Happy Halloween 2014!

Event month: October 2014

Dscry: Greetings, humans! With about half a month to go until Halloween, what have you been up to? Horror movie plans, Halloween costume parties, or maybe trick or treating?

dPace: How about experiencing an escape adventure in this month full of horror? Instead of watching a horror movie, you can feel like you’re part of a horror movie. As such, Dscry and I will be suggesting a few recommended escape games to play with horror themes (in no particular order)!

The Missing Corpse (Mission-Q) 

Dscry: If I am not mistaken, this is the first escape game we played with some horror elements to it, right dPace? As the name suggests, the story is about the missing corpse which disappear without a trace. In this room, you and your teammates are going to find out the truth about the story. Corpse hunting during Halloween sounds interesting, don’t you think?

dPace: I feel that this room will give you a slightly horror theme, from Mission-Q. Although the theme will not entirely suit Halloween, but it definitely has the horrific feeling in this game. A must try for Halloween!

Click for Enigmatic Escape personal experience of the room!

Vampire Chronicles (Escape Room)

dPace: What do you cosplay when you think of Halloween? Vampires? Ahhh… How about being trapped as a victim of a vampire? Trapped in his castle? Try experience being in a vampire castle and try to escape from him. Hopefully this doesn’t spoil your childhood imagination of vampires!

Dscry: In this humble abode belonging to the creatures of the night, you will have to find your way out before the blood-thirsty creatures return and probably feed on you. Don’t forget to bring some garlic with you!

Click for Enigmatic Escape personal experience of the room!

Haunted Chamber (Escape Dungeon) 

Dscry: Escape Dungeon offers escape game with horror elements in them. However, dPace and I concluded that if you wanna try for their horror escape game, Haunted Chamber is definitely a must try. So, who or what exactly is waiting for you in the Haunted Chamber? Like they say on the site, be brave. Be very brave!

dPace: I would say that this room brings out a horror movie in you. You don’t need to pretend to be an actor/actress in a horror movie, for this room brings out the fear in you. Escapers will feel like they are in a horror movie, more than trying to escape from the room. In my opinion, this room has the more horrific elements among listed in this article.

Click for Enigmatic Escape personal experience of the room! 

The Overlook Hotel: Room 13 (Escape Room) 

dPace: I feel that this room is one of the scariest game from Escape Room. The puzzles in this escape game also strike a sense of haunting feeling when trying to solve them. This room definitely gives escapers a chill to their bones. What do you think, Dscry?

Dscry: Yup, I agree. I, Dscry hereby challenge you to have a stay at this hotel. Don’t worry; it costs almost the same as most budget hotels. In fact, it is even cheaper than some. I’ll personally advice you to book room 13 as it is the best room they have to offer.

Click for Enigmatic Escape personal experience of the room! (coming soon)

Mr Oswald’s Greatest Show (Breakout) 

Dscry: You would probably think that we recommend this room because it has a nice puppet show with horror elements in it featuring the famous marionette, Mr Oswald. Hmm… I think that is not quite right. And who is the owner of this marionette? You might be the lucky ones to find out his identity. 

dPace: This escape game does not only brings a horror element, it makes you feel as if you ARE really part of a horror movie being filmed by some non-living things. Escapers will not realize the role they are in, until the blindfolds are revealed. Do try this room to find out what you will become!

Click for Enigmatic Escape personal experience of the room! (coming soon)

Lost (Code Factory) 

dPace: dPace: Lost, is a room that I can summarize it as “full of surprises”. The room has elements which were never used before in other games. Not wanting to be a spoiler, this is a room I would say a must try for Halloween, if not for the unique elements used in this room. And don’t get lost!

Dscry: Honestly, I haven’t got the chance to play this room yet so I can’t really say much. However, if what dPace said is true about the room, you should attempt it and try not to get lost in the Lost room of Code Factory. Maybe I should consider joining you and your teammates to experience the room. Hmm…

Click for dPace’s personal experience of the room! (coming soon)

Halloween Escape 2014

Dscry: Last but not least, the main escape event for this year’s Halloween, Halloween Escape!

dPace: I will be going for it! And if you wanna catch a glimpse of the Halloween Escape 2014, you can click on the video below to watch the trailer. Otherwise, come and join me! See you for a horrific Halloween escape!

Read More

Mission-Q

dPace: After many individual room and game reviews, we have decided to give an overall review of the escape game companies available in Malaysia, and overseas in the future. Our first company in review would be Mission-Q, as their company was the first that we have completed all their rooms from.

Dscry: Yeah, I feel like we’re playing more than we can review! O_O So, we’re taking a break from reviewing the rooms. Read on to find out our personal thoughts on Mission-Q as a whole.

Mission-Q, Malaysia

Website: http://www.mission-q.com/

Location: 2nd Floor, 72 Jalan SS15/4D, Subang Jaya, Selangor 47500, Malaysia.

Prices:   Regular price: RM30, Student price: RM25

Room Designs

dPace: Their theme and room design also has interesting ideas that not many other companies have. Their flow of puzzles is always perfect, and all of their puzzles make sense. Though they do not decorate too much of their rooms with fancy artwork, wallpapers, or furniture unlike other companies, their puzzles, atmosphere, and concept of the room always matches the game theme.

Dscry: Mission-Q was the first real escape game place that we’ve been to. Starting with the room, Memento which was meant for 2 persons, this is where all our escape games adventure began. In my opinion, Mission-Q has one of the best room designs as compared to many other escape game places. Even though there are no high tech things being used, their rooms’ architecture is definitely not a let-down.

Puzzles Creativity

dPace: Their puzzles use less of twisting between alphabets and numbers. Instead, their puzzles require escapers in thinking out of the box, solving diagrams and geometries, playing jigsaws and thinking about tools and stuff that we use daily.

Dscry: In terms of puzzle creativity, Mission-Q has very good puzzles. I really love their puzzles. You need to think carefully but not too hard to solve their puzzles. This is definitely one of their plus points as compared to their other counterparts.

Waiting Area

dPace: Their waiting area has a good theme to it. It also matches their overall room themes. Their thematic stools and tables give a good feel and atmosphere. While waiting, you can also have a drink on sale at the counter. While lounging, there are pamphlets and nice introductions to their rooms to read.

Dscry: The waiting area is big and not crowded. With wooden chairs and tables, the ambience is really nice.

Staffs’ Attitude

dPace: Their staffs are friendly and they always greet you with a great big “Hi” and a smile. Their manner of giving clues and helping escapers through a room is also polite and not arrogant. Asking for a little more than a hint is also easy, if you want to :)

Dscry: From my first experience in Mission-Q till my last, the staffs were always very friendly and helpful. I remember my first time when dPace and I was completely blank as to what to do for like half an hour, one of the staffs was watching us and wondered if something was wrong so she went in and offered us help for us to move on in the game.

Recommended Rooms

dPace: This is a really difficult point to review as all, and I do really mean ALL, of their games are great! Nothing short of sheer puzzle and theme quality! If forced to say the most recommended room, I would like to choose Unplugging From The Matrix.

Dscry: Day and Night is definitely the room I put high on top of my like list for escape games. Besides that, I really like the room designs and puzzles creativity for Unplugging From The Matrix room. However, it is currently being changed to a new room. Hopefully, it will be an equally great room.

Rooms to Avoid

dPace: I would avoid you if you avoid any rooms in Mission-Q!!!

Dscry: No room in Mission-Q is not worth playing. Try them all if you can!

Overall Verdict

dPace: I would like to rank Mission-Q as one of the best escape game company in town. In my opinion, their puzzles are refreshing. Although some themes are similar elsewhere, such as classroom and prison themes, their puzzles and room complexity and design makes their games more outstanding than others. A definitely must try!

Dscry: Mission-Q is really recommended for all avid escape gamers. It is a cheaper alternative compared to Escape Room and many other places. But, don’t underestimate the escape games they have to offer. Their rooms will surely give you an unforgettable experience.

Read More

A Twin Escape

Escape date: 29^th March 2014

dPace: From one place to another, we’re back in Mission-Q for our last room here, Day and Night. Sadly, we’re not coming back to this company anymore, unless they have new rooms for us to play. Their puzzles and flow of their games have been good. Oh hey! We’re still #1 in their Hall of Fame for The Missing Corpse. Let’s start our last room and read on to see how we fare.

Dscry: Yay! I’m excited for this room because I have always like Mission-Q’s puzzles. Anyway, we had a chat with the game masters before the game and they told us that the room is not gonna be easy but it has lesser puzzles compared to The Missing Corpse. There was even a team that tried to attempt the room and took almost 2 hours and still could not escape.

dPace: 2 hours!!! Seriously I don’t plan to be locked up for days and nights! Let’s focus… We can do this! So after splitting our team into half, Dscry and I are in the Night room, while our other half of the group is in the Day room. According to the game master, we need to communicate well with each other. This will surely test our communication as a group!

Dscry: This room requires a lot of teamwork. If there is no teamwork, you will definitely be stuck here for days and nights. This escape game is interesting. We need to cooperate well too or else everything will fall apart. We only have hour to escape from this room. Let’s do this!

dPace: I would highly recommend this room for teambuilding. There is no easy way to pass objects between the day and night rooms, yet we need a lot of exchanging of information between the rooms. Lesson learnt, “Good communication is an essential component to any successful escapes”.

Dscry: After solving a series of puzzles, we are reunited with our team members. This thing is huge. I need help moving this thing here.

dPace: Woah! Who would ever expect such thing can be moved. Only Mission-Q can do such things. Come play this room before it expires to find out what this is! And with a deep breath, our expectations shot way above our heads, kudos to Mission-Q! We quickly solved the puzzle we just found and we’re almost on our way out.

Dscry: Last piece of puzzle! This puzzle kinda makes sense with the name of the room. Yay! We made it out of the room. I think the key here is definitely teamwork as well as good communication among the team members. Sadly, we have to take our leave now from Mission-Q. Hopefully they have a new room in the near future. Until then!

Amount and difficulty of puzzles – 4 / 5

Common knowledge required – 4 / 5

Room complexity – 4.5 / 5

Players recommended – 6 (maximum 6)

Hints given – 2

Difficulty rating (according to Mission-Q) – 3 / 5

Read More

Doors and Doors

Escape Date: 3^rd February 2014

dPace: We’re fresh from our very efficient escape adventure and enjoying a good meal nearly forgetting our hungry stomachs after the euphoria of reaching #1 in the Hall of Fame. But wait, I don’t recognise these doors. There are so many of them. Are we like trapped in some illusion hallway?

Dscry: I think not. These doors can be opened physically or so I thought. We are currently trapped in a room called 'Unplugging from the Matrix' in Mission Q. Listen… What is that sound?

dPace: It sounds like some kind of noise, or codes, or a song from a movie, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s nothing? There are many digits here and letters too. I wonder what’s going on in this corridor of doors.

Dscry: So, which door are we supposed to open first and which door is the exit? This room has the most amount of numbers compared to all the other rooms we have played up till now. Oh! I think I just solved this.

dPace: Wow. This is the most difficult puzzle to solve and you did it without any hints, and we've only used up 15 minutes of our time limit of 1 hour. Great! I think we will be on the Hall of Fame again :) Just as I thought, this won’t be our room to the exit, let’s try another door, or so it seems. I wonder if they're any "thing" hiding behind these doors.

Dscry: No, I hope not. Okay, let’s try this door now. This is not the exit either. We need to unlock the next door. I see a maze. This maze is very interesting.

dPace: Oh, lemme ask my brother handle this maze. Ah, he’s done it. Now what, we need to be some kind of athlete or musician or stuntman?

Dscry: That has to be the most interesting way to unlock a door so far. That was so cool! I admit this room is not easy. Despite the ratings given by Mission-Q, it is more difficult compared to The Missing Corpse.

dPace: Lesson learnt, “Common sense or general knowledge sometimes do help a lot”. Okay… here’s another contraption. I seriously wonder how they came up with these creative ideas.

Dscry: Yeah, Mission-Q by far has the best creativity in puzzle making and room designs. I can’t wait for us to finally play their last room which is 'Day and Night'. I heard it is the toughest room. As we once again left another mark on the Hall of Fame for 'Unplugging from the Matrix', we look forward to playing their most difficult room in the near future.

Amount and difficulty of puzzles – 4.5 / 5

Common knowledge required – 4.5 / 5

Room complexity – 5 / 5

Players recommended – 5 (maximum 6)

Hints given – 1

Difficulty rating (according to Mission-Q) – 4 / 5

Read More

Hunting the Dead

Escape Date: 3^rd February 2014

Dscry: We’re back here in Mission-Q after being away from it for quite some time. Before we began, we sent out about half of our team members that day for training in Memento to prepare them for the next room we planned to play which is The Missing Corpse.

dPace: It was said this room was given a level 5 difficulty rating due to the amount of puzzles we have to solve to escape. Our teammates didn’t manage to escape from their training room, so things look bleak for us. Nevertheless, we tried our best.

Dscry: There are 6 of us here. I think we can do this. I hope so. The room is so red. Is that blood I see?

dPace: Not sure about it, but I ain’t gonna touch it. Won’t know what it is. Oh look! This corpse tray says it just pass away not long ago. Let’s see what’s inside here.

Dscry: Tried pulling it out. It’s locked. We have to unlock it first. One of our teammates just got the code to unlock it. Okay, let’s see what it contained.

dPace: Okay! Woah! The corpse is missing! Oh no… I think we are in trouble. Someone will think that we are the ones that cause the corpse to go missing. We need to escape from here quick!

Dscry: Wait, dPace. I think I just saw her. She’s staring back at you and asking you to enter that dark place with her. We should obey what she says and pray that she won’t curse us. How about you go in first, yeah?

dPace: But… but… but… This corpse doesn’t look like a human, or maybe it’s a deformed human! Anyway, let’s see where this goes.

Dscry: Listen, dPace! I heard a kid’s voice singing. That just spooked a few of our teammates.

dPace: Oh no, I see a rope. I think we’re gonna be hanged. Hmm, this place is really cramped. Oh wait, I think I know how to unlock this. Lesson learnt here, “Sometimes opening a lock requires some physical skills”. Great, from one cramped area to another craped enclosure.

Dscry: Good thing I didn’t go inside that cramped area with you and some of our teammates. It looks really cramped in there. I think this is our exit. Let’s hurry! Hmm… That was fast. I guess the kid’s voice gave them extra motivation to exit this room faster than expected. I will have to thank the kid next time I see her.

dPace: Ahh… Very tricky place to escape but we managed to do it, and not only that, we did it in record time! And as the topping of the ice-cream, we did it WITHOUT ANY HINTS! Good job, team! We’re #1 in the Mission-Q Hall of Fame for The Missing Corpse room. Check out our picture when you drop by Mission-Q. Till then…

Amount and difficulty of puzzles – 4 / 5

Common knowledge required – 4.5 / 5

Room complexity – 5 / 5

Players recommended – 5-6 (maximum 6)

Hints given – 1

Difficulty rating (according to Mission-Q) – 5 / 5

Read More

Behind Bars 2

Escape Date: 12^th January 2014

Dscry: Today seems like a good day. Hmm… Wait, what’s happening? Why are we locked behind bars yet again? dPace, what did you do this time??? Rape a mummy again?

dPace: Nooo! Must be because of our success rate at escaping, some syndicate is jealous of us. I think they wanna torture us and get our winning secret. That’s why we’re being abducted. They’ve also abducted our two teammates from our previous escape. Maybe they raped mummies too?

Dscry: Only you would rape the mummies. Here we are again caught up in Prison Break but this time we got caught into Mission Q’s prison cell. And yet again, this prison cell only has one bed. If we can’t escape within this one hour, you are so sleeping on the floor.

dPace: Great, we have 15 minutes more to escape compared to the previous prison. It seems that the guards here have longer breaks. Something different here is that there is more than one cell. But, we’re the only ones here again. Something fishy is going on.

Dscry: Funny how they actually told us not to climb up these prison bars. I wonder who is so free to try that. This bed doesn’t look very comfortable to lie on. And there is no toilet again! I’m beginning to wonder how prisoners survive being in these kind or prison cells.

dPace: Someone must have hung themselves in this cell previously. There’s something hung from the ceiling. Doesn’t look like a good omen for us. Not only that, I notice this bed is in a poorer condition than our previous cell. I can only understand why those held captive in this cell will be such a dire state.

Dscry: Well, there’s nothing much in this prison compared to the last one. I can’t believe I’m talking like this is a normal circumstance. How the heck did we end up in another prison cell? Did you hear the guards talking about the previous prisoner got his thumb chopped off when he failed to escape from here? dPace, get me out of here now!

dPace: Ah, no worries. This is becoming easy for us. Although there’s no shiny thingy we can use for us to escape, but the lesson here is, “Never underestimate objects which can be used to help your escape”. We found something that we didn’t thought would help us, which gave us a big hint. Here’s our big break, Dscry, let’s escape!

Amount and difficulty of puzzles – 3 / 5 

Common knowledge required – 3 / 5 

Room complexity – 3.5 / 5 

Players recommended – 4

Hints given – 1

Difficulty rating (according to Mission Q) – 3 / 5

Read More

Back To School

Escape Date: 25th October 2013

Dscry: Memento… That was the name of the first room we played in our escape game adventures. It is a room available in Mission Q. As the description says, it gives you a chance to go back to the past with your special someone and experience school life together. Well, that’s not quite right.

dPace: Ah… It brings back so many memories of our old school days. Remember those wooden chairs that you can tweak and slide back and forth, wooden tables with drawers under the surface, and blackboards that make eerie sounds when fingernails meet with it. Yup, the settings are all so familiar. Yet, something is different about the drawers under the tables. They’re all locked! Oh wait! We’re in an escape game. Our first out of many escape games in the future.

Dscry: Yesh! So, in this classroom we are trapped together but we are not here because of detention. We are here to free ourselves from this room.

dPace: Alone in a classroom setting with familiar furniture from our old school days, the room have two doors. One from which we entered and another is our exit.

Dscry: Apparently, we are locked in the room but not really locked. The door we entered from was left unlocked in case of any emergency which I think is a good precaution. 

dPace: Yup, it also eases claustrophobic.

Dscry: Anyway, as the name suggests, this is an escape game. We are to find ways to escape from this room.

dPace: Before we started the game, we took a picture with the blackboard as our background and was briefed about the dos and don’ts. Then, we are completely left alone in the room (actually there’s a CCTV watching us) for us to complete our mission. Scampering around, we started our quest of finding the key to get us out of the room.

Dscry: This room is made for only 2 players. Not more, not less. The time given to complete the mission is an hour. As this is the first time we are playing, we can’t really compare it to other escape games. Despite the fact that this has the lowest difficulty level compared to other rooms in Mission Q, never underestimate the puzzles or tasks given. It is a good start for beginners. But, that should not stop you from trying this room even if you are a regular or maybe a professional player. It was an interesting experience. Even though, we didn't quite finish in time due to some lack of attentiveness during the briefing, we did however manage to free ourselves from the room.

dPace: Lesson learnt from here, “Always listen to instructions carefully, especially the first task”. Nevertheless, we had a good experience and because we escaped the room way past the nominal time limit, we were not satisfied with our performance. One thing for sure, this won’t be the last of our escape games adventure! =)

Amount & Difficulty of Puzzles – 3.5 / 5

Common Knowledge Required – 3.5 / 5

Room Complexity – 1 / 5

Players Recommended – 2 (maximum 2)

Hints Given – 1

Difficulty Rating (according to Mission-Q) – 2 / 5

Read More