RATING: 4 Keys RESULT: Loss REMAINING: X:XX
The candy factory needs saving? You don’t have to bribe us with chocolates to help.
The Mueller factory is going under and its CEO, Carlotta Mueller, wants YOU and your team to help find her great-great-grandfather’s candy recipe and restore it to its former glory. Can you do it before she gets there in 60 minutes?!
Our favorite candy factory is about to go out of business but rumor has it that the great-great-grandfather has a special candy recipe that’s been hidden somewhere in the facility for years!
This new candy will be just what the factory needs to start cranking out more confections and keep their doors open. Chocolate addicts are tasked with exploring the factory to discover any secret areas that may hold the lost family recipe.
Escapade 360 does a great job of using their space creatively and is able to make a few smaller rooms appear as if they are part of a bigger factory. Choco-holics start off in a candy laboratory – there’s a giant box of fake chocolates on one wall, a few microwaves used in candy experiments on another, and even a wall of fame from former employees. Everything is decorated with a sense of whimsy and even the parts that represent an office or factory space are kept on theme.
Almost everywhere the eye can see has some sort of sweets representation. If it’s not wrappers then it’s oversized ads and candy boxes scattered throughout. Venturing further into the factory, teams come upon a small room that’s filled with a candy experiment showing what happens at various time frames. The scenic for this is quite unique and fun to see. One of the rooms has an exposed brick wall and it’s that kind of detail that really sells the theme and makes you believe that you’re actually in a factory setting.
This is where Escapade 360 really show off their creative chops. The entire game is filled with a great mix of candy themed puzzles that also make sense for a factory setting. Players go from candy experiments to using shipping invoices in order to help with a chocolate puzzle and at one point candy connoisseur’s even have to figure out a clever truck routing game.
Eventually teams get to an area with a candy experiment at various stages that was a very unique twist on a standard puzzle but added an extra element of difficult (not in a bad way) making it not only fun but also very satisfying to figure out.
Towards the end of the game there’s a series of tasks that must be completed and as each is finish Escapade 360 has created an incredibly fun way to let you know that part of the challenge is done.
There is one puzzle that is a bit of a time suck (it’s still entertaining, just a bit drawn out) but overall the entire game is just flat out fun from start to finish. The Candy Factory is a non-linear game so there’s more than enough for everybody to constantly be working on something.
Escapade 360 is a great venue with a clever overall theme. Their concept is that the lobby is an airport terminal and each room takes you to somewhere different in the world. The Candy Factory takes you to Switzerland, The Da Vinci Experience is set in Italy, The Sherlock Adventure is England, and Save Santa is the North Pole.
They take this theme so seriously that they have window vinyls to help sell the airport aesthetic. A soundtrack of planes, people walking and talking, and everything else one would expect to hear before taking off on a vacation sets the mood. The staff even dress like pilots and it’s a wonderful way to immediately immerse you into their world. You can tell that the staff takes great pride in their venue and rightfully so. Candy Factory is a surprisingly unique theme in the Chicagoland area and had us feeling like kids in a candy store that we didn’t want to leave.
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Venue: Escapade 360
Location: Elgin, Illinois
Number of Games: 4
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes
Capacity: 8 people
Group Type: Public / You may be paired with strangers.
Cost: $29 per person
