Review: The Mysterious Room, Escape Room @ eCurve

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The Mysterious Room by Escape Room in the eCurve, their first outlet, was one of the earlier games we played before whole furor over real escape games in Malaysia. It was the best game, IMO, out of the 6 offerings back then. Although it has been a looong time since we played, and we have played many games with more advanced gizmos and better puzzles, The Mysterious Room remains one of the best escape experience we had.

I’m glad to know that the Mysterious Room is still available for play now (checked 5/2015), as they have begun replacing their older games with newer rooms for a while (the newer games being the uber creepy Room 13, and the very recent Space Voyager). So do experience the Mysterious Room before they replace it, I don’t know if they ever will, since it WAS the most popular game.

Anyway, the Mysterious Room sported the most technological gizmos amongst the 6 original games, that’s why it got us hooked. That’s when we encountered the first laser trap MI-style in an escape game (I know, I know,  it is everywhere now). But laser trap isn’t the coolest thing here. I like how the trap splits the team into two ends of the room, which requires a lot of effective communication between the two parties to solve the puzzles. It was the first experience of a split team game we had. Also, the use of a mobile phone and computer is also a cool factor here. I do enjoy games that incorporate digital devices into their games, I hope to see more of smart phones and computers, the other games like this being the Greatest Murder of Westwood by Breakout and Biohazard by Freeing Room. Together with elements such as morse code and polarized hidden images, the Mysterious Room will keep you engaged with lots of novel playthings. Puzzles are mostly about matching clues to the codes, and some directional locks. The goal was to infiltrate Dr Malcolm’s office to steal his treasure, and so we returned with a huge glassy diamond~  Just like the tradition of Escape Room, you’ll have to read the backstory yourself from their website, as their game master will just skip it. Their SOP in game briefing will only tell you to “Find X and escape in 45 mins”.

The funniest thing that has happened in this game was Cheech digging the ceiling and found electrical wirings, wondering if they are important for the game. A step ladder would have hinted something hiding above the ceiling, wouldn’t it? 😛 Well, those were the days before “Nothing on the ceiling, sorry out of bounds” warnings were given. And of course, the step ladder was used to traverse a different kind of passage…

Despite the frustrations over some of the other Escape Room’s games we played, I don’t think we will discount them completely, as they do still have some enjoyable games, especially if pixel-hunting is not part of the puzzle. We tried to stay out of those in which we heard bad reviews of, from our fellow gamers in the Escape Gamers Malaysia FB group. The recent games we enjoyed include The Secret Lab and The Final Detention in the Setiawalk outlet, do keep an eye out for our review~

Featured image taken from Escape Room’s website. Play the game~!

The Mysterious Room

10

Overall

10.0/10

Pros

  • Cool use of technology
  • Variety of puzzles
  • Teamwork
  • Additional goal on top of escaping

Cons

  • No proper debriefing
Our lady boss who does nothing much really, but pondering at puzzles and ordering people around. Apparently her stars say she can't work, or she'll die. Instead of buying cincin, she jimat all her money to play escape games now. Hates maths, keeps time, loves games with engaging plot and narratives. Special Skills: Admiring the artwork, furnishing, puzzle setup and decor in game