11/14/2023 0 Comments Red door escape room pleasantonWith the intricacy and scale of the tech in this room, I hope tech reliability is maintained or improved going forward, as every moment of the game outside those few minutes was sublime. While this was not a big deal whatsoever, it felt mildly immersion-breaking in the moment, in sharp contrast to the level of deep immersion consistently maintained throughout the entirety of the game. ➖ We encountered one very brief and very minor technical glitch with an input mechanism. A meta-narrative arc was particularly topical and thought-provoking for enthusiasts of the escapist inclination. Our actions and our role in the story were consistently justified, and even puzzles that were “just puzzles” ultimately had a “why” behind them. ➕ The Attraction was a strongly narrative-driven experience. However, I could see this resonating less strongly with some players. For me, the ways in which these elements were presented were a strong positive and infused the experience with a distinctively idiosyncratic character. ➕/ ❓ A sort of pop culture montage throughout the game might be described as nostalgic, deeply human, or even meme-y. This feeling blossomed even further as the space transformed before our eyes. I’m not usually the most distractible puzzle solver, yet I spent the first few minutes in this space ignoring the task at hand and just wandering aimlessly, mouth agape, soaking in the magic. ➕ While the entire set was stunning, one area in particular elicited from me a feeling of deeply reverent awe. Moreover, each environment felt markedly different from anything I’ve experienced elsewhere. The set design in each was astounding, and I was especially impressed by the range of textural contrast within the game. ➕ The Attraction took us to a myriad of vivid worlds. There was no narrative reason to have an arbitrary time cutoff, and I have mad respect for Palace Games’ decision to forgo this structural relic of the traditional escape room model. Teams are allowed and encouraged to take the time they need to savor and complete the full experience. ➕ The Attraction is blocked off as a 2-hour experience, but there was explicitly no countdown timer in the game. Furthermore, they seamlessly utilized an impressive level of tech without ever feeling overindulgent or like a tech demo. They were varied, incredibly fun, and gave solvers of different abilities moments to shine. They prompted shared discovery, communication, and teamwork. Showing strong puzzle hunt and video game influences, all puzzle interactions were perfectly integrated in the physical environment and narrative. ➕ The puzzles in The Attraction were a brilliant maturation of the style demonstrated in Palace Games’ The Edison Room. Through the combination of masterful engineering, a hefty subwoofer, bold misdirection, and psychological manipulation, the transitions between spaces were the most impressive and effective I’ve seen in any escape room to date. ➕ The core navigational mechanic of The Attraction had my head spinning. Little can be written about The Attraction’s gameplay without spoiling it, but suffice to say, this room innovated a unique take on puzzle-centric interaction design which diverged significantly from the object gathering, searching, and object-based connection making found in most traditional escape rooms. Palace Games’ The Attraction was a notably non-standard escape room from start to finish with a moderate level of difficulty. They’d restored this mysterious marvel, and our team was sent in to discover its purpose. Palace Games had discovered a secret inner sanctum in the Palace of Fine Arts containing an “attraction” which had appeared at the 1915 World’s Fair but was shut down shortly thereafter. Best for players with at least some experience.Palace Games has created something truly breathtaking, and I applaud them for the mountains of creativity, labor, artistry, technical expertise, profound knowledge of the escape room industry, and love that went into creating this experience. An impressively diverse range of innovative gameplay and aesthetics yielded a wondrous journey of otherworldly play.Īs far as I’m concerned, The Attraction is in strong contention for the best escape room in the world. The Attraction perfectly executed certain physical and psychological mechanics that I’ve been eagerly waiting to see an escape room attempt. Impressive feats of engineering and Meow Wolf-level immersive artistry converged into something utterly magical.
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