Review: Boss-Play Escape Rooms - The Chocolate Factory

RATING: 4 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 12:47

A golden ticket, free candy, and a tour of a chocolate factory. This all sounds very familiar to us…

Story

You have found one of the Golden Tickets and the day has come to take The Chocolate Factory Tour. Will you resist the temptation to steal the top secret recipes? Come find out.

Well, let’s get this one out of the way. We are VERY familiar with the theme of this room. There’s a certain book and movie that involve a child named Charlie and a trip to a factory where edible treats are made.

There are many nods, props, and scenes directly from the movie, this is not your generic factory tour. But we doopadee do get to eat candy along the way! Just like certain orange and green looking humanoids.

Now that the background story is clear, we are given a golden ticket tour to a local chocolate factory. This includes full access to the factory grounds, assembly lines, and private offices of the person in charge.

Not only do we get a sneak peek at the behind the scenes workings of our favorite confectionery creator, we get to sample some of the work as we explore. But can we resist stealing trade secrets along our journey? Or will we take anything we can get our hands on and run out the door with our ill-gotten gains? The temptation here is present in every step.

Scenic

The front entrance to our chocolate factory tour starts in a very small cramped room. All that is on the wall is a set of lab coats for us to put on. Probably best to keep proper sanitation practices before handling chocolate. We are ready to take our first steps in to a world of imagination.

A very clever transition from our initial starting point in to our tour of the inner workings of the factory was a pleasant surprise. Though we’ve experienced a similar set up to this, no matter how many times we see it, we still love it.

The first part of the factory tour is on the brighter side of the factory lines. We have our trusty boat sailing across the chocolate river, with chocolate filled pipes giving us an endless supply. The candy forest of sorts is filled with not so well hidden, but completely edible treats. Various handles, knobs, and pipes connect through an intricate sorting system to make sure our candy gets in the right place.

Behind the scenes, the office part is just as wacky as our first impressions in the factory. We have an eccentric mix of functional furniture, animals, and exercise equipment. There is even a functional piano sitting around that you can play a tune on. A mess of notes and instructions fill the rest of the office, hidden in which are some secret plans that we should totally not steal.

Puzzles

The Chocolate Factory has next to no visible locking mechanisms throughout the whole game, which leads to tech driven puzzles instead of the standard lock and key fare. Aside from the entrance door, the rest of the puzzles here are more of the physical type, or “input the answer in to the environment to get a response”.

From figuring out how to unclog the chocolate river pipeline, to coaxing a hen to lay a golden egg, the storyworld unfolds in a whimsical way that is carried through our actions. We must use our pure imagination at times to put ourselves right in to the story.

At times the steps to solve things can become outright silly, but still fit the theme of the room. Ever had to use the average length of an Oompa Loompa as a measuring device? That’s what tour goers have to doopadee do (okay that’s the last Oompa Loompa pun we will make). Though this new unit of measurement is not the most precise we have seen. One can guess the Oompa Loompas are not the best at precision.

While fans of the movie may see some strong correlations to the tasks at hand, it in no way takes away from the feeling of childhood fun we got whilst frolicking through our tour. Queue up a group of people singing in unison that they’ve got another puzzle for you, there is a fair amount of work here to keep even experienced groups engaged.

Overall

Boss-Play Escape Rooms builds a fantastic journey through a childhood world of wonder and treats, even though it knocks heavily on the door of fair use of an IP. The game flows extremely well bringing us a sense of surprise and delight along the way. In fact, both games here are on top of the growing North County San Diego market.

Did we also mention the large amount of sugar intake we had during this room? If you are wise you will listen to me. There is no shame in the amount of candy one can eat in 60 minutes.