Set List: Silent Edition!
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Escape Room Reviews: Murder in the Old Manor House
Company: Escape Hunt Experience Cleveland
Room: Murder in the Old Manor House
Date Played: 12/27/16
Player Count: 3. One or two more would have been okay.
Success: Success!
Premise: There had been, at a stately manor home, what law enforcement professionals might refer to as "A Murder," and as those professionals, it is incumbent upon you to crack the case!
Immersion: Escape Hunt is a franchise, in this case built into a former big box appliance and electronics store, and as such their lobby and rooms feel very professional, but more in the 'game show' side of production design than 'actual spooky manor.' There is a scene that takes place 'outside,' which we don't see too often. Some of the puzzles are beyond belief as things that might 'really be there,' but don't feel out of place or wrong for a nice game.
Highlights: There is a lot to do in this game, and a variety of puzzles. A few clichés, (black light: ✓) but also some mechanisms I'd never seen before. As an introduction to this kind of puzzle gaming experience, it went over great with the first-timer in our group, who put together a bunch of solves. I don't recall ever being at a loss for what to work on next.
Lowlights: Because of a lousy previous experience where I refused to work a cypher, I put extra effort into taking one for the team and puzzling one out in this game. This wasn't super fun or super helpful. I don't have any particular complaints about the game itself.
And Finally: I think a room like this one is a very solid baseline for what an escape game should be. I would recommend it to anyone looking to try this sort of thing out, or more experienced players looking for a solid fix of puzzling. The only reason I don't rate it higher is that while this game checks all the boxes, newer and fancier games are inventing new boxes and checking them. That is, innovating and elevating the form on the shoulders of games like this one. Out of 15 games played, I'm ranking this one #7.
Also, I'm not sure we really did much in the way of catching the killer...
How to book this room yourself: Visit http://cleveland.escapehunt.com
#2,308: Dr. Strange
Hush - ★★★★☆
Solid! The characters make mistakes you can criticize them for, but let's see you do better. It's really fun that Maddy's deafness is always a kind of weapon against her tormentor - she can always ignore him.
The backstory of a ma-and-pop indie production is neat too.
Piper - ★★★☆☆
Of course it's pretty.
Denial - ★★★★☆
I liked this a lot. All that high flying lawyering! There's just something great about watching people who are excellent at their jobs using their skills effectively in a struggle, instead of the skills themselves being the subject of the struggle. I guess I'm advocating for 'Man v. Man' over 'Man v. Self,' but it's why I like this movie better than last year's version, Woman in Gold.
Doctor Strange - ★★★½☆
Certainly a movie that deserves to be seen on the big screen. Really terrific VFX work in this. I'm also happy with how this movie both advanced the plot of the overarching MCU and stood almost entirely alone from the other films. It's an origin story, fine, whatever, but it's not about a man bumbling, because this Strange's real power isn't magic, it's his ambition to learn. Being good at learning, optimizing, is a terrific skill all on its own. Here's hoping the sequel isn't just going to be about losing all of that to a well-placed punch.
Set List: Brought to you by Rob!
Sure, I do a lot of things to make the big Set List show happen, but that's why they pay me the 30-seconds-per-week-of-nonsense!
Escape Room Reviews: The Clockwork Caper
Company: Perplexity Games
Room: The Clockwork Caper
Location: Cleveland, OH
Date Played: 12/27/17
Player Count: 3
Success: Unprecedented success!
Premise: Sneak into the lab of inventor Patrick O'Malley and discover the secrets of his new machine for your boss, Thomas Edison!
Immersion: The production design of the room looks a little bit thrown together, but if anything, it's probably too clean for a real inventor's workshop.
Highlights: We supposedly set a speed record and impressed our GM with how quickly we escaped. (I have this theory that the Escape Room GM Handbook tells you to tell every group how uncommonly smart, speedy, and handsome your team is, and if necessary how you came *this close* to solving it!)
The non-linear design let our group split up and to each work with separate puzzles.
Lowlights:
This room feels very short. By my reckoning, and by reckoning I mean carefully-drawn-after-the-fact map of the room, The Clockwork Caper has about half as many items / points of interest as almost any other game i've played. I was definitely surprised that the ending was, in fact, the ending.
There were a couple of mechanical puzzles that we probably solved more through brute force than actually understanding the underlying systems.
And Finally: What really drew me to this game was that the rooms seemed to be designed to have a connection to Cleveland history. There was a moment in the end game that really missed out on the chance to drive that connection home.
We felt good about ourselves for cruising through a room, but unsatisfied with the experience overall, leading to my first time playing 2 rooms in one day. Out of 14 games played, I would rank this one #10.
How to book this room yourself: Visit https://www.perplexitygames.com