Escape room games have become extremely popular around the world, and this increased popularity is driving a growing number of new escape room openings in Australia. While this means Australian escapers have more opportunity to play new escape rooms, it is also means that its easier than ever to get ripped off!

So how can you tell whether you’re about to experience a high-production escape room or a low-budget cop-out? With the line between a high-end and low-end escape room becoming so fuzzy in the blur of new openings, we want to show you the signs to keep an eye out for when booking your next escape room.

Helpful Booking Agents and Gamesmasters

If you’ve got questions prior to making a booking and you’re not happy with the answers you are getting from the escape room operator’s booking agents – run for the hills! These people should know everything there is to know about their escape rooms and promised experience; if they don’t, that just goes to show a lack of care or interest.

Likewise, great Gamesmasters are a major key to high quality escape rooms. Gamesmasters should not be making things too easy for you, but they should also not be leaving your team stranded when you need that extra push to solve a puzzle that has your team at a standstill. A good Gamesmaster will help put your team on the right path when you are straying from the objective without telling you exactly what you need to do. There is a thin line between being too helpful and not helpful enough.

Themes, Themes, Themes

Every escape game needs a theme. The most enjoyable aspect of an escape room is the feeling that you are immersing yourself in an alternate reality. Having a room theme helps you become a part of the story and act out your very own real-life movie. A high-quality escape room operator understands this and will come up with fun and intriguing themes to give you the best experience possible. If an escape room operator offers overly generic escape room themes, this is an indication you mightn’t be in for the best possible escape experience.

The easiest way to determine whether an escape room operator’s themes are up to scratch is to ask yourself whether you feel excited by the prospect of playing any of their rooms… if you’ve done your research on their website and social media and the answer is no, find another operator.

Full Immersion

You enter an escape room expecting an alternate reality, and that’s exactly what you should get! If the key to your escape is finding a pirate’s treasure chest on a deserted island, you shouldn’t find yourself walking on a carpeted floor, should you?! Likewise, a digital clock is going to be out of place in a Victorian era study… and Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit hole shouldn’t have a crisp white ceiling with bright white LED downlights. Unfortunately, things like this happen way more often than they should, and they’re a sure-fire indication an escape room operator cut corners.

Here at Escape This, we pride ourselves on the movie set quality of our escape rooms. Playing Pirates? You better believe you’ll be entering the wooden hull of a galleon. Buried Alive? Yes, we really will put you in a coffin! TOTAL IMMERSION is our promise to you, and you'll find it in every single one of our escape rooms.

Functional Games and Clues

This one should be straightforward – if the clues or puzzles in your escape room don’t work or don’t make sense, this is a definite red flag. In addition, clues should not be so complex and difficult that you are forced to do complex equations or are having to randomly guess your answers. The entire functionality of an escape room is based on a sequence of clues to solve – how can you make your escape if you can’t solve the clues?

Word of Mouth

Want a quick and easy metric by which to measure the quality of an escape room?! Check their online reviews. Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor… if you’re not seeing a sea of 5-star reviews this means escapers are leaving unimpressed, and you might too! Fortunately for you, Escape This has 800+ 5-star Google reviews, and 5-star average ratings on TripAdvisor and Facebook. There’s a reason we are known as Perth’s best-rated, most immersive escape room operator!

So next time you think about purchasing tickets to an escape room, keep these factors in mind. If ever in doubt, you can always rely on Escape This to provide the most professional, most immersive experience possible.