The Lost Jewel of Zanzibar

This is their easiest rated room, and made as a novice/beginner room. It’s really neat and gives a good piece of atmosphere for the first part. Again, like the genie room we did yesterday, it’s got a lot of variety for puzzles and methods for solving them as well types of locks. The rooms fits four people nicely, maybe could have one or two more, but it gets awfully cramped awfully fast. And even so, while there’s still a nonlinear type of game play and everyone can do separate things, it maybe be too many cooks in the kitchen if it was more than, say, five people in the room (we did four). Every puzzle was themed again according to the room. No random puzzles here (maybe a couple clues). Was a bit easier than the genie room, as it is made for starting level escapers. Immersion was okay with what they had to deal with. The last part had a bit of a break in immersion, but was still okay.

This is such a great introductory room if you’ve never played an escape room before. The puzzles flowed nicely, and weren’t too complicated. Again, Escape Hour nails the non-linear approach to their rooms, making it easy for your group to split up and all be occupied and really feel like you all contributed something to the room. If you do end up escaping, getting to come out holding the massive jewel is also quite satisfying too. Only criticism I have is that the decorations could use some work. You can definitely still tell you are in an office building. While I understand there are regulations and whatnot to follow, I have still seen other rooms in the same types of buildings do better. But all in all a solid room from a solid company.

If you’ve been looking to get in to escape rooms and do not know where to begin because there’s over 10 locations and 40+ rooms in Calgary, look no further than The Lost Jewel of Zanzibar at Escape Hour.  A very good beginner’s room and solid room for escape room veterans- this room can help introduce many elements of an escape room to newcomers and can also serve as a good refresher for veterans. Like every other room by Escape Hour, this room was setup with a short video describing the back story and outlining your main objective. The room itself was decorated accordingly to theme, nothing special but nothing terrible either; it was good for what it was. Much like their Genie room, this is more or less another non-linear room so your group can split off and solve other clues and puzzles. All the clues and puzzles were relevant to theme and there was nothing in that room to throw you off or waste your time. Solid room overall!

I was a little leery of this room due to it being rated as a beginner level, but it was well put together and a fun experience. The clues and puzzles tie in well with the theme, and there’s an overall good flow to the room when it comes to guiding you towards clues or puzzles despite the non-linear format. The puzzles aren’t overly easy nor are they too difficult- everything required brainpower but not to a frustrating degree and there’s still a sense of victory when you get things right. A great room for first timers, and a nice refresher for experienced players.