Review: NorCal Escape Co.

RATING: 5 Key RESULT: Loss REMAINING: X:XX

So your club does what exactly? Oh…….so where can I find an application?

Story

Picking up where he left off, a notorious serial killer’s devout following is carrying out his unfinished business.

Held captive, tortured and tested. This is no longer a game.

The highly anticipated sequel to the room that started it all, Condemned 2 takes this twisted plot to another level of sinister.

The second chapter not only places extra emphasis on teamwork; but will also tempt, greed and betrayal.

This story picks up after the events of Condemned in which a serial killer is kidnapping victims and forcing them to figure their way out of his twisted game, killing those who fail. For those that succeed you are set free to roam the world and tell of your experience.

Since that time things have calmed down due to the serial killer passing away but, as it turns out, some of his former victims feel more empowered by their torture and have taken upon themselves to form a cult and carry out their mentor’s mission. That’s where we come in; we are the next batch of “recruits” to see if we have what it takes to escape their newest, sick game!

Scenic

Condemned 2 is one of the most immersive games I have played. From the moment the door closed and our intro video played everything felt real. This is no doubt due to the amazing attention to detail given to every single piece of scenic.

The entire story plays out in an abandoned warehouse but has two VERY different paths. One path has a very eerie, dank, industrial warehouse feel to it; very bare walls, metal doors, electrical boxes, etc. The detail into these pieces was noticeable as the walls, while bare, had a very worn down look to them. This created an impressive feeling of isolation and desperation to connect with the theme of the game for the players.

The other path had a much more sinister feel to it. It felt like a psychopath’s playground; complete with tools, work area and victim remains. The look and feel in this path provided the player with a sense of the amount of despair some victims went through and really gave a genuine feeling of uneasiness as we progressed.

Nothing felt out of place in this room! The owners really kept immersion at the top of mind while designing this as they even included an actual roll up industrial door on one of the walls just to keep players in the storyworld (an example of the attention to detail).

The best part of the scenic was that each and every single step of the game had a great reveal and “Wow” moment that kept escape room veterans guessing as to what was actually going to happen next!

Puzzles

After walking in to this abandoned warehouse and experiencing the pure immersion of the world the owners created, some rooms would under-deliver on the puzzle aspect of the game; not this one! The puzzles were fun and unique and really forced players to think outside of the box and collaborate with teammates.

The best part of the puzzles was that they all directly tied into the storyworld. Everything meant to challenge you was placed there by this cult with the intention of testing you. This meant that no matter what the puzzle was, it was specifically chosen by our captors as a means to determine if we are worthy or not.

While the use of technological puzzles is very obvious, the owners made sure to sprinkle in some extremely well thought out manual puzzles and interactions with the room itself. It was those moments of “Wow, that was a really cool puzzle!” that took almost no technology at all that put this room over the top for me.

Overall

Overall, NorCal Escape Co. really brought one of the best games in the Sacramento area. While the theme may be familiar, the owners really knocked it out of the park by delivering a truly immersive experience with satisfying, logical puzzles.

The use of converging game paths essentially gives this game a replay factor you normally don’t see in the industry (evidenced by the fact that one of our teammates was a returning player.)

In the end we did not make it out and were ultimately slaughtered for not being worthy of escape. While the result was disappointing I can tell you the entire experience was… killer… and I want to go back and play the other path. If you are near Yuba City make sure you go check this one out! You will not regret it!