Meldingen ontvangen?
Wil je notificaties ontvangen?
James cobalt
Escape Apprentice
Offline
Lid sinds
15-05-2018
Statistieken
Escaperooms5 reviews
14 kamers gespeeld
80% ontsnappingspercentage
Games
0 reviews
0 gespeelde spellen
5 reviews
A mixed bag of treats but overall delicious
The space is historic and beautiful... but not particularly interesting. The game has a couple puzzles you might not have seen before, but also 5,000 four digit combo locks. It does a decent job making use of the historic space it has, and the staff is really wonderful. One of the better games in Leiden. Get a bite to eat at nearby Restaurant Puur.
8.5
Sfeer: 8.5
Spelbeleving: 7.5
Service: 9.5
Gespeeld in mei 2018
Gespeeld met 2 personen
Ontsnapt: Nee
- Most puzzles really well themed...
- Good for a group of 3 or 4 strong players
- Get to traverse historic, winding tower stairs.
- ...Sudoku
- Too much for most couples. Too tight a space for 5
- Must traverse historic winding stairs of death
Probably really cool a few years ago...
Showed up exactly at the time requested and nobody was there. Waited a bit then called. The owner went to look into it then called me back to say the GM was still in bed sleeping but she would send her son over ASAP. Even after the replacement GM arrived we had to wait as the game hadn't been reset from the night before. We didn't really get a spiel or anything as we were running half an hour behind. We were however told to ignore the bright red countdown timer on the wall as they are transitioning to screens (I think they used to use walkie talkies for hints but now use screens).
I didn't understand the story at all. Maybe it needed the pre and post game spiel to make any sense... which is unfortunate if so. As far as ambiance, the game is littered with various discarded medical devices, a number of cheap halloween decorations, and a mixtape of various psych ward sound effects playing in the background. There is some show control in the form of special sound and lighting cues at various points in the game.
Both GM and environmental clueing were uneven. I couldn't believe one of the search tasks - it wasn't very obvious even when looking at it and being told what you were looking at. We had a tech failure that ate up about 5 minutes of game time but the GM was able to fix it. One of the final puzzles of the game was completely broken but the GM bypassed it for us before the game - though didn't alert us before the game so we were very confused because there was literally a sign on the wall directly telling us to do this thing but the hint screen told us not to.
I hope EscapeRoom071 gives this game more love. I think if I had played this 3 years ago I would have been impressed but the industry has come so far that this feels outdated and cheap in 2018.
4.5
Sfeer: 4.5
Spelbeleving: 5.0
Service: 3.0
Gespeeld in mei 2018
Gespeeld met 2 personen
Ontsnapt: Ja
- Convenient location
- Moved from walkie talkies to screens
- Broken elements
- Cheap set, cheap props, cheap sound
- Stale game mechanics
- Staffing issues
Charming, surprising game in historic location
Considering what they had to work with - a single room that can't be highly modified due to both its age and landmark status... they've done a lot! After playing around 100 games, it's always exciting to see something new. There were a couple puzzles here we hadn't seen before, which made us giddy.
9
Sfeer: 9.0
Spelbeleving: 9.0
Service: 9.5
Gespeeld in mei 2018
Gespeeld met 2 personen
Ontsnapt: Ja
- Historic location
- Novel interactions
- Enthusiastic staff
- Appropriate clueing from the GM
- Single room
- Feels more like DaVinci than Rembrandt
A LARP escape
Interesting experience in an interesting space, but your "success" in the game has more to do with being in the right place at the right time than it does any sort of player skill. There's the start of a great game here, but it feels like it's still being play tested. What we have is a sprawling LARP where you take on a character and interact with NPCs until you are eventually, and often suddenly, railroaded into a conclusion. It's less of a game and more interactive theater. Rather than trying to tell a bunch of interactive stories, this would have been a more interesting experience as a stealth/sneak game with lighter LARPing elements.
If you have any mobility issues, note they ask participants to perform 10 pushups and to run quite some distance (if you escape). If you let the organizers know in advance they might give you an alternative... but they might just say you can't play. Who knows. I had recently had surgery and faked my push ups and lagged behind on the running, but I got through.
7.5
Sfeer: 7.5
Spelbeleving: 1.0
Service: 9.0
Gespeeld in mei 2018
Gespeeld met 2 personen
Ontsnapt: Ja
- Amazing venue
- Costumes and nice photos
- Many different stories
- It's something different
- Dedicated performers
- Painfully slow start
- Lack of direction + unclear what is allowed
- It's not really a "game" per se
Great atmosphere. Actor-lead adventure.
Taking place underneath a real church, The Catacombs is never short on authentic atmosphere, especially with the great looking set decorations, lighting, and sound.
The story is easy enough to follow and the puzzles all tie directly into it. Some of the tasks are judged by the actor leading the game (who, thankfully, comes only when appropriate to the story and is otherwise out of the way). Because the tasks are judged by the actor and not a computer, there are a number of interactions that are far more interesting than the binary pass/fail 'put the object on the sensor' stuff you see in most games.
This is a horror themed game but relies more on atmosphere than jump scares. So if you're easily startled, you might still enjoy this game. The ending was dramatic and task-based (versus puzzle-based), and requires a bit of LARPing from the players to complete it successfully.
10
Sfeer: 10.0
Spelbeleving: 9.0
Service: 10.0
Gespeeld in mei 2018
Gespeeld met 6 personen
Ontsnapt: Ja
- No clock nor non-thematic elements in the game.
- Game length based on time to tell the story.
- Fantastic looking set design.
- Dramatic finish.
- Multiple win/lose states.
- Team success is points-based (tied to story tasks)
- Playable in Nederlands and English.
- Our GM was enthusiastic and an excellent actress.
- Poor eyesight? There's lots of dim lighting.
- Hate any form of LARPing? Mild LARPing.
- Into horror? Don't expect any big scares.
- Not into horror? Spooky atmosphere.