Reviews

Paris Escape Reviews

Paris Review (as a player)

As always, the main determining factor in how I review a room is the enjoyment factor. I had a heap of fun with this room (and so did my friends when they tried this room after me – look out for my separate review as to what it was like watching my friends play this room).

I’d recommend this room to all group types, particularly families and newer players. That being said, I think this room is still pretty challenging for teams of 2 (there are a heap of puzzles to solve in this room). I can also personally recommend this room to more experienced players as a solo player.

Paris Review (this time as a spectator)

Over all, this experience again showed me the true importance of having dedicated game masters for each room. Playing escape rooms is not a cheap exercise and according, we players expect to have a fun experience with a dedicated game master ensuring that we have that fun experience.

Thankfully, Social Escape Rooms are one of those great outfits in Sydney that put the customer experience as their priority. And accordingly, Mark is bound to be successful.

Paris Escape [Beta Test Review]

Trapspringer and I solved the room and found our tickets in 35 minutes. It was easy without being silly and the flow of the puzzles was very smooth. It has zero scary elements and I actually appreciated being in a room where the level of stress was not spiking at all times. We can see how it would work well for solo players (who do not have many options to play single player in Australia) or for groups trying to break time records!

After we finished Paris Escape, we continued our “trip” and went to test Baker Street Mystery, which was excellent (and way harder)! A third room may open soon at Social Escape, with a bank heist theme. I wonder where in the world Mark will take people to in that one!

Baker Street Mystery Reviews

Baker Street Mystery Review

As always, the main determining factor in how I review a room is the enjoyment factor. We had a heap of fun with this room. It was really engaging and there were a number of puzzles that we had never seen before (which is getting rarer and rarer these days).

I’d recommend this room to all group types, newer players and experienced players alike. It’s also one of the few rooms in Sydney that is not scary at all and is therefore suitable for families too.

Review for Baker Street Mystery

Although there were multiple puzzle strands to be solved at any one time, they all came together in the end for the final puzzle. And what a solution! To our shame, we will admit that we brute-forced it... then worked out why this was the solution in the MOST BRILLIANT 'Ah-hah!' moment of all a few seconds after the timer stopped.

That pretty much sums up the room. Full of elegantly crafted moments of inspiration that came together perfectly in the end. And it didn't need technology to achieve this. We loved it to bits.

And when you leave, it's not only with a printed photo, but a graph showing how you performed. It was right up the alley for a software engineer like pyko! We can't recommend this room more - it's one of our favourites in Sydney now.

Baker Street Mystery [Beta Test Review]

Speaking of “beautiful”, Social Escape set an extremely high standard for decoration and atmosphere in the Baker Street Mystery. According to Mark, the inspiration for the room was the office of the Great Detective from the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London. Well, I’ve actually visited the museum a few years ago and when you compare the photos above, Mark did a great job in recreating the style of the original. You will find many props that remind you of the famous tenant of 221B Baker Street, and the escape room is actually more spacious than the museum office!

We finished Baker Street Mystery in 66 minutes and, at the end, got our performance graphic. Social Escape records the time taken for your team to solve every puzzle, so by the end of the game, you receive a graphic with your results in each activity, compared with the average and fastest times from other teams. We were doing so well, but took too long to solve the last puzzles by the Baker Street Five Gang! Do not let them escape again and go try this room! We highly recommend it.