The room that I played was the new Doraemon room. We heard that we were the first group of customers to be playing that room, and was really excited about it.
As I am an avid Doraemon fan, the gadgets were not new to me. However, the cards describing each gadget and how to use the gadgets were useful for those who are not familiar with Doraemon.
Next, the instructions in the room were easy to understand and inserting videos in each room connected the story together. The clues were also quite linear, meaning that only 1 gadget was used to solve one part of the room at any one time, making it easy for everyone to follow.
The puzzles were also interactive and uses technology very well instead of just normal locks and chests. There were a variety of puzzles involved, including inserting coins, throwing of balls, and using a stopwatch, which were unique and not seen in other escape rooms which I have played before. This made it more fun for everyone and amazed us when we manage to solve the clue and proceed to the next room.
However, the use of technology also caused a few hiccups along the way. Lastly, the game could be made more challenging in terms of its puzzles though, as we escaped in around 30-35 minutes or so. As we did not have to think too hard about any of the puzzles, this led to a reduced satisfaction upon escaping the room, which is a slight disappointment compared to the other Xcape rooms which we have tried before. In addition, it was slightly underwhelming as we did not expect to finish in such a short time.
Overall, I believe that this room would be suitable to everyone, including children and beginners, as the puzzles were not that difficult to solve and are interactive. This is also a fun room to try if there are people in the group who are afraid of scarier rooms, and is a great add-on to Xcape. The key area of improvement would be to increase the difficulty or number of the puzzles so that other teams would not escape that easily and quickly, and therefore derive more satisfaction upon their escape, and to ensure that teams are not stuck due to the technology used.
Yvonne Tan