Escape Room Melbourne — Attraction in Melbourne

Tldr: bad experience, hope it was a one off. It seems they are quite disorganised. We booked for 2 room and they put us in the wrong room. Gave us a 20% discount meaning we still had to pay for one room we originally wanted to do. The rooms are decent if it is what you expected.

I hope my experience was a one off experience because it was pretty bad. It first started way before our actual booking when I got a called to say that they didn’t have any staff for the booking I already made and that it shouldn’t have been made available on the website. I know mistakes happen and I wasn’t really bother by it originally however with the experience I had overall it shows a pattern.

We booked to do Fractured then the Mine however we were put into the wrong room, Keller’s Magic Emporium, by mistake. However this mistake was not recognised by the GM until 2 puzzles were left. The only reason it was made apparent was because we were stuck for around 10 mins on a puzzle which the solution was player detailed related. That was then when we had radioed the GM and asked if we were in the right game, in which at only that point the GM realised it was the wrong room. The room itself was okay, some puzzles were nice but some were a bit weak. There was one puzzle which the GM had to come in and just give us what we needed because it was just made to hard to do (idk if it was reset as usual or not). Again I wouldn’t care if a GM had to interfere however it just shows a pattern with the rest of my experience.

The next thing was what annoyed me the most, we purposefully picked the two rooms because we were interested in the themes and did not want to do a “psychologically creepy” room (which was the emporium). As we were mistakenly misplaced into the room, they offered a 20% discount for an extra room if we wanted to, rather than letting us go do the two rooms we booked for. Although a kind gesture, it would have been better if we were able to do the rooms we wanted to do/ booked for as we personally chose them.

Lastly, fractured was pretty decent. The storyline really pushed the room. There was a few unique puzzles but some time consuming (not in a solution thinking way). Again the GM had to come in to fix something which is not a big deal but given this experience it just shows a pattern.

Overall it was a pretty bad experience, if I gotten what I thought to expect then i am sure it would be a decent experience. However it seems like the business itself is not organised. Hopefully this is a one...

I came and played the room fractured and it was a terrible experience.

The music box was not working, and the whole puzzle was not well designed as we have never heard of the first song so there was no way we could’ve solved it even if it was working. The room was also extremely cold. Upon expression of this, there was no acknowledgment or apology given. The music box error was not fixed until we had already finished the room and instead of letting us know why the air con could not be turned off, I was just told to "move around more" to warm up. Having a puzzle not work is extremely frustrating to an escape room experience and getting zero apology is not acceptable. We were able to finish due to hints given but I felt like we were treated like we were dumb instead of actually acknowledging the prop not working. E.g. when we radioed to try to say the air con was too cold the staff member immediately assumed we needed help and gave us hints we already figured out. All we got for mentioning the problem was a "thanks for letting me know so I can fix it for the next group". Afterwards, the staff member - Chris, could not find the pieces of a puzzle and called us up to tell him where it was and told us to check our pockets. I told him we definitely did not take the pieces, but again he was not listening and insisted that it’s an easy mistake to make. This was not possible as I didn’t even have pockets. Eventually he found it in the room. Never have I had such a terrible experience with an escape room and the attitude of the staff member makes a huge difference. I'm not sure if the staff member who attended to us during the game was also Chris, but I assume it was very likely him as well.

It’s very sad because I really liked the staff at the Flemington escape room who was very friendly. Will not be...

We did the Kellars Magic Emporium room with 3 people. We are experienced escape room players and finished with no hints at 48mins.

Puzzles: Puzzles were fun, we especially enjoyed the mechanical ones. Didn't seem like an overload of locks like a lot of places. We had one puzzle that wasn't reset properly which was a little bit of a let down. Although we had a few bits we spent more time on, I felt like it was a lot more straightforward then other rooms on what we need to work on, which may be good for those starting out but made it a little easier for us and definitely didn't feel like 4/5 difficulty. Without spoiling the experience we enjoyed the added human touch!

Decor : Room decor was great, they really emphasised the theme.

Location/building : Location was easy enough to get to (we had a 10/15 Min walk from our tram). Was a little odd to be in a warehouse type building, the reception area wasnt as professional as others we have been to.

Other: I found our host a little awkward, certainly not the friendly enthusiastic host we are used to. Not sure if there are toilets there but we weren't told before going in and felt a bit rushed out afterwards. Was nice to have a locker to put our stuff in, but there was no water fountain which would have been nice as it was warm in the reception area. No photo after we finished which I think is the only escape room we've been to without one. No stats on how we did, or even what the records are for rooms.

Overall: We enjoyed our escape room and recommend for others. It was a bit easier than we expected which would suit newer players, but we still had fun so if you're experienced just weigh up the cost against a shorter time. Everything outside of the room I feel like there's room for improvement, with the reception...