Let me set the scene for you:
It's dark out, the sun has just set and the warm day has started to cool. You are ushered into the Welcome Centre at Black Creek Pioneer Village. The only people around are either a motley crew of weary travellers (you and your fellows), or a few select helpful villagers in brown cloaks.
You are invited to sit at your table where you are given the tools that will help you break the curse this evening; a map, some clues, three lanterns. What appears to be a wooden devil's cage sits in the centre of each table to protect you from evil spirits.
The adventure is laid out before you, rules and guidelines shared, and you are ushered into the black night, as if magically transported two hundred years into the past, under the darkest sky, with only the goal to survive and save the villagers or be trapped forever in the cursed village. No pressure, right?
The night is dark, the cultists looming, the atmosphere is charged, the puzzles a challenge, the reward is high. But the cost of failure is severe.
The party I was sent into the night with faced many challenges, panic set in as the clock wound down, would we succeed?
Seeing as I am writing this review, it should prove that one group of our many succeeded in lifting the curse. How you might ask? I am sworn never to tell.
As for this adventure, it was my very first escape room (see: village). I doubt I could have picked better, or had a bar raised higher for any and all following escape rooms. The villagers were most excellent, the antagonist and protagonist were both brilliant! Above all, the atmosphere credit goes to the cultists, because without them looming, creeping, and materialising out of nowhere, I don't think it would have been quite as concerning. (Bonus points go out to the cultist with the half mask. Seriously. Awesome.)
So if you are considering this adventure, just go. Don't ponder, don't muse, just press Buy Tickets and go! read more