We had our suspects, but we couldn’t solve it… until Lisa caught a break.
Case Closed
For the past 7 years (with one exception), Lisa and her longtime friend Roslyn have chosen a single day to walk the ~35 mile perimeter of Manhattan. The event is called The Great Saunter (although they never do it with the group or even on the same day). This year, they did their Great Saunter in November.
When you walk 3 dozen miles with a person in a single day, the conversation tends to cover a lot of ground. Roslyn, who had been a character in our wedding puzzle, mentioned that she had visited Meow Wolf.
With that little bit of information, Lisa unravelled the puzzle that had been vexing us for 5 months.
We had suspected so many people from the escape room and immersive theater worlds that we completely neglected to scrutinize suspects from other facets of our lives.
Meow Wolf Documentary
In other, related news, while we still haven’t had a chance to visit Meow Wolf (and we truly want to), we did go see their documentary in the theater last night. It was equal parts entertaining and interesting.
The documentarians who pulled this together from old and new footage did a fantastic job. The film was energetic.
Meow Wolf’s origin story was legitimately riveting. Watching a collection of talented anarchistic artists struggle with success, organization, process, and commercialization was compelling.
The friends who’ve been to Meow Wolf and described it to us did an amazing job.
The film ended exactly where I was expecting, which was a declaration of aspirational commercial goals. This was an elaborate and artful commercial. I can’t blame them
Hearing someone say something like, “we don’t want to become like Disney” with contempt in their voice made me smile.
On its surface, The Escape Book: Can you escape this book? was a good product. It had well-tested puzzles, quality printing, a strong hint system, and a well-defined aesthetic. Unfortunately, these were overshadowed by the problems.
The Escape Book contained 18 puzzles in its 176 pages. Most of the book’s content was long, rambling, repetitive, droning, and repetitive drivel. The story constantly shifted between uncomfortable, laughable, and boring.
Play through The Escape Book to breeze through its puzzles. They weren’t special, but they worked well. While this may appeal to some newbies, we suggest taking a pass on this one. If you choose to play, skip most, if not all of the story.
Who is this for?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Why play?
The puzzles solve cleanly.
A well-designed and generous structured hint system
Story
Candela Fuertes, a brilliant 28-year-old investigative journalist/ hacker, had been writing a story on the currency-manipulating Castian Warnes and his Wanstein Club.
Warnes, the evil multibillionaire, had publicly claimed to have created The Daedalus, a death trap labyrinth that housed his secrets. Anyone could enter it freely, but they would perish if they failed to complete his puzzles within 60 minutes.
Candela decided to enter this escape room/ death trap in an attempt to uncover Warnes’ misdeeds. For reasons that never made sense, she did this without telling her editor or loved ones.
We played as Candela, navigating her through the puzzles.
Setup
The Escape Book followed a simple structure. In each chapter we read a few pages of prose, which told a bit of the story, and concluded with a puzzle.
The puzzle solved to a number. We then turned to that page number to continue the story.
If we struggled with a puzzle, the book provided a page that we could turn to for hints. Each puzzle (except for the final one) had 5 hints that increasingly simplified the puzzle.
Finally, we could turn the page in the hint section to reveal the solution.
Gameplay
The Escape Book was a simple puzzle book with a low level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around observing and basic puzzle solving.
Story overshadowed gameplay.
Analysis
➕ We liked the appearance of the book. The black, white, and yellow aesthetic looked sharp. The Escape Book was printed well.
➕ Most of the puzzles were clued well and solved cleanly.
➖ One late-game puzzle felt poorly clued. It seemed instead to clue a future puzzle, which deviated from the patterns set by the book.
❓ The puzzles were easy. Most of them took us less than 30 seconds to solve. Those that took a little longer required some process work. This wasn’t inherently good or bad; it comes down to how much you want to have to work at solving a puzzle.
➕ It was easy to use the thorough hint system. We appreciate any play-at-home game that allows puzzlers of any experience level to play on their own terms.
➕ We liked the concept of an interactive novel with puzzles. We’ve seen this before with the Winston Breen series, which we really enjoyed.
➖ Far too much of The Escape Book was rooted in its narrative. We spent most of the time reading prose… which might have been great, if it had been an entertaining story.
➖ The writing was uncomfortably bad. The story amounted to a dull, repetitive tale of currency manipulation with a couple of rants about George Soros thrown in for flavor.
➖ When we weren’t reading droning passages about shorting currency futures, we were treated to descriptions of a nonsensical villain who was supposed to seem scary, but came across as silly.
“The Daedalus, the security system created by a man incapable of remembering names or passwords, is about to finish Candela off” (page 80).
➖ Our heroine’s actions were laughably shortsighted, which uncomfortably juxtaposed against how badass she was supposed to appear. All of this was further undermined by excessive descriptions of her body. How many times did we need to read about the rising and falling of her chest? It went “up… down… up…”
This is the first page. ⬆️⬇️⬆️
My favorite utterly unnecessary passage:
“In her final year at university, Candela had shared a flat with Mark, a computer addict. They were friends with benefits. Over the course of living with him, Candela had learnt a bit about sex and a lot about the stock exchange” (page 39). 🔥Hot 🔥
➖ The Escape Book was originally written in Spanish. It’s possible that something about the writing was lost in translation… but there came a point where that didn’t matter.
❓ We could have solved most of the puzzles without reading the story, or by only reading the last couple of paragraphs of a section. I think that this would have been the optimal way to play.
Tips For Visiting
Space Requirements: None. We solved most of the book while sitting in a diner.
Old asylum, fresh blood (available in English, well, kinda)
Location: Antibes, France
Date Played: September 30, 2018
Team size: 2-5; we recommend 3-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: 20-35 € per person depending on team size
Ticketing: Private
REA Reaction
The Room was an old-school puzzle room. The weathered and detailed set gave it a creepy feel that never turned into horror.
Lockout could fix a few missteps in assembly that currently hamper the flow of this otherwise interesting and challenging puzzle-focused game. While there was plenty to like in this escape room, especially for puzzlers, we walked away wishing that some of the details of gameplay had received as much attention as the set design.
If you play escape rooms for the puzzles and you find yourself in Antibes, France, this was an interesting game, but I’d recommend playing Lockout’s Europa instead.
Who is this for?
Puzzle lovers
Any experience level
Why play?
Some interesting layered puzzles
Dramatic opening set
Story
We conducted an investigation of an old, abandoned asylum in search of evidence regarding the disappearance of a patient.
Setting
The asylum set of the room was grim and weathered. It was clear that something bad had happened within these walls.
The level of set detail put The Room on the upper end of what we saw from escape room sets in southern France.
Gameplay
Lockout’s The Room was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, and puzzling.
Analysis
➕ The Room’s initial set was well-detailed and established a grim tone. It staged the experience well.
➕ We enjoyed a few substantial, layered puzzles with satisfying solves. Lockout built some excellent puzzles into The Room.
➖ One puzzle required order preservation. Our gamemaster interrupted us to tell us not to move these particular props, which were not just easy to move, but seemed like they should have been moved. We recommend Lockout glue these down.
➖The Room included multiple locks with identical digit structure and no indication of which puzzle resolved to which lock. Varying the types of lock inputs or connecting locks with puzzles would facilitate smoother gameplay.
❓ The Room was mostly in English. There were a few critical clues that weren’t translatable. Having translations on paper would have been helpful for those of us who were less-fluent in French. (Lisa was fine.)
➖ We uncovered quite a lot of reading material as we solved The Room. In the end, those who spoke French had their noses buried in papers. While it wasn’t necessary to read everything in order to escape, the reading contributed to additional win conditions focused on the plot. We would have liked to see this part of the game more integrated into the physical gameplay.
➖ The ending was anti-climactic. We had finished all of the puzzles, but we stayed in the room to try to solve additional plot questions. This conclusion had no energy and seemed meaningless.
➕ The Room was a solid, puzzle-focused, older-style escape room. We had some lengthy criticism, but most of these things were fixable and none of them destroyed the game.
Tips For Visiting
Note that while this game is playable in English, you’ll miss one major component of the game with you can’t play it in French.
Book your hour with Lockout’s The Room, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
La Chambre de Nicolai was a traditional, old-school escape room. It was entirely focused on puzzles, with a lovingly made but simple set. That isn’t to say that I Lock You lacked creativity.
Some of the puzzle design within LaChambre de Nicolai was unique and inspired. We were particularly impressed with the opening puzzle sequence, which took an escape room trope that we have long despised, and made it smart and fresh.
If you enjoy puzzle-focused escape rooms and can either speak French or are comfortable taking a little gamemaster assistance to work through an untranslated puzzle, then pay I Lock You a visit. They are centrally located in Nice.
Who is this for?
Puzzle lovers
Any experience level
Why play?
Interesting puzzles
Great transition
Fun aesthetics
Story
We were the house staff for Boris and Natalia Povanovitch and they had tasked us with babysitting their little angel Nicolai. This gifted, spoiled, and possibly sociopathic child loved making our lives difficult. This night would be no different. He had locked us in his bedroom. We had to find our way out before his parents came home and fired us.
Additionally, if we found the report card that Nicolai had hidden from his parents, we might be able to… convince him to leave us alone in the future.
Setting
La Chambre de Nicolai was bright and vibrant with a decidedly childish aesthetic. It looked like a spoiled kid’s bedroom, complete with toys.
As the game pressed on, the set became darker with muted colors and less detail.
Gameplay
I Lock You’s La Chambre de Nicolai was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching and puzzling.
Analysis
➕ We appreciated the humorous setup. Nicolai was a fun nemesis.
➕ The hint system – finding candy within the room to bribe our child captor – was thematic and effective.
➕ We enjoyed the aesthetic of Nicolai’s bedroom and how I Lock You turned children’s toys into puzzles.
➕/➖ La Chambre de Nicolai looked homemade. This mostly worked well, given the set up, but at times it felt amateur and messy.
➖As the game progressed, the aesthetic quality plummeted. Near the end, the attention to design detail went from bad to worse.
➕ La Chambre de Nicolai challenged us with some interesting, layered sequences.
➕ While we usually dislike overlocking one item, I Lock You made it work using a series of transformations. In this implementation, the act of solving gave us new information. This created an excellent puzzle sequence.
➖ One late game sequence was not well clued. It was a nifty concept that needed a bit more iteration.
➕ One critical transition worked beautifully.
➖ The ending was anticlimactic. It was easy to brute force and we escaped without having even attempted one of the puzzles.
➕ The idea that we had to find Nicolai’s report card so that we could blackmail the brat into letting us do our jobs was pretty damn funny.
Tips For Visiting
The English translation worked pretty well. There was one late-game puzzle that didn’t translate. It wasn’t a problem.
Book your hour with I Lock You’s La Chambre de Nicolai, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
As LCD writing tablets, they provide a simple, reusable, rapidly erasable surface for note-taking and and puzzle-solving.
Boogie Board offers different models. After exploring their offerings, I believe that there is a correct model for use in escape rooms… and it’s not the one we usually see.
Jot Series
Boogie Board Jot Series
The Jot Series is the traditional Boogie Board. I’ve seen this model almost every time I come across a Boogie Board in escape room. They come in a number of different sizes and forms, but they all work the same way:
Write on the surface with the stylus. Press the round button to erase the slate.
They are easy to explain to players and simple to use.
Also available in a translucent model.
There are two main drawbacks:
If you want to erase something, you have to erase everything.
It’s almost too easy to erase them. I’ve seen players accidentally erase something that someone else was working on. This is the most common gripe that I hear from other players about Boogie Boards.
On the other extreme, there is the top-of-the-line Boogie Board, the new Blackboard model.
This thing is pretty damn awesome. It’s large and translucent (so it can draw over other things). With one button, it switches to an eraser mode where the stylus works as a focused eraser, like the end of a pencil would. You don’t have to blank out the entire slate to erase, but that is an option too. There’s a mobile app to store your work.
I love using one of these at home. I highly recommend the Blackboard for at-home puzzle-solving and other creative work. It’s awesome.
I do not recommend it for use in escape rooms. It has too many options and requires too much explanation. It’s a little too big. Also, considering that it’s liable to get dropped, I think it’s a little pricey for this use case.
If the Jot is too simple and the Blackboard is too complex… the Boogie Board Dashboard is just right.
Dashboard is essentially a Jot with a safety switch that disables the erase button. This adds almost no additional explanation, but provides a significant benefit to the players.
Erase Lock: On
Erase Lock: Off
I’ve only ever seen these at Locked Murfreesboro in Franklin, Tennessee. The folks from Locked also made a small but significant modification to their Boogie Board Dashboards. They drilled a small hole and wired the stylus to the board ensuring that they travel together.
In my opinion Locked Murfreesboro’s approach is currently the best way to use Boogie Boards in escape rooms.
The two components that they use to wire the stylus board are:
Boogie Boards certainly aren’t without drawbacks. They can be especially challenging in low lighting and they are pretty small. That said, they are a writing surface, not a tool to fix gameplay. If the lighting is too dim for a Boogie Board or the puzzle requires a ton of writing to solve, that’s a problem with the game’s design, not the writing surface.
We haven’t yet seen Boogie Boards integrated into the set and narrative of an escape room. That’s the next step.
It’s that time of year where we express to one another how much we care by buying creative gifts.
If you have a puzzler in your life (or you’re looking to treat yourself), we’ve done the creativity for you.
In each category we’ve included gifts spanning a range of prices. We even included a couple of aspirationally priced items. This year’s holiday buyer’s guide is unique from the previous guides we published in 2017 & 2016.
If you’re looking for a big puzzle game that requires commitment, Tale of Ord is one of our favorite tabletop puzzle games. The puzzles are challenging and numerous. The writing is about as good as we’ve seen from the play-at-home puzzle game genre. (Full Review)
£7.50 per single issue, £20.00 per seasonal (three issues) subscription, £70.00 per annual (twelve issues) subscription (ships internationally)
These monthly puzzle mailings are loaded with gorgeous art and unusual puzzles. Buy them for the challenges. Keep them because they are freaking beautiful. (Full Review)
Over the course of many installments, Unlock! has shifted from a card-based re-creation of escape rooms to a narrative-driven puzzle adventure series. In our opinion, The Adventures of Oz is the pinnacle of this series. This shouldn’t be your first Unlock! game (that honor should go to Squeek & Sausage), but if you’re comfortable with the series and its mechanics, you should head off to see the wizard. (Full Review)
We’ve played a whole bunch of new installments in the Exit: The Game series of destructible tabletop escape games. Of the batch, The Sunken Treasure has been one of our favorites. It’s by far the best installment for players new to the series. (Full Review)
If you give this re-creation of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Holy Grail to someone and they respond with anything other than “You chose wisely,” then you should just end that relationship.
This handblown hourglass is filled with 1,249,996 tiny ball bearings and measures 10 minutes. It’s beautiful and expensive. We can’t afford it, but if you buy it, we’d love to see it in person.
This is a collaborative treasure hunt where 2 to 4 players with unique abilities attempt to obtain 4 sacred items from a sinking item. Each game takes about 30 minutes to play and it feels like a constantly shifting group puzzle. It’s easy to learn and easy to teach. I’ve been playing it fairly regularly for over 5 years.
This is a recent find for us and we’re pretty obsessed with it.
Gizmos is a competitive game for 2 to 4 players, where everyone is trying to build more effective chain reaction machines that earn points and resources. It’s competitive, but not in-your-face competitive. Plus, it has a super fun marble dispenser.
This hour-long game for 3 to 6 players starts out collaborative until someone triggers the haunting… and then a defector is revealed and the game changes profoundly.
With more than 50 different defector scenarios and a procedurally generated game map, there is a ton of replay crammed into this box.
While it pulls from horror tropes, it’s not a scary game. If you’d prefer a different theme, however, you can play the equally great Dungeons & Dragons-themed Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate. Finally… if you already know and love this game, Betrayal Legacy looks amazing.
Gloomhaven is a collaborative tactical combat adventuring game in a persistent world with more than 100 missions for 1 to 4 players. Each mission takes 60 to 120 minutes to complete. The game is loaded with hidden content. It’s like Dungeons & Dragons, but more boardgamey. This is a big game for people who like tabletop gaming.
If you’re springing for Gloomhaven, you may also want to consider the Broken Token organizers. I’m not really into custom box organization, but this is one of the few games that warrants it.
This elegant-looking chess board moves your opponent’s pieces using magic (or a computer-controlled electromagnet). It’s crazy how smooth it is. You can play against the game’s AI or against any other Square Off owner in the world.
I keep this little tool in easy reach. This has been another great upgrade to our home. More often than not, if I need a screwdriver for a casual repair, this thing can handle the job. It can also fit into tight spaces.
My Dremel is one of my go-to tools. I use it for everything. If you like to make things, you can almost certainly find an attachment that will improve your process.
There is no tool that I would love to own more than a good laser cutter. The Glowforge is the one that I’d buy if we had the space, ventilation, and money.
These things are just nifty looking. There’s something about the geometry of them that has stuck with me from the first time I encountered one over a year ago. Plus… dinosaur!
U Gears models combine puzzle, art, and engineering in one project. We built the Treasure Box, but they have a ton of amazing products. Read our review first to make sure that you have the right tools on-hand. (You don’t need many, but you really need them.) (Full Review)
These cat and dog packing puzzles are adorable. They start you off easy, slowly ramping up the difficulty. Whether you’re looking to learn packing puzzles, already enjoy them… or just want the cute dog and cat figures, these are a good buy. (Full Review)
Purchased as a pair, each well-crafted bolt hides a different trick. The goal is to remove the nut, but you’ll find it isn’t trivial. Small, sturdy, and easy to carry around, you’ll always have a puzzle handy.
This looks like a normal Rubik’s Cube with cute headphones, right? The “headphones” are actually a removable charging connector. Why do you need to charge a Rubik’s Cube? This one can transmit the entire state of the cube via Bluetooth to your phone, allowing it to show you how to solve it, or play several different cube-based games. It also has a pleasant clicky-but-smooth feel.
Pluredo makes some terrific hand-crafted wooden puzzles. This one, a “sequential discovery” puzzle, reveals tools as you progress. You’ll need to use the tools to open the final compartment. It’s not too difficult, but it’s satisfying nonetheless.
This is another sequential discovery puzzle, where each bolt reveals new tools that you can use to get further into the puzzle. It’s a little more expensive and a lot harder. Don’t expect to solve this in a single sitting.
The New York Puzzle Company makes beautiful traditional cardboard jigsaw puzzles. Their pieces have unusual shapes and their print quality is great. Their Harry Potter puzzle line is a perfect choice for the puzzling Potterhead in your life. Our favorite is the 1,000 piece Flying Keys puzzle… naturally.
The Witness is one of the great puzzle games of our time. It’s a deep exploration of one puzzle type that sublimely guides you from novice to master with a difficulty curve that teaches you, while still making you be smart. (Full Review)
We’re big fans of Atlas Obscura. Whenever we travel, we try to sneak in some strange sites. This book is made to help kids feel more connected to the world and more comfortable traveling. It’s fun and quirky.
This 5-volume graphic novel series from 2002 by Brian K. Vaughan is still one of my favorite stories. It explores a world where only two animals with a Y chromosome survive a sudden calamity. It’s the kind of setup that could have turned gross or terrible quickly, but is heartfelt and intriguing. It’s also one of those rare series that stuck the landing. That last issue was haunting.
These heat-activated erasable pens are amazing! We use them whenever we’re puzzling. They erase well and don’t leave any eraser dust behind. (Full Review)
All hail the king of the fidget toys. This thing is just cool. It has no practical purpose or challenge to it. It’s just immensely satisfying to fiddle with.
I love this creepy mobile escape room-style video game series. It has long deserved a post… stay tuned. If you or your loved ones are Rusties… may I suggest the Cube shirt? You know what to do.
This is an email subscription from Eric Berlin, the creator of the wonderful Winston Breen book series. He delivers a weekly paper puzzle (in PDF format) designed for younger puzzlers (but often still interesting for adults). It has both free and paid tiers.
Lisa grew up with Playmobil. She had an entire town of people. They provided her with an endless outlet for creativity in play (and inadvertently, a career). Today, Playmobil offers Explorers of the Hidden Temple and Haunted House play sets, among many others. They are so escape room-y, it’s not even funny. Get your kids hooked on adventure while they’re young.
“Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies – without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay.”
Regardless of the organization you plan to donate to, please take a few minutes to research the way that the non-profit operates. Charity Navigator evaluates non-profits based on their financial responsibility and transparency.
I’m not going to name names, but I can guarantee that Charity Navigator will change the way you look at some of the best known non-profits.
Thank you to our friends Brett, Max, Paula, and John for their wonderful suggestions for this holiday buyer’s guide.
If you purchase via our Amazon links or use our discount codes, you will help support Room Escape Artist as we will receive a very small percentage of the sale. We truly appreciate your support.
One small change can greatly impact how a game feels. The Sunken Treasure had entirely linear gameplay. This departure from Exit The Game’s semi-linear approach to tabletop escape game design created a smooth and calm puzzling experience. I found it pleasurable.
We never wondered whether we were working on the right puzzle, or one where we had all of the components. We knocked out the challenges as The Sunken Treasure served them up. This enabled us to focus on the story and play with confidence.
While linearity worked well here, this isn’t an endorsement of linear play-at-home gameplay across the board. As with most design decisions, it’s situational.
The Sunken Treasure is one of the easiest Exit The Game installments that we’ve encountered. This didn’t bother us at all; we rather enjoyed the calmer seas.
If you’re a fan of Exit The Game, this is one of the must-play chapters. If you’ve never played before, this should be your first.
Who is this for?
Puzzle lovers
Any experience level
Why play?
Smooth linear gameplay
Tangible puzzles
An approachable difficulty curve
Story
We set off in search of the legendary treasure of the Santa Maria. You’ll be shocked to learn that we did, in fact, find it .
Setup
The Sunken Treasure followed the same destructible paper-puzzle structure that I explained in our first batch of Exit The Game reviews, but with one significant difference. For the sake of brevity, you can read about the structure in our original review:
Unlike in the others, however, the gameplay in The Sunken Treasure was entirely linear. It presented the puzzles one at a time. Solving each one advanced the story and provided us another complete puzzle. This small change significantly – and in my opinion, positively – impacted the play.
Gameplay
Exit The Game’s The Sunken Treasure was a linear play-at-home escape game with an approachable level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around observing and puzzling.
Analysis
➕ The linear gameplay removed ambiguity. This was the first Exit The Game that we’ve played where we never found ourselves attempting to solve a puzzle before we had all its components. We never once missed that added challenge.
➕ As the story progressed, the puzzles ramped up along a comfortable difficulty curve.
➕ With one exception the puzzles felt fair and solved cleanly.
➖ One puzzle had us in the weeds trying to figure out what we were supposed to see. In the end we got the correct answer for the wrong reason. We never would have even noticed if I didn’t make a habit of checking the hint cards at the end of each puzzle to verify that we had approached it properly.
➖ While we didn’t really need it, the hinting wasn’t granular enough. Should you need a hint on one of the more complex puzzles, you’re likely going to get more of a push than you’ll want or need. Exit the Game could smooth this over by adding a few extra hint cards to the more complex puzzles.
➕ We adored the tangible interactions in The Sunken Treasure. They exceeded my expectations, based on my experience with previous Exit The Game tangible puzzles. 👍
❓ This felt like the easiest Exit The Game that we’ve played to date. I didn’t mind at all. In fact, I liked it. Your feelings may differ on this subject.
Tips For Playing
Space Requirements: minimal, a small table or floorspace will suffice
Required Gear: paper, pencil, and scissors.
Buy your copy of Exit The Game’s Sunken Treasure, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
(If you purchase via our Amazon links, you will help support Room Escape Artist as we will receive a very small percentage of the sale. We appreciate the support.)
The Terrible Bambell Affair (available in English)
Location: Le Cannet, France
Date Played: September 30, 2018
Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: 24-30 € per person depending on team size
Ticketing: Private
REA Reaction
I keep telling people about La Terrible Affaire Bambell.
Heyou Escape’s horror thriller was one of the most interesting escape rooms we’ve encountered in our travels.
All about story and fear, La Terrible Affaire Bambell relied on traditional escape room gameplay to facilitate the narrative and the feelings it created in players.
This escape room worked because of creativity, hard work, and commitment.
La Terrible Affaire Bambell wasn’t a good or a bad escape room. It was theatrical. It was terrifying. It was a weak puzzle game… hell, it was barely a puzzle game. It was an intense and interesting experience.
If you’re looking for traditional, puzzle-driven, non-threatening escape room gameplay, do not play La Terrible Affaire Bambell. If you’re in the south of France and you seek something unique that might shift your perspective on what an escape room can be, then Heyou Escape’s first outing is a must-play.
Who is this for?
Horror fiends
Adventure seekers
Story seekers
Players with at least some experience
Why play?
Frights
Worldbuilding
Thought-provoking conclusion
Story
We were new police recruits on a risky first assignment. Our sergeant had tasked us with investigating the apartment of a suspected serial killer.
This man had been monitored by police for some time; they were confident that this was the guy. We need to inspect his residence to determine if he was the killer and how many people he had murdered.
There were two catches:
He had a photographic memory. We had to put everything back exactly as we had found it. Because…
He could return to his home while we were investigating. If he returned, we had to hide.
Given the dangers, our sergeant would be on the radio supporting us the entire time.
Setting
Heyou Escape led us to an apartment in a real apartment building. En route, he improvisationally melded the real life environment with the game world.
Once our sergeant had “picked the lock” to the apartment, he left us in a dark, creepy living room lit only by a few flashlights (that were chained to the wall).
Gameplay
Heyou Escape’s La Terrible Affaire Bambell was an unusual theatrical horror escape room with a higher level of difficulty (more on that in the analysis).
Core gameplay revolved around searching, making connections, and enduring the tension.
Analysis
➕ La Terrible Affaire Bambell was unique. Its story, rules, and approach to gameplay were unlike anything we’d encountered in more than 650 escape rooms.
➕ Heyou Escape established their story and world by integrating the real world into the experience. This was brilliant and immersive.
❓ La Terrible Affaire Bambell was scary. This was the first game that we had ever played where one of our teammates quit in the middle of the game (and no, that wasn’t Lisa!). Heyou Escape told us that 30% of teams have at least one player abandon due to fear. Whether this is amazing or terrible is up to you.
➕ Heyou Escape introduced a game mechanic that I spent more than half of the game thinking was stupid… until it turned into my favorite aspect of the game. I cannot say more without ruining it.
➕/➖ The mediocre puzzles only worked because of the heavy gamemaster involvement (which was well integrated into the game). That being said, the puzzles were never the reason to play La Terrible Affaire Bambell.
➕/➖ The set was creepy. It established the right tone, but it didn’t look incredible. It also lacked believable hiding places (which really were critical to this narrative).
➕/➖ The hiding from the serial killer was intense even if I couldn’t believe that we were effectively hiding ourselves from the killer.
➕ The actor/ gamemastering was fantastic. It made this world feel real, even when we could see the seams. We further commend Heyou Escape for delivering all the dialogue in English. (We later received a behind the scenes glimpse that demonstrated just how hard the staff had to work to make this crazy experience work.)
➖ The ending came too late… or the climax came a little too early. By the time that La Terrible Affaire Bambell had come to a conclusion, the story had begun to unravel.
➕ Heyou Escape left us with an interesting question about the game… and the more I thought about it that evening over dinner and wine… the more I appreciated the uniqueness of La Terrible Affaire Bambell.
Tips For Visiting
This is truly a horror game. Be prepared to be scared.
Players need to be fairly mobile.
Book your hour with Heyou Escape’s La Terrible Affaire Bambell, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
