Alice in Asylumland
Location: Bartonsville, PA
Date Played: January 29, 2022
Team size: minimum of 4; we recommend 4-6
Duration: 120 minutes
Price: $60 per player
Ticketing: Private
Accessibility Consideration: All players need to climb up a ladder, climb over a high barrier, and crawl to fully experience the game. However, as long as at least one player can do these things, other players could opt to skip this segment.
Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
REA Reaction
There’s no way to make this medicine go down easier:
2 hours of game spread out over 4,000 square feet was a lot for an escape room. It felt like a lot as a player… and it seemed like it was too much for Trap Door Escape.
This game didn’t need to be 2 hours long. The space felt empty and shoddily constructed. The game felt dreary and slow… and the moments that were brilliant overstayed their welcome way past the point of fun.
Trap Door Escape was playing with some interesting ideas in We’re All Mad Here, but for whatever reason (time?, budget?, materials?, skillset?), this game felt tragically thin.
Selling the idea that an experience is massive and epic means that it needs to deliver; scale is a burden.
I wished that we liked this game. We wanted to enjoy it, but in the end… we weren’t mad, we were disappointed.
Instead of We’re All Mad Here, I’d strongly urge you to consider playing Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Trap Door Escape really hit their stride in that game.
Who is this for?
- Alice in Wonderland fans
- Best for players with at least some experience
- Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
Why play?
- It’s big and long
- There are some interesting performative bits
- The cool segments
Story
As patients of the Red Heart Mental Institution, we explored this Alice in Wonderland-inspired world, digging deeper down the rabbit hole of this curious hospital.
Continue reading “Trap Door Escape – We’re All Mad Here [Review]”