RATING: 4 Keys          RESULT: Win          REMAINING: 3:42

We escaped a room full of Einsteins. We’re like really smart now you guys, you don’t even know!

The Room takes a different approach with their games, where, though still themed, they’re much less about story and much more about the activity. Einstein Room has even less of a present story than The Gallery, in fact.

The Einstein room has many pictures of Einstein on the walls and some of his famous quotes.

Maybe they will help you maybe they won’t. This room starts with a scavenger hunt and leads you to various challenges. You must find clues, complete challenges, solve ciphers, a cryptex, and logic problems to ultimately find the code to escape the room.

Certainly closer to instructions than any sort of narrative, Einstein Room, in truth, doesn’t really have a story at all, leaving the gameplay itself to truly sell the experience.

Beyond the aforementioned portraits of Einstein surrounding the walls, this game doesn’t exactly have much scenic to speak of. A large desk dominates immediate sightlines upon entering the room. A smaller desk, and minimal furnishes fill in the space to create a slightly lived in but not at all cluttered feel.

The scenic itself tells no more story for Einstein Room than it’s “story” necessarily does, but again we discover that when visiting The Room, we’re truly in it for the puzzles – because puzzles are unquestionably their strong point.

The Room continues to prove its strength lies in layout a series intuitive puzzles that flow smoothly and offer a fulfilling challenge. Einstein Room was a fairly low-tech affair, but that in no way lessened the feeling of satisfaction we received with each opened lock.

Einstein Room took us on a fairly constant journey of discovery, where in we rarely were unsure of our next goal. This sort of rapid-fire flow always leaves players with a solid feeling of accomplishment.

All but one puzzle – a DVD based moment toward the game’s finale – felt well placed within the loose time period setting. The DVD puzzle itself also proved to be more than a bit confusing in what it was trying to relay. Unfortunately, it somewhat created a speed bump for our momentum that ever so slightly lowered our adrenaline levels just before the end of the game.

Although we normally gravitate towards highly immersive adventures full of elaborate scenic decor, The Room proved to be a very enjoyable change of pace for us. Its scenic and technological simplicity actually works to its advantage, embracing its willingness to be unique.

We truly appreciate the fact that The Room relies on its puzzles to be the star. In a sense it’s almost a bit refreshing, because sometimes emphasis on that aspect of a game’s design can become lost in the multi-media shuffle. The Room may not be the biggest or the highest budget product in Tampa, but it remains one of the most satisfying and truly stands on its own.

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Venue:  The Room

Location: Tampa, Florida

Number of Games: 2

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 60 minutes

Capacity: 6 people

Group Type: Public  / You may be paired with strangers.

Cost: This venue has permanently closed.

We thank The Room for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.