Room Escapers Boston: Organized Chaos and Panacea (Boston, MA)

Room Escapers Boston has a few rooms spread across two locations, all within walking distance of downtown Boston. Being conveniently located was a huge plus as we were also close to Boxaroo and were able to seamlessly line up games without complex travel plans. As a duo, we decided to once again tackle a few rooms designed for large groups of 8-10 people. From their website:

"Organized Chaos
It’s the early 90s, and organized crime is running rampant in Boston. You and your group of detectives have stumbled upon a short window of opportunity to search a local gang’s front business for evidence to link them to unsolved crimes.  Better hustle though; they’re gathering their cronies, and their lawyer is filing an injunction. This is our take on an escape room whodunnit that has been designed to keep even large groups and advanced players engaged with a wide variety of puzzles! We allow up to 12 for this game, but recommend around 8-10. 

Panacea
Alchemy. An aged science, but our last hope. An old world disease has been released from the melting permafrost, and you have been infected along with most of humanity. The Panacea, a cure-all of old, is believed to be located in a forgotten chamber of an old world apothecary in Boston. You must master the 7 principles of Alchemy in order to prove your worth and obtain it! We allow up to 8 participants for this game, and recommend around 6. 

Set Design, Puzzles & Technology

Organized Chaos
The goal of this game was to gather as much evidence as possible in order to take down the Boston mob. There were a LOT of things to collect, in fact the case files handed to us prior to entering the room outlined what we were looking for. We thought we'd have to read all these files but it was quite a lot to go through for an escape room. In total, there seemed to be about 30 pieces of evidence to find which must take quite a while to reset. The set was fine for being a bar that was used as a front by the mob.

The puzzles encountered were diverse and there was a lot of ground to cover. While you won't find a lot of tech in this room we felt we were completely occupied, in a good way, throughout most of the experience. Of course, playing this room at near capacity would be different, but as a duo, we were constantly gathering evidence and it felt like we steamrolled through the first part of the game. The second half of the game slowed down with more difficult puzzles and the evidence came in at a a much lessened pace.

Panacea
This was Room Escapers Boston's newest game and some finishing touches we done up to a few hours before we played. The set was well done as an apothecary which is somewhat prevalent in the world of escape rooms.

There were a couple of puzzles that we felt were creative and novel that we appreciated. Unlike Organized Chaos, where the fun was solving a million different things quickly, Panacea was a more difficult game with a more standard escape room layout. The experience was a good escape room but the theme and game felt more standard.

Memorable Moments 

Organized Chaos
The frantic pace of collecting tons of evidence and successive/abundant small wins was incredibly delightful.

Panacea
There was one solution that had us in awe and another that had me saying "omg".

Room For Improvement

Organized Chaos
We got stumped on one puzzle in which outside knowledge would have been tremendously useful. I would imagine that not many groups were able progress past this point without a hint.

Panacea
The flow of the game felt a little uneven, perhaps biased given the frantic pace of Organized Chaos. Also, we understand that we were one of the first teams to play the game so there might have been some updates since we've played.

Overall Thoughts

Organized Chaos was a fun, fact paced room that we feel everyone would enjoy. Panacea, was a solid game and more of a traditional escape room. If you are close to downtown Boston area, we highly recommend visiting Room Escapers Boston!

• Set design: Good
• Difficulty: Medium
• Price: $30/person
• Number of players: up to 12, public (we recommend 4)
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Overall Rating: Organized Chaos ★★★★½, Panacea ★★★★

See their website here: https://roomescapersboston.com

Boxaroo: Conundrum Museum & Magician's Study

We were fortunate enough that the timing of our Boston trip coincided with Boxaroo's reopening of  their room, the "Magician's Study" after being closed for about a year. In this new location, they also opened up a second adventure, the "Conundrum Museum". We were going to play these rooms as a duo, and given that the max number of players was ten, we knew it would be a challenge. From their site:

"Conundrum Museum
You and your friends take a trip to the museum when something goes amiss... it seems like you've been framed! Lucky for you, you happen to be the world-renowned local detective-in-training. You'll have 60 minutes to solve the mystery and clear your name

Magician's Study
You're invited! Yes, you. Investigate the study of a once-legendary magician Viltore Madom. Your goal is to discover the secret of this mystical place... or at least as much of it as you can before time runs out."

From the Boxaroo website

Set Design, Puzzles & Technology

Conundrum Museum
We played a lot of museum themed rooms and set designs were typically a normal white-walled room with some portraits and antiques. While this held true for the Conundrum Museum, there was a fun centerpiece that came into play in the late stages of the game, which was pretty obvious from the start. There was a fun actor driven intro with some nice effects that set the mood and went to show that the little things go a long way.

The puzzles were clever and utilized the surroundings in an intelligent manner. We enjoyed the overarching cohesion between all the riddles that is often not found in many rooms. There was also a "eureka" moment for a late game solution that we had never seen before that delighted us. The technology didn't feel like it was a primary driver but that was because it was so well hidden. We had the chance to have a behind the scenes look and given that everything was automated, there was ten times more tech than I thought there would have been.


Magician's Study
Again, the theme of a study made it easier to create a believable set. There were quite a few nice well hidden surprises that sets this study apart from many other escape rooms out there. We don't mind recurring themes as long as there are surprises or clever devices that spring up along the way and Boxaroo had a lot of surprise elements.

The puzzles were fun and a lot of times we felt we knew exactly what we had to do, to only be fooled but our previous experiences. The game must have been designed to fool enthusiasts because it used common elements that you would find in many rooms but with a different twist on how to use them. We appreciated one of the reveals because of how it changed our perspective on how we saw things. The technology, like the Conundrum Museum, was seamlessly blended into the setting.

The staff was great and friendly!

Memorable Moments 

Conundrum Museum
The late game puzzle that opens up the final stage of the game was unique. At first we thought, "this probably isn't it" but of course it was.

Magician's Study
All the puzzles that looked basic but actually had a second level solution to them.

We also got a cool scorecard that we loved that mapped out our progression vs. other groups :)

Room For Improvement

There was at least one puzzle in Conundrum Museum that was tricky because of the use of a very uncommon word. Also, the setting for both rooms were perfect for the theme and well done but they were still simplistic in the grand scale of escape rooms we have played. Also, the scorecard we got had a bug that threw off the stats.

Overall Thoughts

Both the rooms were incredibly fun and we were lucky enough to play them as a duo. We highly recommend playing these rooms as Boxaroo is one of our top recommendations in the Boston area!

• Set design: Good, fits the theme perfectly
• Difficulty: Medium-High
• Price: $29/person
• Number of players: up to 10, private (we recommend 4)
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Overall Rating: Conundrum Museum ★★★★★, Magician's Study ★★★★½

See their website here: https://boxaroo.me