Escape Reviewer

Puzzles: ✭✭✭✩✩ 3.2

     Challenge: 2.0

     Logic: 3.5

     Abstract: 4.0

Diamond Heist at Trapped! begins with a quick video briefing to explain the scenario – always a nice touch! Your group of prospective thieves are then dropped into the entry hall of an auction house art gallery. Your goal is to outwit the gallery’s security system, infiltrate the auction house, and find and steal a 250 carat diamond. The capability of the security system and the whereabouts of the diamond are a mystery.

 

As a 45-minute room, Diamond Heist looks very pretty in the opening segment. The gallery room is very large, the framed paintings hanging upon its walls are plentiful, and the laser grid is well built if not particularly challenging. Tripping a laser will cost time from the game, and therein lies the chief problem with Diamond Heist: it’s too easy, and way too short.

 

Diamond Heist does not offer many puzzles, several of which were very easy. About half of them were admirably creative and fun, while the more mundane puzzles were still enjoyable with no logical leaps required. The problem is that there simply weren’t enough of them; as the game goes on the atmosphere becomes less impressive, and often when you expect surprises or challenges there aren’t any to be found. One puzzle element was worn and probably needs refinishing. Another element had no gameplay relevance and unfortunately wasn’t properly marked, resulting in our team handling a heavy, breakable, and potentially dangerous piece of set dressing.

 

We played this escape with a group of three – reviewer Stefan, myself, and a friend who was totally new to escape games. Despite the room having a 4-out-of-5 difficulty rating on Trapped!’s website with a maximum party of seven, we were out in under 22 minutes. Holding our collective breath as we completed what turned out to be the final puzzle, the game just ended right when it could have kicked into high gear. If the game was scaled back because of the difficulty of the laser grid, this would almost make sense, but the grid’s easily navigated by average sized individuals. By the same token, one of our team members had to simply barrel through the lasers, and even with that penalty we were out with tons of time to spare.

 

Trapped!’s Diamond Heist room is full of promise; it starts strong, and it’s got some notable creativity and some interesting tech. But as a full experience from start to finish, it just doesn't feel balanced. The pacing issues and chopped-off ending keep it solidly average instead of it being anything special. Hopefully we see the Trapped! game runners continue to develop it, building on its strong framework.

Reviewed by Jason and Stef on August 7, 2015

Stated Difficulty Level: 4/5

Theme: Heist

Family Friendly? Yes

Company Atmosphere: 3.7/5

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