[187] Riddle Room: The Mine

Date: 09/06/2024

Company Name: Riddle Room

Room: The Mine

Cost: $45 per person - Riddle Room were kind enough to offer us $10 off per person (Team of 4)

Time Allowed: 60 Minutes

Website Link: https://riddleroom.com.au/canberra/#rooms

Location: 8/160 Lysaght St, Mitchell ACT 2911

Best Parking: Street parking right outside the establishment or there is a complex out the back which has ample parking available

Succeeded: Yes. in 59 Minutes, 59 Seconds

Rating: 

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

Overall: 8.80/10

Room Description: 

You meet your friends at the old abandoned Rutherford Mine. As you descend into the depths you find that you might not be the only ones... or things down there.

Comments:

After leaving Escape Rooms Canberra on the back of completing The Vault and Curio—both of which were absolutely astounding—our morale was high. Knowing this was our last room before heading home, we were all keen to make the absolute most of it. This was the team's 38th room overall, the 8th room in Canberra, and the last, but certainly not least, at Riddle Room. Once again, we were met with top-quality staff who were nothing short of friendly and accommodating.

As mentioned previously, Riddle Room uses a unique method of communication for Gamesmastering, utilising a version of the "Voice of God" system. Responses to our questions are displayed on a monitor that also keeps track of our time. I quite liked this approach as it minimised miscommunication. However, the only drawback is that in a multi-room escape, you have to make your way back to the first room to see the monitor.

That said, you can tell The Mine is one of the newer rooms around. The set design feels fresh and new, and the aesthetics are beautiful. At points, you can definitely feel like you're stuck in an abandoned mine. The attention to detail in the theming was impressive, from the realistic props to the atmospheric sounds that enhanced the feeling of being deep underground.

True to the majority of Riddle Room’s other rooms, The Mine sticks with their linear approach. While linear escape rooms usually aren't our strong suit as a team, the depth of the puzzles meant that our team of four all had plenty to do while working on the same challenges. The puzzles were strong, made sense in the space, and there were plenty of them in what was essentially a 2-3 room escape.

Luckily, we managed to scrape through with only a second to spare. As with all the other rooms at Riddle Room, your Gamesmaster provides your team with a breakdown of your times at certain intervals, which is a nice touch I haven't seen implemented almost anywhere unless we asked. Overall, I would rate The Mine as my favourite from Riddle Room, with The Hotel following very closely behind. The team had a lot of fun, and we will be eager to return if/when any more rooms open up!

[187] Riddle Room: The Hotel

Date: 08/06/2024

Company Name: Riddle Room

Room: The Hotel

Cost: $45 per person - Riddle Room were kind enough to offer us $10 off per person (Team of 4)

Time Allowed: 60 Minutes

Website Link: https://riddleroom.com.au/canberra/#rooms

Location: 8/160 Lysaght St, Mitchell ACT 2911

Best Parking: Street parking right outside the establishment or there is a complex out the back which has ample parking available

Succeeded: Yes, with approximately 5 minutes remaining.

Rating: 

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

Overall: 8.60/10

Room Description: 

In an old abandoned Hotel lies a treasured stone. Tasked with the job of retrieving it, you enter the Hotel, but soon find that you might be an unwelcomed guest.

Comments:

There was a fire lit in our bellies, and we wanted nothing more than to redeem ourselves after unfortunately not being good enough to beat The Hideaway within the allocated time. Our team takes a loss quite hard—this was only our 5th unsuccessful outing out of 38 rooms.

As usual, the professionalism and hospitality at Riddle Room were exceptional. Coming out of The Hideaway, the place was buzzing with people—perks of having such a large establishment with 5+ rooms on offer at any given time. We sat humbly waiting, being checked on multiple times and given updates on when we'd get into The Hotel. Most of the staff had seen us popping our heads in and out throughout the day.

As mentioned in previous entries, Riddle Room uses a unique method of communication for Gamesmastering, utilizing a version of the "Voice of God" system. Responses to our questions are displayed on a monitor that also keeps track of our time. I quite liked this approach as it minimized miscommunication. However, the only drawback is that in a multi-room escape, you have to make your way back to the first room to see the monitor.

Hotel was our fourth room at Riddle Room and the teams 35th overall. The atmosphere in Hotel is both thematically intense and dimly lit, creating an eerie experience. There are a couple of jump scares, but they are pretty tame and only add to the overall ambiance. The room boasts a plethora of puzzles, encompassing a brilliant variety of both tech and more traditional observation puzzles.

The quality of the theming in Hotel is exceptional, reminiscent of the high standards seen in Cipher Room. We all felt like we had been transported to another place and time. The props all made sense in the space, and the sounds and lighting were perfect, as were the wall and floor treatments.

The room design and backstory are fantastic, continuing seamlessly throughout the experience. The puzzles all link to the backstory flawlessly, and all the spaces in the experience are well considered and well designed.

Overall, Hotel is a fantastic room. It is an escape room enthusiast’s dream, ticking all the boxes that enthusiasts look for—off-the-charts theming and immersion, a strong storyline, and unique puzzles. We were thrilled to manage an escape and redemption with about 5 minutes remaining.

[187] Riddle Room: The Hideaway

Date: 08/06/2024

Company Name: Riddle Room

Room: The Hideaway

Cost: $45 per person - Riddle Room were kind enough to offer us $10 off per person (Team of 4)

Time Allowed: 60 Minutes

Website Link: https://riddleroom.com.au/canberra/#rooms

Location: 8/160 Lysaght St, Mitchell ACT 2911

Best Parking: Street parking right outside the establishment or there is a complex out the back which has ample parking available

Succeeded: No, running about 4-6 minutes over time

Rating: 

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

Overall: 7.40/10

Room Description: 

While investigating an elusive criminal, a police detective has gone missing without a trace. We need your help to find her before it's too late.

Comments:

After completing The Dungeon, we had a couple hours to kill. The staff were friendly enough to give us some recommendations and as such, off to Villain Burger we went. With our bellies full and the accommodation a stones throw away from Riddle Room, we went back for a little kip and came back refreshed for our final two rooms for the Saturday.

The first one being The Hideaway, which was our third room at Riddle Room and my 38th room completed overall. Spending the entire day tackling four out of five of Riddle Room's escapes, we consistently encountered the same friendly and exceptional staff. They were very welcoming, highly attentive, and spot-on as our Gamesmasters. Riddle Room uses a unique method of communication for Gamesmastering, utilizing a version of the "Voice of God" system. Responses to our questions are displayed on a monitor that also keeps track of our time. I quite liked this approach as it minimized miscommunication. However, the only drawback is that in a multi-room escape, you have to make your way back to the first room to see the monitor.

The Hideaway is a reasonably sized escape room with lots of puzzles to solve, offering varying levels of difficulty. *Fun Fact*: We were told that it has the same number of puzzles to complete as The Dungeon. Unfortunately for us, we weren't met with the same outcome, as we failed to escape within the allotted 60 minutes, taking about 65 minutes to escape from memory.

Hideaway is really well-themed. It's clear that a lot of hard work has gone into the presentation of the room and the props. There is also a strong storyline that continues throughout the experience. Unlike some other rooms, there are no dark areas or scary elements in Hideaway at all, making it a more accessible and less intimidating experience. My team found Hideaway to be probably the most challenging of all the rooms we played at Riddle Room. This was due to our inability to see what was right in front of us and partly because some of the puzzles were quite challenging.

[187] Riddle Room: The Dungeon

Date: 08/06/2024

Company Name: Riddle Room

Room: The Dungeon

Cost: $45 per person - Riddle Room were kind enough to offer us $10 off per person (Team of 4)

Time Allowed: 60 Minutes

Website Link: https://riddleroom.com.au/canberra/#rooms

Location: 8/160 Lysaght St, Mitchell ACT 2911

Best Parking: Street parking right outside the establishment or there is a complex out the back which has ample parking available

Succeeded: Yes in 45 Minutes, 38 Seconds

Rating: 

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

Overall: 8.20/10

Room Description: 

Gone mad with power, the old King decided he only wants the greatest minds to dwell within his kingdom. Will you pass his tests, or will you be banished forever?

Comments:

After finishing The Nightmare, we took a brief intermission before heading back into the beautiful establishment that is The Riddle Room.

The staff at Riddle Room were, as always, exceptional. With their welcoming smiles, they were highly attentive, and spot-on as our Gamesmasters. They use a unique method of communication for Gamesmastering, utilizing a version of the "Voice of God" system. Responses to our questions are displayed on a monitor that also keeps track of our time. I quite liked this approach as it minimized miscommunication. However, the only drawback is that in a multi-room escape, you have to make your way back to the first room to see the monitor. Fortunately, this wasn’t an issue with The Dungeon, which is almost exclusively a single-room escape.

The Dungeon features a dimly lit space, with one area that is nearly pitch-black. However, don't let that deter you if you’re not a fan of scary or spooky rooms, as there wasn’t a single jump scare. The room flow and design in The Dungeon are really interesting and unlike any other room we’ve experienced. The room is designed with two paths that players must take. Each path is linear, but both can be progressed simultaneously, making it multi-linear rather than non-linear. The design is well thought out. To assist players in understanding the order, the game includes iconography on a wall that signposts each step along the way for both paths, with a convergence point towards the end. We hadn’t seen this done before.

The puzzles in The Dungeon are truly varied, incorporating spatial awareness, pattern recognition, and more. It was a great room for enthusiasts, as our team really enjoyed the diversity of challenging puzzles. As far as theming goes, all the props were high-quality and made sense in the space. There was also a strong storyline that continued throughout the experience and brought everything together nicely.

Another excellent service that Riddle Room provided during the debrief was the Gamesmaster running through all the stats, showing where our team was at certain puzzle intervals compared to the average. This was a great little touch that we haven't seen offered as "the norm."

We had a fantastic time in The Dungeon, escaping with about 15 minutes to spare.

[187] Riddle Room: The Nightmare

Date: 08/06/2024

Company Name: Riddle Room

Room: The Nightmare

Cost: $45 per person - Riddle Room were kind enough to offer us $10 off per person (Team of 4)

Time Allowed: 60 Minutes

Website Link: https://riddleroom.com.au/canberra/#rooms

Location: 8/160 Lysaght St, Mitchell ACT 2911

Best Parking: Street parking right outside the establishment or there is a complex out the back which has ample parking available

Succeeded: Yes in 45 Minutes, 58 Seconds.

Rating: 

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

Overall: 7.60/10

Room Description: 

The DreamWake Corporation is looking for volunteers to enter the mind of a young girl trapped in an endless nightmare. Can you find the cause, save her, and get out in time?

Comments:

The Nightmare marked our team's 32nd escape room overall and our second room in Canberra over the King's Birthday long weekend, and our momentum was strong. The staff at Riddle Room were exceptional—welcoming, highly attentive, and spot-on as our Gamesmasters. Needless to say, we were set for a big day, taking on four of the five rooms on offer that Saturday.

Riddle Room uses a unique method of communication for Gamesmastering. They utilize a version of the "Voice of God" system, where responses to our questions are displayed on a monitor that also keeps track of our time. I quite liked this approach as it minimized miscommunication. The only drawback is that in a multi-room escape, you have to make your way back to the first room to see the monitor.

The Nightmare is a dark and creepy-themed room, which was more intense for Luke, who was fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to be separated from the team at the start. The room had a really nice flow. While there was no one or nothing actively chasing us, the clever use of ambient sounds and music created a constant sense of urgency. All the props were high quality, and both the props and puzzles made sense within the space. The strong storyline continued throughout the experience, tying everything together nicely.

Another excellent service that Riddle Room provided during the debrief was the Gamesmaster running through all the stats, showing where our team was at certain puzzle intervals compared to the average. This was a great little touch that we haven't seen offered as "the norm."

Overall, The Nightmare is a solid room that we didn't find overly difficult, as we escaped in roughly 45 minutes. However, it definitely had moments that even experienced escapers can appreciate.