24 June 2019 by Lisa Spira, posted in Reviews, The Netherlands
A lot of play and some work
Location: Volkel, The Netherlands
Date Played: May 9, 2019
Team size: 3-7; we recommend 3-5
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: € 118 per team
Ticketing: Private
Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
REA Reaction
“Kamer” being Dutch for “room,” Kamer 237 was a love letter to both Stephen King’s and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
This The Shining homage was a marriage of traditional escape room puzzles with strong ambiance and clever effects.
At its best, Kamer 237 warped our perspective on how an escape room ought to work. In its weaker moments, it felt like an old-school escape room with disconnected puzzles.
All in all, this was an strong escape game. We’re thrilled to have played it. It had exciting and memorable moments. It wasn’t an earth-moving game, but it was quite moving in the moment.
Who is this for?
Why play?
Story
Inspired by The Shining, in Kamer 237 Charles Grady, his wife, and his daughters had checked into a hotel while he worked to finish his novel. As Grady became more enthralled with his work, he lost his connection to reality… and then he disappeared.
Setting
The facility hosting Kamer 237 was structured as a hotel. The lobby was the hotel bar and our gamemaster was the costumed front desk attendant. The next game existed in a different hotel room.
The game took place on one floor of the hotel. We explored the hallway and multiple rooms, each reflecting the characters that inhabited them. Kamer 237 found an interesting way to manifest the distortion of Grady’s reality.
Gameplay
Kamer 237 was a standard escape room with a high level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, making connections, and puzzling.
Analysis
The hotel world was charming. From the lobby, to the gamemaster, to the rooms themselves, it was a complete world.
Although a hotel wasn’t the most inventive of sets, this one looked great. The build was polished. Additional details beyond the rooms themselves elevated the experience.
Although the environment was well themed, some of the puzzles felt arbitrary and disconnected from the game world. There were moments where Kamer 237 turned into an old-school puzzles-for-puzzles’-sake escape room.
There was one truly unforgettable moment in this escape room. When you activate it, you will know what we mean.
We encountered a journal that was sort of a runbook because it added some cluing, but added more red herrings than anything else.
While we enjoyed many of the puzzles, in some instances Kamer 237 could have provided tighter cluing.
Kamer 237 provided a good tool for solving the most challenging, layered puzzle in the experience.
A lockout safe was especially annoying given its position in the experience and the type of coordination needed to derive a solution for it.
Kamer 237 was personalized in a small way that enhanced the creepiness of the experience.
This escape room presented some seriously challenging puzzles, and at times lengthy solves. It was also a creepy game that may be scary for some, which makes it an especially challenging solving environment. Your success with these puzzles and enjoyment of this experience will likely vary based on individual preferences.
We played Kamer 237 with the biggest King fan that we know… and she felt that this was a very strong homage.
Tips For Visiting
Book your hour with Kamer 237, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
