Boda Borg Boston — Attraction in Malden

Wouldn’t recommend for adults or it’s going to get annoying fast. Kids treat the whole thing as a playground. Needs a lot of improvement. I think the place was great and the rooms were amazing don’t get me wrong but here’s the negatives.

Kids run free and wild and literally climb the walls. And no not the walls inside of the rooms. There’s a corner near pirates room that it’s 2 walls close together so kids were taking turns climbing up them. I saw kids sitting on each other’s shoulders and walking everywhere including into an elevator. They were running and just thinking everything was something to play with. It’s not a play area. It’s escape rooms. I saw kids sitting in the middle of the hallways doing splits and gymnastics. Another decided to take the locker near mine and slam it open and shut open and shut (I was cringing please don’t lose a finger) her friend asked her what are you doing? She replied having fun. Kids need to be supervised by an adult at all times there. They do not listen to the rules. They were taking their shoes off just doing crazy things. I overheard one kid say I can have gummies here because my mom doesn’t let me! They think it’s a fun adult free play ground. It was very annoying. I’m thirty one. And out with my girlfriends I shouldn’t have to babysit. There needs to be more supervision of parents or workers or something bad will happen there. I would not recommend going there as an adult unless you want to deal with that.

Another thing it smelled so bad. People get sweaty and there’s not a lot of ventilation. The downstairs smells like body odor/ bad onions. I won’t go again until they have a plan for that.

The doors are dangerous. Yes they tell you to watch the doors. But I think there should be signs on both sides of exit doors. Be careful opening and watch out for the door.

We also got derailed twice by people not listening to the rules. We waited outside Platoon for 20 mins. There was a line behind us and we really didn’t want to have to get to the back of the line if we went to another room. So one of us went and got an assistant. (I figured someone was in between the first and second room or the door hadn’t been closed. Turns out a group was staying in the room and refused to leave when it turned red. The worker said you have to leave when it turns red. Then we were in the lights room. We figured it out and were waiting to go through. We heard the buzzer in the second room meaning they had lost (not the same group as before) and were supposed to leave. Then we continue to hear them playing in the room. And then our screen turns red! Even though we passed it. And we got kicked out because of them.

Speaking of signs. There should be instruction signs for the children. And for the rooms. Like green flashing means wait. Green solid means go. Red means find the exit.

I liked the rooms and the place but was quite annoyed with management and how they don’t handle their place of business. It would be fantastic with some tweaks.

I hope they improve I would love to go back.

We got a few stamps but I would like to...

You’re going to fail multiple times and get frustrated but it’s fun to try again and slowly progress.

Best way to describe this place is a bunch of individually themed quests with multiple parts. There’s normally 3-4 parts/rooms to 1 quest line. There are no rules to the room that are posted, the only hints you have about the quest is the plaque on the door with the name of the quest and maybe a one liner. The rooms are run by a program, no live humans watching you like an escape room.

The rooms are laid out in multiple hallways, doors that start the quest will have a plaque. There’s a screen over the door that will be a solid green emblem or blinking green emblem. Solid means the room is empty and ready to be entered, blinking means the room is occupied.

There’s a screen in the room that will have the flashing green emblem when you enter and the quest is live. If you fail the quest by doing something you shouldn’t or time out you will buzz out and the screen/emblem will turn red. It’s not always clear how or why you failed the room. Once you exit you can immediately try again if there’s no line and the emblem is a solid green. Depending on the time there’s normally a 1-2 group queue but the line moves fast. Generally you have less than a 5 minute wait to get into a room but some waits are longer pending the line. The bonus about failing frequently is many groups can try at once and some group who can get through a section quickly will make room for the next group to start.

You need a group between 3-5, all rooms can be done with that number but some rooms are easier or harder with a different number. If you’re super hardcore and have done most of the rooms you can take the quest master challenge and attempt to complete all the quests in 4 hours. This will likely require several visits prior to your attempt to train. We spent about 4 hours just checking out the different rooms and only completed 2, came close to completing another 2 and failed many times. Would definitely come back here.

The area is pretty safe and you had packs of middle school kids running around on rainy days with no direct parental supervision. There’s a waiting area upstairs where you can sit and relax there are some drinks available. Staff was amazing and super helpful and kind. Would definitely...

In reality, I would rate this slightly less than a four-star. Went for a two hour window on a Saturday evening with my 11 and nine-year-old children. Overall the place was fairly clean. There were not a lot of staff members even though they said they would be throughout the complex. It is nice that they give you a locker to lock up your things. Check-in was fairly easy having done the release form online.

The pros: -Some interesting and interactive quests -Contained area, so that you never feel too concerned about losing track of your kids -Reasonable cost for the experience

The cons: -at least on the night we were there, it seems like they had over-subscribe the evening. My children, who generally do fine with crowds, felt a little claustrophobic at times with the throngs of people in the hallways. It also made for some relatively long waits at different quests. -Several of the quests seemed dated and worn out. One in particular, lava, kept malfunctioning. The door that separates the first and second rooms would not close which meant everyone was waiting outside until a staff member would go inside and close the door, allowing us to enter the quest (by the way, that staff member scolded my 11-year-old son for “not closing the door when you leave a room “ when he brought it to their attention that we had been waiting outside for an inordinately long period of time. She didn’t seem to understand that 1) we were just bringing a malfunction to their attention as they had requested, and 2) nowhere during orientation is it mentioned that we should make sure doors are closed between Quest rooms). -While there is a water dispenser in the main area, it would be better if there were some water stations on both floors. In addition, given the large number of people the night we attended it was extremely hot in the building and rooms. It wasn’t until we were there for over an hour and a half before they turn on any sort of air conditioning.

My kids definitely want to return and I’m not opposed. It did look like they were adding new rooms or at least updating others which would make the experience much better.

Oh, one last thing . There’s no smoking at the facility but if you go (especially on a Saturday evening), expect a contact high from all the people having smoked just...