Maze Rooms Archives - Room Escape Artist

Maze Rooms Austin – The Shed [Review]

6 March 201910 March 2019 by Lisa Spira, posted in Austin, Maze Rooms, Reviews

Dinner & puzzles

Location: Austin, Texas

Date Played: February 2, 2019

Team size: 2-4; we recommend 4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $45 per player for teams of 2 or $30 per player for teams of 3-4

Ticketing: Private

Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit

Physical Restraints: [B] Mechanical Release

REA Reaction

The Shed was an intense escape room for a small, trusting, and communicative team. Chained to the walls (with safety releases) and each able to access only a corner of the small space, we had to work together to escape this serial killer’s lair.

The Shed lacked some essential clue structure. Maze Room knows this, and has worked to mitigate the issue, but they have a ways to go before the gameplay will truly flow.

These frustrations aside, The Shed was unique and exhilarating. If you’re looking for a dramatic and challenging small-team escape room in Austin, we recommend this dinner date.

In-gameA wall with chains a digital display and a handprint in a gritty murder basement. — Image via Maze Rooms Austin

Who is this for?

Adventure seekers
Story seekers
Scenery snobs
Players with at least some experience
Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
People who are comfortable with physical restraints and a dark, unnerving environment

Why play?

Unique staging
Intense environment
Forced self-reliance
Interesting puzzles

Story

Good News: Our new friend had invited us over for dinner.

Bad News: We were unaware that our new friend was referred to as “Austin’s Cannibal” by local police.

In-game: a brick wall with electrical boxes and pipes. — Image via Maze Rooms Austin

Setting

The Shed fell comfortably into the category of escape rooms that we’ve taken to calling the “murder basement.” While it was physically small, it was convincing without being too gory.

Each of 4 players was shackled by the wrists (with a simple mechanical safety release) to a different corner of a small room with a central pillar. The environment was grim, detailed, and foreboding.

In-game: a menacing hooded man in a workshop. — Image via Maze Rooms Austin

Gameplay

Maze Rooms Austin’s The Shed was an atypical escape room with a high level of difficulty.

It was atypical because each player was handcuffed to a different corner of the room for most of the experience. We had to solve the puzzles without moving around in the space.

Core gameplay revolved around observing, communicating, searching, making connections, and puzzling.

Analysis

➕ We played most of The Shed with both wrists chained to the wall. These were the most comfortable handcuffs we’ve ever been strapped into. We were free to maneuver without causing any scraping or bruising to our wrists. Our handcuffs were attached to the walls by a length of chain and safety clips. The setup was great.

➕ The opening sequence of The Shed worked beautifully. It was hard to get started while chained to a wall and search capacity was limited, but The Shed had an onramp that taught us how to play within its confines.

➖ We had a lot of props in play at any given time. It could be overwhelming to ascertain what was immediately relevant and it was challenging to keep everything we might need in reach. It was also difficult to stay organized with all of the props while restrained.

➕ The Shed did a lot with a small gamespace. It looked great in a dark and creepy way. It hid its secrets well.

➖ When we triggered a solve, we rarely knew what we’d opened. Maze Rooms could add stronger lighting and sound clues to draw players’ attention to the reveals. Providing this immediate reward for any solves would have allowed us to focus on the puzzles rather than searching.

➖ The clue structure didn’t quite support the gameplay. Maze Rooms has mitigated this by adding a runbook. While we appreciated that additional cluing, it was annoying to spend most of the game with my head in a notebook. This was especially frustrating given the dim lighting and that both my hands and any flashlights were restricted by a length of chain.

➕ The gameplay emphasized communication. We couldn’t explore, or even see the entire game. We needed to communicate well and trust our teammates.

➕ Our favorite moments involved multiple players coordinating information and actions to solve puzzles.

➖ When we eventually freed ourselves from the restraints, we had access to new spaces… that our teammates knew intimately. We had to pause to share knowledge or waste time re-exploring known spaces.

➕ The penultimate sequence came together well with a surprising reveal and a plot twist.

➕/➖ The Shed required each player to rely on their teammates and hold their own. If one individual couldn’t find/ solve/ interact with an element, there was only so much the other teammates could do to help. We mostly found this exhilarating. Sometimes it made the game stall for a bit too long. Your choice of teammates will significantly impact your experience in The Shed.

Tips For Visiting

There is a parking lot.
Accessibility: Height Requirement of 55 inches (4’5”ft) or taller
You can play this game with 2 – 4 people. You cannot add additional people. 4 people is the optimal number.
Left-handed players may find this game more challenging than right-handed ones will.

Book your hour with Maze Rooms Austin’s The Shed, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Book The Shed

Disclosure: Maze Rooms Austin comped our tickets for this game.

Maze Rooms – Magic Kingdom [Review]

10 October 201827 December 2018 by Lisa Spira, posted in Los Angeles, Maze Rooms, Reviews

Practice good wand form.

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Date Played: August 25, 2018

Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: from $99 per team of 2 to $198 per team of 6

Ticketing: Private

REA Reaction

Magic Kingdom was a magical escape room. Set design, props, locking mechanisms, and many of the puzzle concepts all worked magically, and came together to create a really fun world to play in. Because of the magical world, the lack of clue structure was especially pronounced, forcing us to rely in part on our knowledge of escape room game mechanics to solve Magic Kingdom.

If you’re in Los Angeles and you enjoy solving how a room works, try your wand at the fun and playful world of Magic Kingdom.

Who is this for?

Adventure seekers
Scenery snobs
Magician wannabes
Families
Best for players with least some experience

Why play?

To perform magic with wands
The opening scene

Story

In the Magic Kingdom, the magic tree was dying. We needed to cast a spell in the magic well to bring magic back to the Magic Kingdom.

Setting

In their Magic Kingdom, Maze Rooms set the magic tree and magic well under a starry night sky in beautiful, glowing light. Beyond the garden sat a quaint windmill with a few rooms of magical props.

Gameplay

Maze Rooms’ Magic Kingdom was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

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

Analysis

+ In Magic Kingdom, Maze Rooms locked all props magically. Given the magical premise of the gamespace, the absence of combination locks worked really well.

+ Some of the scenery, set pieces, and props were beautiful and captivating.

– Some of the clue structure was really worn, almost to point of incomprehensibility. Other cluing had been fixed shoddily, defacing an otherwise beautiful set piece.

+ The magic wands were phenomenal. They were beautiful, tangible props. We had to puzzle out how to work them. Their interactions charged us up.

+/- Maze Rooms built puzzles into magical concepts. We found one such concept brilliant after we had solved it, but at the time we attempted it, the clues were weak.

– Some of Magic Kingdom’s puzzles needed additional feedback. We couldn’t always tell what we were triggering or whether something had been solved. This was especially pronounced because the world was magical so anything could trigger… well, anything.

+/- Maze Rooms added a surprising moment of physical activity (optional for all but one player) and justified it in the gamespace. It was a fun concept. In order to make sure it would be safe, however, the gamemaster had to intervene with instructions. If Maze Rooms could build in-game cluing that facilitates a safe interaction, it would be a clean sweep.

+ The hint system was adorable and fun.

+ Maze Rooms created a lot of magic through a clever scenery-changing mechanic. It facilitated puzzles and enhanced solves.

+ The final combination of set piece and props delivered a fantastic, magical conclusion for the entire group.

Tips for Visiting

Maze Rooms is in a small strip mall with a parking lot.
At least one person must be comfortable with physical activity.

Book your hour with Maze Rooms’ Magic Kingdom, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Maze Rooms – Secret Mission [Review]

7 December 201620 October 2018 by Lisa Spira, posted in Los Angeles, Maze Rooms, Reviews

The Spy Who… Had A Moderately Interesting Apartment

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Date played: October 15, 2016

Team size: 2-6; we recommend 2-3

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $33 – $49.50 per ticket, depending on team size

Story & setting

We were Cold War-era CIA agents investigating the home of a presumed Soviet spy. We needed to find evidence against him and escape with it.

The story wasn’t especially complex.

His home was kind of cute. It wasn’t a particularly inventive escape room set, but it was detail-oriented. The lamps even matched the wall paper and it generally felt like the 1970s.

Puzzles

Secret Mission included a handful of puzzles of the standard room escape variety. They were fairly well-themed and fit into the space well.

There weren’t a ton of puzzles in this game. They generally proceeded linearly with each unlocking the next.

Standout

Secret Mission included some nifty puzzle interactions that integrated old technology. We most enjoyed manipulating the larger set pieces from the era.

Shortcomings

For the conscientious player, this older technology posed an unintended challenge: we handled one particular item too delicately. This isn’t to say that players should abuse the game, but it was challenging to know whether or not to interact.

Secret Mission, a predominantly linear room escape, fell victim to circumvention by outside knowledge. In one instance, we solved a puzzle too soon to by virtue of knowing something that Maze Rooms provided later in the game. Since we found the puzzle before we found the knowledge, we solved the puzzle out of order and disrupted the game flow.

Should I play Maze Rooms’ Secret Mission?

This was a standard, solid room escape game, but not an exciting one.

We entered the game, solved puzzles, confirmed that our man was a spy (as we’d expected), and got out. Neither the ambiance nor the puzzles built drama or intrigue.

That said, Secret Mission wasn’t a bad game. It was a solid execution of a themed escape room. The puzzles were fun, but not particularly challenging. The game worked well without excelling.

This is a good and enjoyable game; it just isn’t great.

Book your hour with Maze Rooms’ Secret Mission, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Maze Rooms provided media discounted tickets for this game.

Maze Rooms – Lunar Mission [Review]

30 November 201620 October 2018 by David Spira, posted in Los Angeles, Maze Rooms, Reviews

What happens when the ship breaks down?

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Date played: October 15, 2016

Team size: 2-6; we recommend 4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $33 – $49.50 per ticket, depending on team size

Story & setting

We started Lunar Mission split as the rescue team and the trapped members aboard a lunar station in disrepair. We needed to get the rescue team aboard the station, and once reunited, repair the station in order to survive.

Throughout the course of the game, we explored the expansive space station. It was a visually appealing, sturdy space for exploration.

Lunar Mission’s narrative was linear: Repair and proceed forward to the next repair.

In-game: A steel floor of a ship with safety restraints on the walls. — Image via Maze Rooms.

Puzzles

Most of the puzzles in Lunar Mission were pretty straightforward, once we had figured out what was expected of us.

Some were clear; some were bafflingly opaque. In our game, a number of things broke.

All stages of the game rewarded detailed observation above all else.

Standouts

The set looked pretty great.

In-game, a non-repeating pattern appears illuminated in blue in the background, a cube with a joystick is illumminated in red in the foreground. — Image via Maze Rooms.

Lunar Mission incorporated some major set pieces into truly interactive puzzles.

Some of these interactions triggered physical responses from the repaired space station.

Shortcomings

Our experience in Lunar Mission included two major technical malfunctions. These broke the final act of the game such that our gamemaster had to come into the game to investigate and finally trigger the conclusion herself. This would have been an awesome game moment if it had worked. Instead it was a major letdown.

Some of the puzzles were poorly clued and thus pretty baffling. Due to the poor cluing in the early portion of the game, we didn’t realize how broken the latter section was. We thought we just weren’t getting it. Nevertheless we still solved the final puzzle through a clever brute-force approach.

Should I play Maze Rooms’ Lunar Mission?

In Lunar Mission, we experienced a beautiful set and some great interactions.

Maze Rooms relied heavily on technology to produce these moments. When key things broke, it ruined the experience. We’ve never seen a game breakdown on quite this scale. It may well have been a fluke, but it was the experience that we had, and we didn’t leave happy.

Lunar Mission was not a particularly puzzley game. It was about observation, discovery, and manipulating the set, which was at times opaque. It was an interesting challenge in a fun environment. It would be more challenging for newer players, but approachable and fun for a variety of experience levels.

Due to the amount of breakage that occurred in our game, it’s tough to give this a wholehearted recommendation, but there is something interesting to see in Lunar Mission. Go in knowing that it doesn’t fail gracefully.

Book your hour with Maze Rooms’ Lunar Mission, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Maze Rooms provided media discounted tickets for this game.

Maze Rooms – VR Cosmos Game [Review]

28 April 201622 November 2018 by David Spira, posted in Closed Game, Los Angeles, Maze Rooms, Reviews, Video Games, VR

It’s a video game. We’ve come full circle.

Location: Los Angeles, California

Date played: March 20, 2016

Team size: 2-5; we recommend 3-4

Price: $30 per ticket (minimum purchase of three tickets)

An entirely virtual escape room

Escape rooms are a physical manifestation of a video game genre that is three decades old. We were intrigued when we learned that Maze Rooms was offering an entirely virtual escape room.

I’ve been following virtual reality’s leaps and stumbles over the course of decades. I have played with the Oculus Rift, Facebook’s $2 billion VR acquisition, since its first publicly available iteration with uncomfortably chunky pixels. This was my first foray into a virtual reality escape game.

Lisa and David in chairs wearing VR masks and headsets, gesturing as they play. — Oculus Rifting

A bold experiment

Our experience in the VR Cosmos Game was bumpy.

This was an early game in what I think will become a more common trend in the escape room world. This review should be read as feedback on a bold, early experiment, not condemnation of creativity.

We fully anticipate brilliant VR puzzles in physical escape rooms and more virtual escape rooms. Having attempted video game design myself, I recognize how brutally challenging it is.

How did it work?

We were brought into a small dark room that contained 5 gaming rigs. Each rig consisted of a:

big, comfy, pivoting chair
PC
Oculus Rift headset
over-ear headphones
motion sensor

We put on our headsets and headphones and we were in the game.

We could look around the virtual environment by moving our heads, and move, as well as interact with the environment, via basic hand gestures.

We could also see each other in-game and communicate by speaking.

How well did it work?

The head tracking was pretty good.

The gestures were finicky and required very specific and subtle movements to achieve the desired result. Some of us found these easy to achieve and others did not.

There were times when the controls were glitchy and one of our teammates had her controls completely break down mid-game, requiring a controls reboot.

The vocal communication was a bit irksome because we heard one another in-game through an echo-y com system, but we could also hear each other speaking because our headphones didn’t kill the external noise. We needed in-game communication or out-of-game communication. Both got a bit messy.

The headset worked just fine with glasses (provided they weren’t massive), but it was less comfortable for glasses wearers. If you have contacts, you should put them in.

Motion sickness

Those on our team who experience motion sickness absolutely felt it in-game. However, no one had to stop playing because of this.

What was the game like?

It was set in a space-based sci-fi ship. It had a Halo vibe to it, without the guns, explosions, or religious extremist aliens.

It was fun to fly about and play within the limited physics of the game environment.

Unfortunately, much of the game was centered upon learning the controls. The puzzles themselves were pretty rudimentary. Had these puzzles been in a physical escape room, I think that we would have solved them all in about 5 or 10 minutes.

The high point

The second stage of the game (it was broken out into a few individual stages) offered the most collaborative, creative experience in the game. It was the only part that felt like it fully required VR to achieve. I kept hoping that the rest of the game would live up to this, but it never quite made it.

Learning curve

If you’re a gamer, you know how much more quickly gamers take to new games than non-gamers. This shouldn’t be breaking news to anyone.

The learning curve and stage-based structure of the VR Cosmos Game created uncomfortable situations where the gamers in our group finished their tasks swiftly and then had nothing to do but futz with the physics or look around the environment while those who were less experienced interacting with virtual environments rushed to catch up.

Should I play Maze Rooms’ VR Cosmos Game?

Maze Room’s VR Cosmos Game felt like a prototype. We haven’t encountered anything like it before. It was a bumpy, imperfect experience.

The controls weren’t as responsive as we were expecting and the puzzles lacked the intellectual challenge that we’ve come to expect from escape rooms, but the price-point was just the same as a traditional escape room.

The game offered a steep challenge to non-gamers and little resistance to experienced gamers. Because of this, it makes sense to bring a consistent team: go as a group of gamers or a group of non-gamers. A mixed team felt awkward for everyone involved.

If you’re looking to experience VR, then the VR Cosmos Game is a great way to get a bit of time behind the Oculus Rift’s visor.

If you’re seeking an attempt at serious innovation in escape rooms, then this is a game worth playing.

If you’re looking for an excellent escape room, then the VR Cosmos Game is going to fall very short of your expectations.

Similarly if you want to play a strong escape room video game, then there are many that cost a fraction of the VR Cosmos Game, and are objectively superior experiences.

We have no idea what Maze Room’s regular games are like and we will return to play their physical escape rooms on our next trip to LA.

Book your hour with Maze Rooms’ VR Cosmos Game, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Maze Rooms comped our tickets for this game.