Escape Reviewer

Puzzles: ✭✭✭✭✬ 4.5

     Challenge: 4.5

     Logic: 4.5

     Abstract: 4.5

Boom Room is an excellent first escape made by the creative folks at Room Escape Ottawa. The premise is simple and fun: You and your teammates have been trapped in an enemy's bunker and it's rigged to explode! Although there have been several "defuse the bomb" escapes before, Boom Room has many unique features that help immerse players into this mysterious environment. Details are very well done, with high-quality thematic elements found throughout to create a real war-time feel. The sound-system is excellent and provides a very unique and immersive component to this escape. Although Boom Room doesn't have too many "wow-factor" moments, there are some nice surprises found throughout. Also, being an enemy hideout, it might have been nice to see a couple more secrets or passages that could have involved crawling, climbing or other fun actions.

 

The puzzles in Boom Room were fantastic. It was apparent that every element in this escape was expertly crafted and meticulously planned to create an exciting experience. Just the right amount of items were used, preventing too many red herrings, and everything was very comprehensive throughout the whole escape. The best puzzles were those that incorporated items from different rooms and required teammate communication. For the most part, everything was very logical and not too difficult. However, this review would not be complete without mentioning a rare occurrence that happened during our game. We unfortunately missed a critical object near the very beginning which prevented us from obtaining some very important items for the rest of the escape, making our experience much more difficult than it needed to be. Although this won't happen to the majority of teams, it is still a rare possibility that will lead to a lot of frustration. Two other objects during our escape also caused minor grievances; One which was unnecessarily abstract and one which didn't work quite as intended. In our post-game discussion with the staff, we came up with some possible solutions to these issues.

 

Overall, Boom Room is a top-notch game and it shows that Room Escape Ottawa is shaping up to be one of the powerhouses of escape games in Ottawa. We can't wait for their next escape to be open! We recommend all of Ottawa try and take on the challenge of the Boom Room!

Reviewed by Mitch on October 11, 2015