Adventure Rooms Adelaide: The Gaol Break [Review]

Location: Adventure Rooms Adelaide, Rundle Mall, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Date completed: Mar 2017 (2 players). Succeeded escaping!

Creativity: 7; Difficulty: 6.5; Atmosphere: 7 Fun: 8.5.

Requirements:

• 2-7 players (we recommend 4)

I am a very lawful and well behaved lady, who has never been in trouble with the police. But I have to admit, since the escape addiction took over me, I’ve been in prison more times than anyone would expect. Maybe because prison break is one of the most popular escape games’ themes?

After a positive experience with Adventure Rooms overseas, we decided to check how the rooms in the Adelaide branch of this international company would look like. For Gaol Break, Trapspringer and I were separated into (seemingly) identical cells and had to use the best of our communication skills to reunite and escape!

Powerhouse Museum: The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes [Review]

Location: Powerhouse Museum, Sydney CBD,  Sydney, Australia

Date completed:  August 2017.

Creativity: 6.5; Difficulty: 3.5; Atmosphere: 8.5; Fun: 7

Requirements:

• Fluent English
• Adult: $27; Concession: $25; Child (4–16): $16

I’ve always liked visiting Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum since I was a kid. With it’s enormous displays on all manner of transport, space travel and other technology, I was never bored. Over the last decade, the museum has had a number of interesting exhibitions which cater to my geeky side: Star Wars, Harry Potter…  and now, The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes. 

Admittedly, interest in the Great Detective was always a thing with Pá but I’ve come to appreciate Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation through the last few years if for no other reason than the mysteries being set in one of my favourite settings – Victorian England. This exhibition takes visitors back 200 years to the era of the Industrial Revolution, rampant crime and incredible developments in science through an interactive adventure. Time to put on a quaint accent, a hat and a carry a walking stick.

Gallaecia Fugit: Reliquias del Apóstol [Review]

Location: Gallaecia Fugit, Av. de Lugo, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Date completed:  April 2017 (4 players). Succeeded escaping!

Creativity: 8; Difficulty: 6.5; Atmosphere: 7.5; Fun: 8

Requirements:

• No language required; briefing/hints in English, Spanish (Castillian) or Galego
• 2-5 players
• One player not colourblind
• Full mobility

The Camino do Santiago, known as the ‘Way of Saint James’ in English, has for centuries been a significant pilgrimage for the Catholic faith. The traditional path (as there are more than one) crosses the entirety of Spain and ends at the huge Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia. The popularity of the Camino has risen again in recent years, in no small part due to the movie The Way starring Martin Sheen. Now, all manner of people of various faiths (or none) from around the world can be found walking the various treks all year round. Back in April, Pá and I completed 187km of the Portuguese route for the Camino. After having some time to digest the journey, we ventured to a Camino-themed escape room. It was the appropriate thing to do.

Located in a city where the legend of Saint James (Santiago, in Spanish) lives in every corner, Gallaecia Fugit did a great job in creating a room based on the local lore. In Reliquias del Apóstol, the archbishop of Santiago was kidnapped by a group that seeks a precious relic from the apostle St. James. The religious man had time to hide it, and your mission is to retrieve the item before it gets lost forever…

Woodbury Escape Rooms: The Curse of Kidd Island [Review]

Location: Woodbury Escape Rooms, South Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Date completed: June 2017 (4 players). Succeeded escaping!

Creativity: 8; Difficulty: 7.5; Atmosphere: 7.5; Fun: 8.5.

Requirements:

• Fluent English
• 2-6 players (we recommend 3-4)
• Acute senses
• One player not colour blind

Straight after performing as abandoned toys in Little Playful Things, we put on our metaphorical fedora hats to venture into ancient ruins and defy The Curse of Kidd Island. As intrepid tomb raiders explorers working for Omicron Industries, we were hired to find and steal retrieve the Eye of Venus, a supernatural artifact which seems to be tied to the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse.

What we were not told is that the team before us disappeared in mysterious conditions. Once we entered the dark cave, we notice the mission would demand some MacGyver-ish skills…

Woodbury Escape Rooms: Wanted – Bandits [Review]

Location: Woodbury Escape Rooms, South Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Date completed: June 2017 (4 players). Succeeded escaping!

Creativity: 7; Difficulty: 6; Atmosphere: 7.5; Fun: 8.

Requirements:

• Intermediate English
• 2-6 players (we recommend 3-4)

The sheriff just confiscated all our money. All that we worked so hard to get! It was not easy to open that vault without making a noise, or to enter other people’s houses without being caught… But we won’t let it go easily. The sheriff is not the good lad he poses to be, he took our money into his private gambling den. His dirty little secret! We also know that he is busy arresting a bunch of Warriors, so we, the Bandits, will just enter the gambling place and retrieve our money before he returns!

The designers of Woodbury Escape Rooms came with an interesting concept for this room: it actually hosts two different games. You can play as the Warriors, just arrested by the sheriff and waiting to be executed, or as Bandits, who want to recover the confiscated money. We chose the latter, which we were told was slightly easier. Yeeeeehaaaaaa!

Woodbury Escape Rooms: Little Playful Things [Review]

Location: Woodbury Escape Rooms, South Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Date completed: June 2017 (4 players). Succeeded escaping!

Creativity: 8; Difficulty: 7; Atmosphere: 7; Fun: 8.5.

Requirements:

• Fluent English
• 2-6 players (we recommend 3-4)
• Acute senses
• One player not colour blind

What happens to toys when we do not play with them anymore? When they are in boxes, waiting to be donated, given to someone else, or worse, forgotten in some attic or garage? Toy Story certainly springs to mind. In Little Playful Things, you and your friends are a group of old toys that refuse to retire (or are not allowed to)! Under the command of stage manager Alfie, a very creepy ventriloquist puppet, you have to organise a performance in the toy shed. Willingly or not, you must show your talents, because this show will determine how you will spend the rest of your toy days!

Although it sounds a bit scary (because old toys have that ‘aura’ around them), Little Playful Things is not a scary room and can be played even for those that dislike frightening themes.

The Paradox Room: La Corporación Pineapple [Review]

Location: The Paradox Room, Area Central shopping centre, Santiago de Compostela, Spain 

Date completed:  April 2017 (3 players). Succeeded escaping!

Creativity: 8; Difficulty: 8.5; Atmosphere: 7.5; Fun: 8

Requirements:

• Intermediate English or Spanish (Castillian)
• 2-5 players
• One player not colourblind

In a not-so-far-away future, people have the Smart Yourself app installed directly on their brain cells. It allows humans to access information, book activities, transfer data and chat via brainwaves, which is extremely handy. However, a hacker group which opposes the practice decides to expose its weaknesses in the most violent fashion possible: initiating the auto-destruction protocol of Smart Yourself and literally mindblowing the major part of humanity from the planet.

As scientists, you and your team mates have one hour to enter the HQ of the Corporación Pineapple (Pineapple Corporation), find the files of Dr. Raven, the lead scientist behind the app, and stop the auto-destruction protocol. Being such a dangerous set of codes, you will have to unlock many layers of security to succeed. It will not be an easy task! And looks like Dr. Raven is a big fan of a certain soft drink…