Escape Room Reviews: The Will

Company: Enigma Escape Rooms
Room: The Will
Date Played: 8/6/16
Player Count: 4, which was plenty.

Success:  Success! Some hints.

Premise: Your dear uncle has shuffled off this mortal coil. You must find his will in his study before you’re shuffled off as well, by his lethal traps!

Immersion: As an office, it looked a lot like an office.  New best introduction by a host: She went over the rules, and then remembered that she had a letter addressed to us which set the scene.

Highlights: Instead of being all locks, this room had a lot of ‘magic objects,’ or devices that know when they’ve been used correctly and advance the game. One puzzle would have left me feeling and looking silly except that it turned out I was doing the right thing, which was fairly satisfying.

Lowlights: We were warned so thoroughly at the beginning about what was and wasn’t okay to touch that we missed out on something important at the beginning until the GM intervened on the radio. I think I’m starting to come down on the use of walkie-talkies - it seems like in the rooms where we have them, the GMs are too eager to use them.  I couldn’t tell if one of the puzzles was actually tech driven or if it was just activated by the GM watching and talking to us. 

And Finally: As we progress, my regular group of four is finding that we have certain roles we fall into.  One guy focuses on the dexterity puzzles (something this room didn’t feature heavily), one of us is the communications officer, handling real radios and fake phones alike. My specialty might be stepping back to see a bigger picture and then saying ‘Oh, I see it.’ and doing the unlikely or silly seeming thing. In this room, that paid off in a big way, but earlier on it also led us astray and wasted a lot of time while I ignored a big obvious thing. 

Also, I think I noticed that this room has been revised, with a certain puzzle toned down, even though the clues to the original version (I suspect) are still ‘in play,’ even though they serve no actual purpose.   

Unlike some of our previous rooms, I think any two of us would have been sufficient to solve The Will.  There is another room that continues the story, in which you solve your uncle's murder. I'm looking forward to playing it one day. Out of the 5 rooms we've played, I'm ranking this one #3. 

How to book this room yourself: Visit http://www.enigmaescaperooms.com/room/info/3