Next Level Escape - Ex Libris

Date: 27/04/2025

Company Name: Next Level Escape

Room: Ex Libris

Cost:  $60 per person (Team of 3)

Time Allowed: 75 Minutes

Website Link: https://www.nextlevelescape.com.au/rooms/ex-libris-1/

Location: Lower Ground, 23 O'Connell St, Sydney, NSW 2000

Best Parking: Wilson Car Park - 6/10 O'Connell St, Sydney NSW 2000

Succeeded: The main escape - Yes with about 35 minutes remaining;
1/2 of the extra objectives - Yes with about 5 minutes remaining;
2/2 of the extra objectives - No, we ran about 2-3 minutes over time. 

Room Description: 

Calling all literary heroes! The world of literature has broken free and has merged with reality… and you, unfortunate soul that you are, have been sucked into one of these portals.

Dive into your favourite books to puzzle your way back to reality. And if you have time, take on additional challenges to seal the portals!

With two additional objectives to complete after the main escape, this is a perfect room for all skill levels. New to the world of escape rooms? Aim to escape! More experienced, or with a larger team? Up the challenge and see if you can complete both objectives in time!

Comments:

Our trusty team of three was back at it again, heading off on another adventure at one of our favourite spots — Next Level Escape. It’s always a thrill to see what new worlds they’ve cooked up for us, and Ex Libris sounded like the perfect challenge. After sealing portals, solving puzzles, and saving the world (you know, the usual), we capped off the night with a good dinner, lots of laughs, and just soaking up each other’s company — honestly, the best way to end a night.

Ex Libris is a seriously clever and creative escape room. This time, you and your team get pulled into a portal where the world of literature has broken free and collided with reality. Your goal: find your way out and seal the portal before everything completely unravels.

The theming here is top-notch — every little detail feels thought out, and all the props fit perfectly into the story. The puzzles aren't just thrown in for the sake of it; they’re fully woven into the environment, making everything feel natural and immersive.

There’s also a great mix of high-tech and low-tech puzzles, with a lot of the tech hidden so well it feels like actual magic. Plus, there's a really nice variety of puzzle types, meaning everyone on your team can find a moment to shine.

Our team found this room both really challenging and a whole lot of fun. One of the coolest features of Ex Libris is the way it puts you in control: you can either escape the portal and wrap up your adventure, or if plenty of time permitting, your Narrator/Gamesmaster will encourage you to push forward and take on a few extra puzzles to seal the portal properly and save the world. It's a smart way of handling the usual escape room challenge of catering to both beginners and more experienced players, which we all agreed that we can really appreciate the value in.

We were also lucky enough to have Aaron as our game master — the same legend who hosted us for The Game back in November 2023. He was fantastic then and hasn’t missed a beat. Aaron’s energy and enthusiasm lift the entire experience, and we really loved that instead of just handing out hints, he fully embraced the role of a narrator within the world we had dived into. It fits the literary theme perfectly, offering helpful nudges while also gently roasting us along the way. It kept the mood light, added even more personality to the game, and made the whole journey feel that much more immersive. Honestly, every game master we've met at Next Level Escape has been brilliant. You can tell they genuinely love what they do, and it makes all the difference.

All up, Ex Libris is another reminder of why we keep coming back to Next Level Escape. With their clever puzzles, brilliant storytelling, and fantastic hosts, every visit feels like a brand-new adventure. We can’t wait to see where our next mission takes us!

[187] Next Level Escape: The Artefact

Date: 22/03/2024

Company Name: Next Level Escape

Room: The Artefact

Cost: $55 per person (Team of 4)

Time Allowed: 75 Minutes

Website Link: https://www.nextlevelescape.com.au/rooms/artefact/

Location: Lower Ground, 23 O'Connell St, Sydney, NSW 2000

Best Parking: Wilson Parking - 2 Chifley Square, Sydney NSW 2000 (On the corner of Kent St. just before turning onto Phillip Lane)

Succeeded: Yes with about 16 minutes remaining.

Rating: 

• Hospitality/Gamesmaster: 9
• Room Quality: 8
• Immersion: 8
• Puzzle Design: 8 
• Fun Factor: 9

Overall: 8.40/10

Room Description: 

Your team of investigators has been conscripted by the CIA to investigate an alien artefact they’ve discovered. Sure, the artefact is doing strange things, but you’ll have a non-malevolent, smart-ass AI to help you out. What could possibly go wrong?

Comments:
The Artefact was the second room our team of four tackled that night, and the 187 Escape Artists were still buzzing from our recent completion of End of the Road. After grabbing a satisfying meal at Stacked (just around the corner), we were fuelled up and ready to dive in. Our Gamesmaster, Stuart, took on the persona of the cheeky AI Bot HAL, leading us on our next adventure.

We started off a bit sluggish—I blame the hearty dinner we indulged in—but around 10-15 minutes in, we found our momentum and began making significant progress. While the room initially felt a bit bottlenecked, once we hit our stride, we surged ahead and finished with a strong flourish, escaping with about 16 minutes left on the clock.

As always, the Gamesmaster played a crucial role in our experience, and in The Artefact, Stuart was no exception. We had a blast, sharing moments of pure hilarity as we danced, sang, celebrated, and laughed together. The theming was top-notch, and the puzzles posed a satisfying challenge, even for a semi-experienced team. The high-tech elements in this particular theme at Next Level were executed brilliantly, but they also cleverly incorporated some low-tech puzzles that seamlessly fit the theme.

Next Level consistently delivers immersive and well-designed experiences, and we're already looking forward to our next visit to this exceptional establishment.

[187] Next Level Escape: End of the Road

Date: 22/03/2024

Company Name: Next Level Escape

Room: End of the Road

Cost: $55 per person (Team of 4)

Time Allowed: 75 Minutes

Website Link: https://www.nextlevelescape.com.au/rooms/end-of-the-road/

Location: Lower Ground, 23 O'Connell St, Sydney, NSW 2000

Best Parking: Wilson Parking - 2 Chifley Square, Sydney NSW 2000 (On the corner of Kent St. just before turning onto Phillip Lane)

Succeeded: Yes with about 26 minutes remaining.

Rating: 

• Hospitality/Gamesmaster: 9
• Room Quality: 8
• Immersion: 8
• Puzzle Design: 7 
• Fun Factor: 10

Overall: 8.40/10

Room Description: 

You’re the new recruits the guys plucked from the city, to accompany the transport containing a cure for the zombie outbreak, right?

…right?

Well, it’s fine if you’re not competent. Your one job is to guard the ingredients and the cure synthesiser with your life like the cannon fodder… uh, brave survivors, that you are! It should be an easy first mission, all you need to do is hop into the transport and ensure everything gets to the outpost. You’ll probably be in the 0.05% of rookies who return. Just don’t get infected along the way, and you should be just fine*.

*The team makes zero promises about this.

Comments:
End of the Road is Next Level Escapes' newest room, and true to form, they never fail to impress. On a beautiful Friday night, it was our team's first of two rooms at Next Level, marking the 25th for the team and the 28th for me personally. Our Gamesmaster, Zac or Simon (one of whom was in training), set the stage before we entered the room, picking us up from the elevator already in character. His performance was absolutely fantastic, and we thoroughly enjoyed how well he embodied his role.

At Next Level, we've come to expect that the Gamesmaster isn't just there to observe and guide; they're integral to enhancing the entire experience. Despite being their first day on the job, our Gamesmaster was phenomenal, exceeding our expectations with their performance.

The room made excellent use of the available space. Despite being designated as a 75-minute experience, our team was exceptionally sharp tonight, managing to complete it in just 48 minutes. There was a wealth of activities to keep us engaged from start to finish. The theming was outstanding, with every puzzle and lock seamlessly fitting into the environment, ensuring a fully immersive experience. It's important to highlight that while the room may cater to newer escape room enthusiasts, it certainly shouldn't deter those with more experience. There was always a task or challenge available for each team member, maintaining engagement throughout. Once again, Next Level has proven itself with another top-notch, high-quality room.

[187] Next Level Escape: Forest of Echoes

Date: 08/12/2023

Company Name: Next Level Escape

Room: Forest of Echoes

Cost: $60 per person (Team of 4)

Time Allowed: 90 Minutes

Website Link: https://www.nextlevelescape.com.au/rooms/forest-of-echoes/

Location: Lower Ground, 23 O'Connell St, Sydney, NSW 2000

Best Parking: Wilson Parking - 2 Chifley Square, Sydney NSW 2000 (On the corner of Kent St. just before turning onto Phillip Lane)

Succeeded: Yes

Rating: 

• Hospitality/Gamesmaster: 7
• Room Quality: 9
• Immersion: 6
• Puzzle Design: 7 
• Fun Factor: 8

Overall: 7.40/10

Room Description: 

All right, scouts! Are you ready for your big adventure in the woods? Don’t mind the rumours about the forest being haunted by spirits, we’re pretty sure it’s all nonsense and poor old Sam will find their way back one day soon. After all, time can pass very quickly in there; morning to noon to evening to night and before you realise, it’s morning again! Stay safe in the woods, scouts – it’s everyone’s responsibility!

Comments:
Kyle: The Forest of Echoes is Next Level's newest room and it shows - in a good way. The technology, the mechanics, the puzzles and the narrative just all make sense. This room was beautifully crafted, aesthetically it was absolutely spot on. Early on you got a sort of eerie sense that there may be some sort of jump scares inbound, however as you progress through the room and have the (very cool) ability to change the time of day manually that element tends to dissipate. It was probably our first room that we've been bound to the single room, and I would say the only draw back was the nature of how these puzzles worked was the fact we couldn't exactly divide and conquer which is what we have normally structured our rooms around. That said, we finished the room in 71 minutes which, from what we were told, was a really good time as this room was initially set as a 75 minute room on release, however due to the amount of teams failing that time they had pushed it to a 90 minute room. So props to the boys as we came with our A game. Overall an enjoyable room, not exactly going to feature in my top rooms but overall a happy experience once again from Next Level and topped with a nice new choice of dinner plans which did not disappoint as we headed to 'Stacked' afterward. 

Simon: After completing "The Game" we were back at our next escape room by Next Level Escape. Despite the 16+ age rating, if it weren't for a few sexual and drug references in the narrative, this room is very family friendly. I anticipated this room would possibly be scarier than I thought but it wasn't a scary affair. The runtime is 90 minutes, however that is more indicative of the length of storytelling and the nature in which the puzzles are designed, rather than it being overly difficult. There were a couple of puzzles which were unique, but largely they were a similar to what we have encountered before. I would say it's definitely a good room for beginners.

Luke: Did not attend.

[187] Next Level Escape: The Strange Disappearance On Station Eleven (Online)

Date: 18/11/2023

Company Name: Next Level Escape

Room: The Strange Disappearance On Station Eleven

Website Link: https://escapingonline.com/title/sds11/

Location: Online

Best Parking: Online

Succeeded: Yes

Room Description: 

An online sci-fi adventure set aboard a mysteriously empty space station, with a noir flavour. Investigate what happened to the crew, and don’t get yourself spaced! Noir-esque narration, humour and story come together in a fun romp through a small station on the outskirts of space.

With a shared inventory system, a catch-up option and other fun ways to interact with your friends, this game is designed to make you feel like you’re all working together… even while apart.

Comments:
Kyle: This was our first and definitely (in my opinion) not our last online adventure in the Escape Room realm. I suggested it to the boys after I had seen it on Next Level's website, and it piqued my interest when I found out it was purely online. Unfortunately, Luke isn't all that tech-savvy, and I don't believe he has a PC/laptop anyway, so it was just Simon, Josh, and myself who fired up Zoom and cranked out a session. I thought maybe it was a little on the pricey side for a one-time-use code, considering you pay $40-$100 for a normal online game, and it's unlimited use. But I can appreciate it's true to the theme of how traditional escape rooms are with a one-time payment for a one-time adventure. Maybe $20 would be more reasonable for a one-time-use code or even give us a few goes to share the code around with other friends - just my two cents. However, it was a lot of fun, as per usual. In most cases, hanging out with these boys isn't necessarily about what we are doing but just doing it together. All I can say is don't eat the beans!

Simon: This was a very welcome addition to our Escape Room repertoire. It isn't something that any of us had done before so I didn't know what to expect but was very excited for it. After we got all of our technology sorted we were blasted into space for this adventure! It was quite a challenging experience which took us around 2hrs to complete. Luckily there was no timer for this experience so we were able to really take our time to solve the puzzles! The only improvement I would have for this experience would be to somehow physically see on screen where the players are. We didn't have any trouble communicating where we were to each other but at times it was confusing. A nice little twist at the end making the storyline a really fun one. Also, the song playlist in this virtual escape room was fire🔥Who knows, we may venture into doing VR escape rooms in the not too distant future.

[187] Next Level Escape: The Game

Date: 11/11/2023

Company Name: Next Level Escape

Room: The Game

Cost: $55 per person (Team of 4)

Time Allowed: 75 Minutes

Website Link: https://www.nextlevelescape.com.au/rooms/the-game/

Location: Lower Ground, 23 O'Connell St, Sydney, NSW 2000

Best Parking: Wilson Parking - 2 Chifley Square, Sydney NSW 2000

Succeeded: No

Rating: 

• Hospitality/Gamesmaster: 10
• Room Quality: 8
• Immersion: 9
• Puzzle Design: 8 
• Fun Factor: 8

Overall: 

Room Description: 

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the greatest game of the century is back! Split your group into two teams, Red and Blue, and compete for fame and fortune. Will your team leave in a blaze of glory or in a cloud of shame? If you’ve ever wanted to be on a TV game show, this is your big chance!

Oh, and ignore the remnants of the Green Team, our crew is working on cleaning that up…

IT’S TIME TO PLAY THE GAME!

Comments:
Kyle: First of all, we messed up with our research for this place. Due to me organizing a room for another group of friends at Mission George Street to take on Intruders, myself, and Josh looked into the walk difference and assumed it was a 10-15 minute walk. Little did we know we must have had the GPS set to drive - it turned out to be a 30-minute walk. We had to complete it with about 20 minutes before the room started. Now, I am not the most fit person, and I played bowls earlier in the day, so needless to say, after hustling as fast as my big body can, I was a little worse for wear by the time we got to Next Level Escape.

Moving on from that, this place was top tier. Our Games Master, Aaron, was 'Next Level', the setup was professional, and even though we were a little skeptical about splitting our team in half, I have to say it was just a fun experience. We didn't get the win this time around, but Aaron notified us that usually, this room housed up to 14 people - 7 per team. We took it on with our usual 4, which meant it was 2 per team and apparently got within a good 5% left of finishing, which was a pretty special effort, I thought.

The puzzles were fun, the clues were cryptic and were given to both teams, and you genuinely felt like you were on the set of a game show. Fantastic theme and immersion, made my top 5

Simon: All escapers MUST do this room! It will test your escape room knowledge like no other. This room is what I always originally thought an escape room was going to be, before ever having completed one. Full of challenging puzzles which required always thinking outside of the box and reading in between the lines, something which admittedly I have never been great at. That's what made this game so satisfying is the amount of growth we have had since completing our first escape room to doing this room. Seeing the way in which we interpret puzzles having changed and adapted over time, was a really rewarding feeling. As mentioned by Kyle, what is usually a 7v7 game was undertaken by our 2v2 team. I often (jokingly) get flack for not being the sharpest tool in the shed at times, so for our team to win our head-to-head was exciting! Our game master Aaron was sensational. He plays his role with a lot of enthusiasm which really enhances the overall experience. This was our first time at Next Level Escape and we are guanteed to to be returning. There is a really great vibe there and the staff all seem to really love what they do and it shows in the delivery of their rooms. Top 5 room for sure!