RATING: 3 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 21:00
A forgotten mine shaft leads to a mystical underground cave, and just beyond it, the home of a very illogical dragon.
Unravel the mystery to the disappearance of your uncle who was last seen on a mining expedition deep in The Dragon Spine of the Andes Mountains.
The Dragon’s Lair is a decidedly Indiana Jones-flavored adventure through a very unique and compelling setting. It’s difficult to not be instantly drawn into its storyworld, don the fedora yourself and let the spirit of adventure carry you into the darkened unknown.
Maze Room’s Culver City location is best known for its attention to story details, and The Dragon’s Lair, thus far, at least, is their crown jewel in that regard. An original tale meant to directly establish an emotional connection to the player, The Dragon’s Lair builds a narrative so interesting that you instantly want to know where it’s leading and how it ends. As such, it truly keeps players immersed and engaged from start to finish, with constant urgency and determination to push further into this mysterious underground world to unlock its next mystery.
The Dragon’s Lair is scenically Maze Rooms’ most impressive game, with one small exception. But let’s start with what really works. The mine shaft, our entrance into The Dragon Spine of the Andes is highly convincing. It feels cramped and gritty – like it very well could collapse onto us at any moment.
The cave hidden beyond the mine is jaw dropping – and one of the most believable instances of rockwork in any game we’ve seen across the United States. It’s clear that a lot of time and great care with into this space, which was, for the record, custom-crafted by hand.
It’s difficult to top the cave, so it should come as no real surprise that the Dragon’s Lair itself is just slightly behind that curve. Unfortunately, it’s the dragon that really scenically brings the tone down. There’s no nice way to say that it’s not realistic, and, frankly, looks a bit more on the cheesy side. Part physical sculpt and part dimensional painting on the wall, the dragon just does not effectively work on either level.
We entered The Dragon’s Lair with somewhat high hopes for its puzzles. After the story-driven, logical detective adventure that is the venue’s first game, Jack The Ripper, we hoped the assumption would prove true that things would only keep getting better. Unfortunately we’d learn that when it comes to puzzle flow, in the case of The Dragon’s Lair, they would not.
Make no mistake, the tasks still connect in to the mining and adventuring storyworld (at least until a large wall-mounted one at the end that feels just a little puzzle for puzzle’s sake.) The problem we faced here is the logic leaps that would connect them (or, disconnect them, more accurately.) We could have perhaps overlooked one, or maybe two. But the fact remains that throughout the course of The Dragon’s Lair, the more common thought on our collective minds was that we just have no idea what we should be doing next.
This is a weird one — because based on the merit of its gameplay, The Dragon’s Lair would not be a game we could in good conscience send you to see (at least not before a good deal of polish was added to finesse it’s significant flow problems.) However, with a great story and some absolutely fantastic scenic, it’s almost worth checking out with the expectation that you’ll just need to ask for a lot of hints to fill the gaps along your journey.
We want to love The Dragon’s Lair, but we do not — at least not yet. It is our hope that with time, and as future games open at the venue, focus can shift back to this one to fix its issues. There’s some very unique things in the works at Maze Room’s Culver City location – and that clear passion to raise the bar gives us hope that with time, we can venture back into The Dragon’s Lair and meet a very different outcome.
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Venue: Maze Rooms
Location: Culver City, California
Number of Games: 2
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes
Capacity: 7 people
Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers.
Cost: $99+ per group for up to 3 people (plus $33 per each additional person)
We thank Maze Rooms for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.