Price: $30 per ticket on weekdays, $35 per ticket on evenings, $40 per ticket on weekends/holidays
Ticketing: Private
REA Reaction
City of Ashes was a search-heavy, pseudo-horror escape room in a dim lighting. It had a few interesting set pieces, and a strong final sequence, but none of that could make up for the general dullness of the game itself.
Having played all of the games that Komnata Quest currently offers in New York City, I can comfortably recommend that you play any of their other offerings ahead of this one. It’s not a disaster, but it’s well beneath Komnata Quest’s potential. Skip it.
Who is this for?
Komnata Quest completionists
Why play?
A great final puzzle sequence.
Story
Teed up as a Silent Hill escape game, we approached an empty city devoid of life to investigate.
Setting
We removed our blindfolds to take in the dim, gritty, and just a bit gory surroundings. We traversed a number of sets, each quite different from the next, but none particularly inviting.
Gameplay
Komnata Quest’s The City of Ashes was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching and puzzling, with emphasis on searching.
Analysis
– City of Ashes felt like cheap horror. It was grim, but not really scary. The dimness was more frustrating than fear-inducing.
+ A few detailed set pieces looked great.
– City of Ashes required substantial searching in low light. We continuously tripped up because we hadn’t found the item we needed to complete a puzzle.
– The puzzles lacked clue structure and feedback. There was a puzzle that we solved, but had no idea how or why.
– We couldn’t properly hear the audio track over the ambient noise. If it held any clue structure or story, it was impossible to make out.
– City of Ashes overtelegraphed one of its most interesting moments.
+ The concluding segment was shockingly good.
– I can’t recommend this game at $30 per ticket, and the $35 per ticket during the evenings and $40 per ticket on weekends and holidays is unjustifiable.
Disclosure: Komnata Quest comped our tickets for this game.
Price: $35 per ticket on weekdays, $40 per ticket on evenings, $45 per ticket on weekends/holidays
Ticketing: Private
REA Reaction
Joker’s Cafe was a creepy, but approachable escape room. Although neither the beginning nor the ending hit the mark, the majority of the gameplay was entertaining. The puzzles combined with set design, technology, and effects to deliver energetic solves.
Who is this for?
Adventure seekers
Story seekers
Players with at least some experience
Why play?
A lot of square footage for New York
Some strong puzzle moments and effects
Story
The Joker had been luring children into his cafe and using them for his experiments. Since “The Bat” was busy saving other people, our team of GCPD officers had been dispatched to the scene.
Setting
We started on a street corner outside the Joker’s Cafe looking to break into the bubblegum pink candy shop. This bright and eerily friendly setting evolved into someplace more sinister.
Gameplay
Komnata Quest’s Joker’s Cafe was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching and puzzling.
Analysis
+ Jokers Cafe had a large footprint, especially when compared with most other New York City games.
– Komnata Quest had repurposed their former one-person lobby game, Mousetrap, as the opening sequence for Joker’s Cafe. Because this early puzzle structure didn’t engage a larger group, Joker’s Cafe had a lackluster beginning.
+/- Through detailed set design and misdirection, Komnata Quest created a few surprising opens. While we appreciated the concepts, we wished it telegraphed these less.
+ Joker’s Cafe successfully transitioned between different tones. It offered a peek ahead such that more jumpy players could become comfortable with the creepiness to come.
– Joker’s Cafe wasn’t particularly inspiring as a Batman or Joker game. It felt like Komnata Quest could have done a lot more with the theme.
+ Periodically, we’d see interesting puzzle design. One mid-game puzzle had elements that were interesting to combine.
+ Komnata Quest integrated an unusual device into the narrative as a puzzle. This came together soundly.
– In one segment, we searched through quite a bit of unnecessary material. It felt like maybe a puzzle thread had been removed from the game, because these props felt like unresolved puzzles, which led us off the path of gameplay.
– Joker’s Cafe ended anticlimactically. There was a delay before a correct input registered, which left us wondering for just a bit too long whether we’d correctly solved the final puzzle.
– Komnata Quest has become really expensive. Joker’s Cafe was a really good game, but was it $40-$45 per player on evenings, weekends, and holidays good? I’m on the fence about that. New York has a lot of quality games for less money. These prices elevate expectations to heights that Komnata Quest hasn’t delivered.
Tips for Visiting
Accessible by the G subway and the East River ferry. Street parking only.
Players need to be able to step over a relatively high barrier.
Book your hour with Komnata Quest’s Joker’s Cafe, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you using the coupon code escapeartist to receive 10% off.
Disclosure: Komnata Quest comped our tickets for this game.
Price: $40 per ticket on weekdays; $50 per ticket on weekends
Ticketing: Private
REA Reaction
In The Vault, Komnata Quest blended action and comedy in their Fallout themed experience. This was an easy, straightforward, linear adventure-based game that felt like the escape room world’s equivalent of the summer action flick. A little more depth in puzzle design would have been an improvement, but we had a good time traversing its large set and playing with all sorts of interesting toys.
If you’re in Manhattan and looking for an approachable, beginner friendly adventure, give The Vault a shot.
Who is this for?
Adventure seekers
Story seekers
Scenery snobs
Sci-fi fans
Any experience level
Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
Why play?
A fun exploration of the Fallout world
A humorous artificial intelligence overseer
Some great tangible interactions
Story
Nuclear Armageddon had rendered the surface of the Earth uninhabitable. To avoid the radiation, diseases, and mutant monsters, humanity had retreated to the safety of underground vaults. Unfortunately, the vaults were no longer the safe haven that humanity had relied on. Our squad was dispatched to investigate and neutralize the threat.
Setting
Leaning heavily into the mythology of the Fallout video game series, The Vault dropped us into a subterranean ark of sorts, designed to protect and preserve humanity after the Earth’s surface was rendered insufficient for civilization. The Vault was loaded with Fallout references and had a sterile, military-meets-laboratory feel.
The gamespace was surprisingly large for a Downtown Manhattan escape room. There were many spaces to explore.
Gameplay
Komnata Quest Manhattan’s The Vault was a standard escape room with a lower level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, puzzling, communicating, and making connections.
Analysis
+ The Vault was based on the Fallout series. The interactions that pulled on the source material were fun and memorable.
+/- A lot of the escape room was informed by a critical prop. This thing was awesome, but also failed to provide key feedback to let us know that it was working.
+ The lock nerd in me was incredibly pleased with one of the puzzles in Vault.
+/- The in-game “artificial intelligence” was funny.
– However, in-game audio was challenging to hear. Consequently, it was also difficult to tell the difference between audio clues and AI taunts. This was frustrating.
+/- The set was large, especially by Manhattan standards. For all of the space that Komnata Quest had for Vault, it felt light on content and challenge.
+ I have a personal love of nixie tubes. Discovering them in an escape room makes me happy.
Tips for Visiting
For upscale dining nearby, we recommend sushi at Haru.
For casual dining nearby, City Acres Market offers Vanessa’s dumplings.
There are not a lot of dining options open late in this neighborhood.
Parking is a challenge; consider a subway or ferry for transportation.
Book your hour with Komnata Quest’s The Vault, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you using the coupon code escapeartist to receive 10% off.
Disclosure: Komnata Quest comped our tickets for this game.
Price: $40-$50 per ticket (depending on team size) on weekdays; $50-$60 per ticket (depending on team size) on evenings and weekends
REA Reaction
In the beginning, Sherlocked struck all the right notes. However, Komnata Quest’s interactive style vanished in the latter half of the experience, fizzling into a paper-based observation-and-deduction exam. What started off fun turned into an agitating and frustrating mess.
Who is this for?
Puzzle lovers
Sherlock Holmes fans
Any experience level
People who want to play as detectives
Why play?
To play as a detective
The escape room puzzle sequences
Story
A politician has been murdered and our dear friend Sherlock Holmes has been framed for it. We broke into the legendary detective’s home at 221B Baker Street in search of evidence to exonerate him.
Setting
The flat of Sherlock Holmes was a bright Victorian study. Parts of it felt lived in; other areas seemed sterile and staged. Most of the critical props and set pieces showed signs of wear.
Sherlocked’s set was unusual for Komnata Quest because it was well lit.
Gameplay
Sherlocked felt like two games in one escape room.
Initially we played a traditional escape room filled with searching, puzzles, interesting interactions, and a lot of reading.
When we reached the final puzzle, the tone and gameplay shifted.
Final Puzzle Structure
The final challenge was a multiple choice test regarding the facts of the case. The correct answers would secure our freedom as well as that of Mr. Holmes.
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Standouts
The opening puzzle sequence struck a chord with us. It was well clued and soundly executed.
The early detective work. The interactive investigating was pretty nifty.
The first portion of Sherlocked, which included about 75% of the gameplay, flowed really well. These puzzles were a ton of fun.
Shortcomings
The final 25% of gameplay felt like a standardized test. The gameplay moved away from the environment onto a few sheets of paper. There was far too much to read and some of the questions had ambiguous answers or observational nitpicks. This wasn’t conducive to escape room-style gameplay and it wasn’t fun.
The culminating puzzle sequence involved almost no player action and offered no feedback. Our gamemaster had no means to follow our progress. Any help was clunky at best. (This wasn’t his fault; it was due to the game’s structure.)
The set showed a lot of wear, which was amplified by the lighting. We always try to be respectful players, but especially given the state of the set, we played particularly cautiously… and we got burned by that decision.
An incredibly important moment didn’t reveal emphatically. We didn’t even know that we had triggered something. Komnata Quest could make that open pop so that players don’t miss the moment.
One puzzle invited MacGyvering… but only as intended by the game designer. We were chastised for finding another similar “tool” within our environment.
Sherlocked cost between $40 and $60 per ticket depending upon team size and day of the week. For an escape room with maintenance issues and a lengthy, weak finale, that was too much money.
Tips for Visiting
For upscale dining nearby, we recommend sushi at Haru.
For casual dining nearby, City Acres Market offers Vanessa’s dumplings.
There are not a lot of dining options open late in this neighborhood.
Parking is a challenge, consider a subway or ferry for transportation.
Book during the week with a larger team for a more reasonable price.
Book your hour with Komnata Quest’s Sherlocked, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you using the coupon code escapeartist to receive 10% off.
Disclosure: Komnata Quest comped our tickets for this game.
Price: $30 per ticket on weekdays, $40 per ticket on evenings and weekends
Story & setting
We entered an abandoned house that was haunted by the ghost of a little girl. After she had been killed, each of her 6 sisters had been found dead mysteriously, one by one. We wanted to uncover the horrible truth of what had happened to this family.
This house was dark and creepy. It had multiple rooms. Some spaces were cramped; others were ominously wide open.
Cursed was a horror escape room. It included practical effects and jump scares, but no live actors.
Puzzles
In order to solve the puzzles, we needed to engage with the set and props. In Cursed, that could take a fair bit of courage.
Cursed included both straightforward observational interactions and more sustained puzzle challenges.
The mystery of what had happened in this house was, in itself, a puzzle to solve throughout the length of the experience.
Standouts
The practical effects in Cursed were phenomenal. They were thematic, entertaining, and surprising. They delivered the dramatic tension that really made this escape room what it was.
While Cursed took place in atmospheric low lighting, the darkness didn’t hamper most of the gameplay. Komnata Quest strategically placed just enough lighting to facilitate puzzling.
As we solved puzzles, we received bits of story. The delivery was thematically appropriate and well written. We appreciated that additional layer of puzzle woven throughout our investigation of this haunted house.
We particularly enjoyed Cursed’s dexterity challenge.
The hint system was well integrated into the gameplay.
Cursed did a good job of instilling fear early and throughout much of the escape game.
Shortcomings
For a horror game to stay scary throughout the experience, participants need to continually fear the unknown. In Cursed, we backtracked through the gamespace often enough that we became too comfortable with it. By the end, we weren’t on edge anymore.
If fear and linear flow had pushed us to travel as a group, we would each have experienced a more complete experience. As we became more comfortable, we separated from one another. In one instance, David tripped an effect before anyone else was in the room. The rest of us missed a great moment. Being separated also made it harder to parse bits of story, which were triggered by events, from gameplay nudges.
The clue structure supporting the puzzles was uneven. Some worked far better than others.
The climactic sequence was a letdown, relative to the experience that had preceded it. From the decor to the puzzle to the choice of effects, it was a lackluster conclusion.
Should I play Komnata Quest’s Cursed?
Cursed is one of only a handful of horror escape rooms in and around New York City… and it is by far the scariest to date. It offered tension, story, and puzzles. This is a hard trio to balance and Cursed succeeded.
Players of any experience level can enjoy Cursed. The puzzles will be more challenging for newer players or anyone who freezes up in tense environments. That said, the hint system is well integrated with the storytelling. I expect you could still enjoy Cursed even if you needed quite a bit of nudging through the puzzles.
As with other horror games, ideal team size depends on how scared you want to be. The fewer people, the more you have to interact with the environment to solve the puzzles.
Note that if you struggle with low lighting, you will struggle in Cursed. While we felt that the strategic lighting worked, know that it won’t work for everyone.
Komnata Quest imports their room escapes from Russia. Of the many Komnata Quest escape rooms offered in New York City, Cursed is the first one that is substantially different from its Russian counterpart. The New York owners of Komnata Quest changed the story so that it would resonate with American audiences, and in doing so, had to refactor much of the rest of the experience. They did a fantastic job.
Cursed was a lot of fun. It was an exciting, dramatic, and puzzle-driven adventure. The practical effects created a tension that made it both challenging and enjoyable.
Book your hour with Komnata Quest’s Cursed, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you by using the coupon code escapeartist to receive 10% off.
Full disclosure: Komnata Quest comped our tickets for this game.
“This is puzzle for puzzle and by the gallons. These are the old days man, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They’re back! There’s no choices left. And I’m ready for an escape room.” – Almost Marv
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Date played: August 14, 2017
Team size: 4-10; we recommend 4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $28 per ticket on weekdays, $38 per ticket on evenings, weekends, and holidays
Story & setting
We stepped into the black, white, and red world of Komnata Quest’s massive Sin City-inspired world. We were on a mission to dig up evidence of corruption, murder, and other more gruesome crimes that went straight to the highest echelon of the city, or to die trying.
From the aesthetics to the story, Bullets and Broken Hearts leaned heavily on Sin City’s first (and most entertaining) volume The Hard Goodbye. This set was massive, especially for New York City. It was a dark adventure through the back alleys and casinos of Sin City.
Nearly everything was black, white, and red… I just happened to shoot one of the only things that had another color.
Puzzles
As we’ve come to expect from Komnata Quest, Bullets and Broken Hearts was less of a puzzle game and more of a set- and task-driven adventure. There were a few things to reason out, but the bulk of this room escape was built around exploring the space and building connections between the strange things that we found along the way.
Standouts
Aesthetically speaking, Bullets and Broken Hearts largely achieved its goal of looking and feeling like Sin City’s unique style.
The set was huge, unusual, and fun to explore. Another thing we’ve come to expect of Komnata Quest is interesting use of space; they delivered that once again in Bullets and Broken Hearts.
The interactions were varied and mostly thematically relevant, which greatly added to the adventure.
The final moments of Bullets and Broken Hearts were badass.
Shortcomings
Komnata Quest tried something new to commence the experience and it didn’t work. Half of our group started with a tedious puzzle in a bland location, in comparison to where the other half of the group began. This split beginning also created a significant imbalance in knowledge of the gamespace for the group that was locked in the less interesting location.
Bullets and Broken Hearts included too much irrelevant reading material. Komnata Quest attempted to create that internal monologue exposition-y vibe that Sin City was so famous for, but it didn’t work in a live immersive game environment.
One key puzzle was coming apart and that confused the hell out of us. It ultimately worked, but if it isn’t rebuilt in a more stable way, it will get murdered by the villainous scum who visit Sin City.
The tasks and interaction only kind of told a story and only if you were already familiar with the story.
Komnata Quest sells up to 10 tickets to Bullets and Broken Hearts. The space was more than large enough to fit 10 people, but there was nowhere near 10 players’ worth of gameplay.
Should I play Komnata Quest’s Bullets and Broken Hearts?
I’d forgotten just how messed up Sin City’s The Hard Goodbye was until I reread it after playing Bullets and Broken Hearts. Through this escape room, Komnata Quest paid homage to Frank Miller’s classic noir tale and touched on all of the high points in an entertaining set- and task-based way. It was nowhere near as dark, demented, or frenetic as The Hard Goodbye… but if we’re being honest with ourselves, absolutely no sane human being would want to accurately recreate that story.
Many of Komnata Quest’s escape rooms put the players in an adventure scenario at the expense of more in-depth puzzling. This was absolutely one of those escape rooms. Its difficulty stemmed from its size and scale. Bullets and Broken Hearts’ entertainment was born of exploration and the strangeness of exploring dark alleys in an escape room setting.
Beginners can absolutely make it through Bullets and Broken Hearts as long as they are willing and able to simply explore the crazy space. Just know that this is an unusual game among escape rooms.
Experienced players will find a fairly easy and mostly intuitive puzzling game coupled with an entertaining immersive environment.
Regardless of your escape room experience level, at least one player needs to be mobile. Things get a touch physical. The more able-bodied you are, the more fun you will have in these dark streets.
[At the time of this review, this escape room was called Chinese Jewelry Box.]
A pass / fail class.
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Date played: June 19, 2017
Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $38 per ticket on evenings and weekends, $28 per ticket on weekdays
Story & setting
We befriended our ill-tempered teacher’s daughter in order to gain access to his home and steal a copy of his class’s final exam. The twist: she locked us in the home with a laugh, warning that her father would be home in an hour… and he would be furious if he were to find us there.
Chinese Jewelry Box was one of Komnata Quest’s rare family-friendly room escapes. Taking place in a well-lit home with a Chinese flair, the set was simple and elegant.
Puzzles
Komnata Quest’s escape rooms tend to be less puzzle-driven and more focused on adventure. Chinese Jewelry Box departed from their typical approach; it played and felt like a more traditional scavenge-and-puzzle escape room.
Standouts
This was a straightforward, but fun escape room. Most of the puzzles and even the searches felt satisfying.
One room within Chinese Jewelry Box was beautiful.
Chinese Jewelry Box was family-friendly. I imagine that younger players would have a lot of opportunity to contribute.
Shortcomings
Chinese Jewelry Box was light on wow moments.
Some of the closure mechanisms felt out of place, and in one instance, a bad idea.
Should I play Komnata Quest’s Chinese Jewelry Box?
The last time we saw Komnata Quest produce a more traditional escape room, we did not enjoy it. Chinese Jewelry Box was Komnata Quest doing a standard escape room design right.
It had all of the base components of searching, teamwork, set design, and puzzling present and working well together in a straightforward, family-friendly escape room.
While I cannot recommend that experienced players go out of their way to experience Chinese Jewelry Box, if you’re already visiting Komnata Quest and want to tack on an extra game, you’ll likely enjoy it.
Chinese Jewelry Box, however, will really shine for newbies and families. This would be a great experience for introducing new players to escape rooms. It’s approachable, fun, and unintimidating.
Price: $50 per ticket on evenings and weekends, $40 per ticket on weekdays
Story & setting
We explored a long-shuttered lab that had spent decades researching the limitations of the human brain. Now, locked in separate compartments of this abandoned research space, we had to work together to uncover its secrets.
Actual game photo.
Limitless was a game for 2 players set in complete darkness. With the exception of the cameras, there was nothing to see. We had to explore the set and solve the puzzles using our other senses.
Puzzles
Limitless was built around darkness and separation. Every puzzle involved observing our respective environments, communicating, and collaboratively reasoning through our options.
Standouts
Komnata Quest used the darkness of Limitless to mess with our senses. In absence of sight, some simple interactions became perception-bending puzzles.
Similarly, the cooperative element was persistent and generally put to good use.
Shortcomings
There was some finicky tech.
We got stuck due to a missed observation and it was very difficult for the gamemaster to hint us back on track.
The story was a little hard to follow. Post-game, I only kind of understand it.
Should I play Komnata Quest’s Limitless?
Limitless was a lot like Komnata Quest’s Boxed Up, but more fun and less extreme. Both are games of courage, darkness, and collaboration between a pair of teammates.
I do not recommend that newbies play Limitless, as it would likely prove frustrating and incomprehensible to blindly sense through an escape room without really understanding the nature of these types of games.
For experienced players, I encourage you to give Limitless a try if you:
Aren’t afraid of the dark.
Have a teammate whom you trust and collaborate well with
Aren’t going to miss the $50 it costs on evenings and weekends ($40 on weekdays)
Don’t drag just anyone to Limitless; if one partner shuts down, the team shuts down.
As far as the value for admission is concerned, Limitless essentially costs $100 per pair to play. I don’t necessarily think that it’s worth it for every player out there. That’s a lot of money and there are a lot of great games with exciting environments that cost far less… You don’t even have to leave Komnata Quest’s building to find some of them. The choice to play Limitless is a value judgment.
One last note: Limitless is played without shoes, so wear socks… and unless you want to go barefoot through one of the puzzles, I’d encourage you to wear the lightest colored socks you own. If you want to find out why, you’ll just have to play Limitless.
Book your hour with Komnata Quest’s Limitless, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Komnata Quest provided media discounted tickets for this game.
When you play a game of thrones you win or you run out of time and mope.
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Date played: June 19, 2017
Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $38 per ticket on evenings and weekends, $28 per ticket on weekdays
Story & setting
Our great house had fallen to invaders and we found ourselves chained up in our own dungeon. We had to escape… and set things right.
Designed in clear homage to Game of Thrones, parts of Heir To The Throne pulled directly on George RR Martin’s fantasy world and most of it alluded to the source material. Komnata Quest sent us on a journey through a surprisingly expansive and generally compelling castle dungeon adventure.
Puzzles
As with many of Komnata Quest’s escape rooms, Heir To The Throne was an adventure experience. It was, however, decidedly more puzzley than most of their escape rooms.
The puzzles required more physicality than those in most escape rooms.
Standouts
The large set just kept going. We’ve gotten out of a lot of Komnata Quest’s room escapes pretty quickly and this one had three moments when we thought we were finished.
While some segments looked better than others, the set generally looked good, and some portions looked fantastic.
There were plenty of fun and unexpected interactions.
Shortcomings
For a portion of the game, our team was chained together. The restraints were cumbersome and uncomfortable with no safety releases. The mechanism that was used to release the restraints was equal parts interesting and cheesey… which is a strange statement that you’ll only understand after experiencing it.
Heir To The Throne had some questionable props and interactions from a safety standpoint.
I was expecting a more dramatic climax to the narrative.
Should I play Komnata Quest’s Heir To The Throne?
Komnata Quest lives on the edge and Heir To The Throne is a prime example of their style of game design. It was an intense, unusual, adventure that was at times uncomfortable and a little unsafe.
If you struggle with mobility or do not feel comfortable being restrained, then you should skip Heir To The Throne.
If you’re a newbie or experienced escape room player looking to feel like you’re escaping from the dungeon of Winterfell, you’re probably going to have a pretty good time.
Not every decision made in Heir To The Throne was 100% sound, but that’s life in Westeros.
Book your hour with Komnata Quest’s Heir To The Throne, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Komnata Quest provided media discounted tickets for this game.
The samurai warriors once tested themselves against the demons of the Maze of Hakaina. Centuries later, a boy found the maze and became trapped within it. When we entered its dark corridors to save him, we found ourselves in a battle of wits with its ancient terrors.
The video-gamey labyrinth was dark with high ceilings, creating a foreboding atmosphere.
While the set was absolutely a maze, getting lost in the Maze ofHakaina wasn’t a risk. Progress within the game allowed for access to new segments and challenges. It felt a little like an early Metroid game, but with a feudal Japanese vibe; that is a compliment, to say the least.
Puzzles
Exploration was the biggest challenge in The Maze ofHakaina. There was a lot to find and it wasn’t all strongly clued. This escape room rewarded keen observation.
Like many room escapes from Komnata Quest, this experience was task-centric, but certainly offered its share of puzzles.
Standouts
The Maze of Hakaina was actually a maze. Doors opened up new passageways. Komnata Quest manipulated the gamespace to create an expansive adventure with exciting reveals.
Komnata Quest minded the details. Our gamemaster’s introduction set the tone and the set took over from there.
There were a few brilliant uses of space, light, and trigger design.
The presence of multiple win conditions made the game’s closing act far more dynamic. While we couldn’t win without escaping, along the way we could accomplish additional goals. Depending upon how we had played the game, these additional tasks may or may not have been achievable in the end. It was truly fulfilling to have accomplished them all.
There was an utterly unforgettable and theatrical moment.
Shortcomings
At times the cluing was tenuous. We needed a few hints to help us find and connect in game elements. After a few months, Komnata Quest still hadn’t had a team escape without any hints. These moments felt like great opportunities to transform obscure search tasks into clued puzzles.
Maze of Hakaina hadn’t been open that long, but already, many of the props and set pieces showed signs of wear in the form of chipped and faded paint. Without continual upkeep, this escape room will become increasingly easy and decreasingly immersive as the wear gives away the game’s secrets.
The lighting was incredibly dim and there was no shortage of reading material. We strained our eyes to read information and input lock combinations. Komnata Quest should add light strategically so that these tasks don’t become insurmountable challenges to some teams.
Should I play Komnata Quest’s Maze of Hakaina?
Maze of Hakaina was an exciting and memorable adventure.
While it was more puzzley than many of Komnata Quest’s room escapes, this was a task-centric experience. The challenge was in observing and making connections.
Experienced players can enjoy the additional challenge of layered win conditions. Veteran players will truly appreciate unconventional use of space and the drama that it creates.
Newer players will still thoroughly enjoy this experience, but will likely need a bit more guidance from their gamemaster.
Note that the lighting will be incredibly challenging for some players and that there are truly tight spaces that can’t be avoided. If you are comfortable with that, then this is a must play.
Play hard and play to win. You do not want to miss the ending.
Book your hour with Komnata Quest’s Maze of Hakaina, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you using the coupon code escapeartist to receive 10% off.
Full disclosure: Komnata Quest comped our tickets for this game.
