Initially titled as Maxim’s Christmas Party, it makes sense as it’s seen as a sequel (being a Season 2 room) to the previous Maxim’s Dinner Party. Being the only one who had played that room previously from the group that went, it does harken back to elements of the room (with props and even being in the same space the previous room was in) but only adds as little Easter eggs and doesn’t really affect gameplay. The puzzles are again, quite varied and can have multiple people go about the rooms doing many of the tasks in no particular order. We went with four people, and even then it felt a little daunting with all the things that had to be done. The host in the room does add to the experience with a lot of improv if you choose to interact with them more than you need to. The setting is of course Christmas time, as well are a fair number of the puzzles. The room, physically, still uses similar elements from the Dinner Party room, but doesn’t feel like the same thing over again. Definitely had a good feel in there with the decorations and music you could put on, if you like Christmas that is. In the end we had completed our task with only a few minutes to spare!
I have a new appreciation for hosted escape rooms. This was our second room at Escape Capers, which is quickly becoming my new favorite Escape Room company in the city. When we heard about a Christmas Escape Room, I think our entire group got excited and wanted to do that while in season. The room was an updated version of a previous room that we never played (I’m disappointed now since both rooms we’ve done at Escape Capers have been a blast). The room had enough puzzles that we could split off and do separate things while interacting with our host. This may have been a bit more fun with six people since you have a specific part that would be more interactive with more people. One of my favorite parts of the room was the music. We just kept that on repeat for the room even though we didn’t need to have it playing. The decoration was top notch in the room. It had a cute charm about the room that you get with Christmas decorations. Maybe it was because we didn’t do the previous version of the room but it didn’t feel like a lot props and puzzles was reused everything had a place and purpose in the theme. I’ve heard a few stories where some rooms just rename it and put minimal effort to change it and re-brand it as a new experience. We had a few stumbles in the room but got out with two minutes to spare! I’ll chalk that up to a post-Christmas party hangover.
This was the second room we did at Escape Capers and the first Christmas themed room I’ve ever done, so I was extremely excited. Like the other room, there was an actor (bartender) in the room with us, and when we would complete puzzles we would need to check in with the bartender. There was a fair bit going on in this room, and going into it, we were a little off our game. Everything in the room was easily distracting us. There was one puzzle that was pretty straight forward but definitely takes some time – you absolutely want more than one person working on it. We didn’t really find our stride until right at the end, and managed to solve the final few puzzles within the last five or so minutes.
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