Escape Room Reviews: The Norcross Art Gallery

Company: Evil Genius Escape Rooms
Room: The Norcross Art Gallery
Date Played: 11/24/17
Player Count: 2
Success:  Hint-free Success!

Premise: Having just fled the scene of Occam’s Apartment, agent X informs you that the art gallery may contain vital clues regarding the Evil Genius. And it does!

Immersion: This room totally looks like it belongs in a museum. Art abounds! Also, while this is not a scary room / experience, this might be the only room I’ve seen so far that has a genuinely creepy aspect to it.

Highlights: So often I want to complain about rooms that are little more than a collection of weird interaction devices someone built, lining the walls for no particular reason. But an art gallery is the perfect excuse to cover the walls with things that need the players’ attention. It’s a brilliant idea. Likewise the self-guided tour is a gimmick that is more fun and makes so much more sense than the increasingly common diaries and journals that are practically room walkthroughs. There’s a turn in the middle that I thought was pretty funny.

Lowlights: I don’t know if I have anything to complain about. I loved the theme, the puzzles all made sense to me (eventually) and we didn’t have to call for help, nothing was worn out or broken. There may have been a puzzle I didn’t understand, but if so that’s just because my partner solved it. 

And Finally:  I had read other reviews online that said this room was a let down after Evil Genius’s fantastic first part. I’m so glad I don’t agree. Everything about this was a delight. Like the Laboratory, I could imagine wanting to replay this (or to do the continuous experience offered here: playing both rooms as one big game) in the future, just for the enjoyment of physically running through it all again. I revisit some games like The Room series about once a year, and I could see doing the same with the cream of the live action adventure game crop. Keeping a numeric list is a crazy thing to do in the first place, but ranking my A+ rooms against each other is even more difficult. For today, out of 38 games played, I’m ranking this one at #3. I think I may have found it more satisfying than Occam's Apartment, but I think you should play that one first. 

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