THE CONTESTANTS

Our first time at The Room led us to a shady part of town. We booked the room’s last timeslot and came in and started half an hour early. Despite this, it felt like the staff member working just wanted to go home. We needed several seconds to complete the last puzzle but we were curtly sent home as soon as our time ran out. Needless to say it left a not so favorable lasting impression.

I think I would have appreciated a little bit more enthusiasm, but like Paulie said, I think our game master just really wanted to go home.

Let me preface this review by saying that you need to be a fan of Survivor and/or Big Brother to fully appreciate the puzzles (or rather, tasks) in this room. Survivor is currently in its 33rd iteration. I’ve been a loyal fan since its premiere in the year 2000 (sixteen years ago). Big Brother–I’ve seen a few seasons here and there. It’s cool seeing challenges you grew up watching come to life. If you’re not much of a competition reality TV fiend, the tasks might come across as silly party games.

I loved the tasks in this room. I felt like a kid let loose in a candy store. I wanted to do them all. Unfortunately this was improbable due to each task requiring less teamwork and more independent problem-solving. You go in and you call dibs on which station you feel comfortable at.

I immediately ran to the maze involving chicken wiring and a ball–a dexterity task of some sort involving the adept use of your fingers. My friends did other tasks. Towards the end we came together for a table maze of some sort. We ultimately came up short but had tons of fun.

A massive thing that this room requires of you is a lot of patience. You will be frustrated in this room. I guarantee it. Consequently, your enjoyment of this room becomes results-oriented: If you manage to finish your station, you’ll come out feeling satisfied. If not, you’ll curse this room to high heavens. Be warned. Be armed with a heavy dose of patience.

I really loved the puzzles here! I’m not a Survivor/Big Brother fanatic (I’ve only seen a couple of seasons of Survivor and only a handful episodes of Big Brother), but I still had a ton of fun.

The first puzzle I ended up going to was a Survivor-style puzzle. Whenever I watch Survivor, I always think, “Oh, that doesn’t even look that hard, why are they taking so long?!” Let me just say that I now have a new appreciation for those puzzles. I don’t think I’ve ever taken so long on just a simple jigsaw – I even ended up recruiting some help too!

Unfortunately, each puzzle is kind of an individual thing, so I didn’t get to try all of them, but they looked fun enough!

The decor took a backseat in this room, and, appropriately so. The challenges became the focus amid a backdrop of white walls and a high ceiling. The physical mechanism of the challenges looked elegant and professionally made. The props looked straight out of the shows from which they were inspired.

The look is not really what this room is about. However, it definitely reminded me of the Big Brother backyard where the big challenges take place!

Each of the five of us had laser focus trying to complete each of our designated task. This room will drain you in a good way. Every time I thought I would get close to succeeding, the ball would drop. I would momentarily feel sick, frustrated, heartbroken. Then I’d go back at it again. It was an addicting emotional cycle.

What I found interesting is that the premise of the room makes it so that having a timer made sense! Because it’s a competition room that doesn’t really have a story behind it, looking at that timer actually reinforced the idea that this was a competition, and you needed to win (against the room).

I’m biased about the theme due to aforementioned reasons. The only thing that would’ve made it better is the inclusion of a vote-off aspect, an integral part of all competition reality shows.

The puzzles were true to the originals in Survivor and Big Brother, which was great to see!

I would have loved to see this as something like a PvP room – the theme just lends itself so well to something where two teams are competing against each other!

Overall, I had a lot of fun so I’d give it a #platinum. I would have given it the maximum score but I realize that this room would not have universal appeal as, say, PVP at Breakout. I still appreciate its attempt at being out-of-the-box and appealing to a niche demographic.

This gets a #platinum from me. If you watch Survivor or Big Brother, this room is definitely a must-try.