Claustrophobia's Arcade room has been so far, the best escape room I've ever completed, hands down,…read moreno competition. Since my first experience of the Arcade room almost one year ago, I have completed escape rooms around the world that try to hold a light to the Arcade room. Nothing has come close. After every other hour long puzzle, I ALWAYS think back to this experience, and I ALWAYS say to myself "The one in Amsterdam was better."
Immersion: The Arcade room nails this. It mixes the perfect amount of ambiance and downright creepiness. I was on edge the entire time. Something just didn't seem right about the room, and I say that in the absolute best possible way. The room's mostly dark, lit only by ambient lights, which strategically turn on to guide players towards what's important and navigating them away from what's not, while still allowing a good degree of freedom.
Automation: After completing escape rooms across Europe and America, I can say HANDS DOWN that the Arcade room has the most ambitious, creative, nuanced implementation of automation that I've ever seen. Whereas other escape rooms have cracks around their hidden doors, exposing what would have otherwise been a fun surprise, secret doors open out of nowhere in the Arcade room, triggered by completely unexpected events.
Creativity: The puzzles are by far the most clever that I've ever experienced, ranging from completing a homebrew arcade game that is seamlessly embedded into the experience, to fiddling with seemingly vintage, analog devices that connect intricately with each other through the use of sensors and hidden wires. Locks and keys were only used once, if my memory serves correctly, and that is the way it should be. I cannot give enough praise to the set designer.
Joy: Completing each puzzle felt like an accomplishment. They were hard, they always required us to think outside of the box. I can actually say that only ONE puzzle within the arcade room has been seen in my experience outside of the arcade room. Every other puzzle is completely unique to the room and has not been replicated by any other escape room that I've experienced. The puzzles are entirely unexpected, challenging, and simultaneously evoke memories of childhood times spent at the arcade, chipping in coins hoping to beat a high score.
Ambition: The experience starts off small, but each room is more ambitious than the next. The puzzles become larger, the stakes grow higher, and you ask yourself just how the hell did they accomplish that?? The Arcade room puzzles don't solely exist as something laying on a table or floor, but also as entire walls and ceilings. It is an experience like no other. If it were up to me, I would say it is entirely reasonable to travel to Amsterdam just to experience this again.
The Arcade room deserves a 5/5. If you are an escape room enthusiast, then you owe it to yourself to give this room a try. If you have never tried an escape room before and find yourself in Amsterdam on any given evening wondering what to do, go here. You won't regret it.
For those who come from the Bay Area, it's at least twice as good as the rooms at Palace Games, which rank as one of the top three escape rooms in all of America.
