game where Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone could have benefitted from a little bit more detail, the overall experience was gorgeous.

Gameplay

sKpad’s Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone was an unusual escape room that incorporated physical challenges. Environmental exploration involved climbing and traversing challenging terrain.

The level of difficulty will be highly variable, depending on team’s level of physical fitness and each player’s trust in their own physical abilities.

We had to take on various physical challenges in order to solve the puzzles. Sometimes the solutions involved getting ourselves or props into certain tricky-to-access places. Other times, exploring the space provided the information to make connections and solve more traditional styles of escape room puzzle.

Analysis

➕ The set design was spectacular. We were wowed each time we uncovered a new scene. Each set was distinctive, but they were of the same overarching world. As we moved into a new space, if I was the last teammate to enter it, I would be bursting with anticipation after hearing audible reactions from each of my teammates as they took in the reveal ahead of me. That is generally extremely rare, yet it happened again and again in Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone.

➕ At times the sets were amplified by a storm of atmospheric effects.

➖ The first room was uninspired. We appreciate the vision. Narratively it started the mission, and juxtaposed with the jungle, it set up a stellar opening reveal. However, the gameplay was weak, and it set the wrong expectations for how to engage with the rest of Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone. We suggest an opening scene that better onboards players though gameplay that is representative of the experience, while being less physically demanding.

➕ There was no single correct way to maneuver through these sets. Traversing the space was its own puzzle, and it was very personal. Sure, some teammates could just scale a wall, rock climbing style. Others would more judiciously reason through their movements. Sometimes the first puzzle was optimizing which teammate should be where, based on our individual skills and physical capabilities. Furthermore, because the rock climbing was fully integrated into the environment, part of the solve was understanding what was available to traverse within the beautiful world of the game.

➕ The most interesting puzzles were the most physically integrated. For example, we loved how sKpad repurposed standard escape room unlocking technology, stepping up its set-based integration.

➖ The weakest puzzles were the puzzles for the sake of puzzles. They didn’t have narrative significance and didn’t integrate well with the set. Why would we push these buttons? Why would there be bright plastic buttons in this Himalayan-inspired world? Why would we arrange these figurines? What are they doing on these cavern walls?

➖ There were opportunities for graphical enhancements. We struggled with resolution, such as when intricate line work didn’t render well on physical props. In another instance, color was integral to a puzzle but not readily apparent in the environment where the puzzle was situated.

➕ Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone pushed us each individually and as a team. We accomplished physical feats we weren’t sure we could do, giving us a profound sense of accomplishment.

➕ Teamwork was at the heart of Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone. Different teammates frequently needed to reach different locations within the set and communicate information. Furthermore, we had to help each other get where we needed to be. We needed to trust ourselves and trust each other in ways that escape rooms don’t often demand.

➖ Given the nature of play, the set takes a beating – more hands, shoes, knees, and elbows rub all over it. The set was showing some wear. Continual maintenance will be critical to keep the worlds as awe-inspiring as they were on day one.

➖ Lower audio quality slightly undermined the finale.

➕ sKpad’s on-boarding and off-boarding were a designed part of the experience, which was important. At the start, sKpad provided protective gear (helmets and kneepads) and showed us how to climb and how to spot each other. As our adventure concluded, they provided a comfortable room for a debrief.

Tips For Visiting

• From Paris, take a train from Gare de Lyon. There are different train options depending on the time. Take a train directly to Champagne-sur-Seine (10 min walk to SKpad). You might have to connect at Melun to get to Champagne-sur-Seine. If the train times don’t work out so that you can’t get close enough to walk, you can also call an Uber from a nearby station.
• This game is available in French and English.
• You need 1-2 teammates who are excited to do rock climbing. They don’t need experience with rock climbing specifically, but they need to have good strength and balance and confidence in their own physical abilities. It helps if at least one of them is taller.
• You will be spotting each other, and at times boosting each other up and helping each other down. We advise playing with teammates that you are comfortable touching in this way.
• 👖We recommend knee pads. Consider these escape pants. (Note that if you aren’t wearing kneepads, sKpad will provide them.)

Book your session with sKpad’s Following in the Footsteps of Doctor Stone, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: sKpad provided media discounted tickets for this game.