Escape Room Thoughts

What makes a good Escape Room? 

• Story – there has to be a theme or a plausible reason to be inside a room for an hour
• Game Master – has to be engaged and on the players’ side – not indifferent and also not trying to hold them to a let-them-lose standard
• Enthralling and exciting – Adrenaline has to be pumping
• Immersion – forget the outer world
• Interesting riddles but not incredibly convoluted
• Puzzles that actually move the story forward and aren’t just baggage to make the game tougher 
• Tech that works and doesn’t stick or hinder the game

Without a good game master, even the best room can suck. On the other hand, having a sucky story can’t be improved even with a great game master. Both elements need to be present. I think a totally engaged game master is the key though, especially those that act in the game like in the Amsterdam Catacombs or Paris Live Thriller.

It’s hard to rank rooms. Some are so beyond the others that they are on a level by themselves. 2 rooms have achieved that in my book. However, the others are so good that without having had done the top two, these would be at the top instead.  So basically, I have level 1s and level 2s. Here in no special order within the rankings are the top in my book.

Level 1:

• Live Thriller Paris
• Amsterdam Catacombs

Level 2:

• Berlin – The Room – Brandon Darkmoor and the Mysterious Disappearance of Anna Morena
• Nashville – The Escape Game – The Ruins
• Munich – One Hour Left – Psychosis
• Atlanta – Netherworld – Nosferatu
• Marietta – Project Escape – Nautilus
• Copenhagen – The Brain Game – The Ring
• Hamburg – Skurrilum – Malvina’s Legacy
• Hamburg – Skurrilum – Ernie Hudson and the Wailing Woman
• Hamburg – Skurrilum – Ernie Hudson and the Zoo of Death
• Vienna – Crime Runners – Going Underground
• Southampton – Houdini’s Escape Rooms – Escape the RMS Titanic
• London - Secret Studio
• Glasgow – Escape Reality – Murder in Whitechapel
• Amsterdam – Logic Locks – Eliza Lionheart

If you pick any of the level 2 rooms, you will not be disappointed and unless you played the level 1’s, would classify them as some of your top rooms.

I think a lot of rooms I really like are scary and have an element of adrenaline pumping.

One of the important things I really think make a room great are puzzles that are an integral part of the story.

For example, in Amsterdam Catacombs, you had to dispel the demon. For that, you had to find bone chalk and holy water amongst other things. We could not find the bone chalk, so our Priest actor, gave us regular chalk. We had water, but it wasn’t holy because we didn’t get it blessed. Apart from bunch of other errors we made, we failed dispelling the demon and were sent to hell. But my whole point is that these things were part of the game and not just some random “open-a-random-box-for-some-random-stuff” that doesn’t further the room.

Many times, you'll have random locks to open for no really compelling reason.  Yes, they hide a clue you need, but the locks are pointless to the story.