Escape Reality Central Coast: Jungala

This is probably the worst escape room we've done in a while. We normally check escape the review before booking but since we'd played a couple of Escape Reality games previously in Birmingham and this was a last minute booking we thought it would be ok. Firstly, the clue system is abysmal. You have to use an iPad to scan QR codes within the room, one of the QRs linked us to the wrong hint (one we'd already solved) and then it times out for 10 minutes. At this point, the gamesmaster should have stepped in but didn't as there isn't any audio within the rooms. There was a supposed hint button within the room. We got stuck for over 20 minutes, pressing the button, waving at the cameras and shouting and no help came. At this point, we were so frustrated. The frustration was made worse when the final room was just a count the objects, with no real innovative puzzles. The final room was too dark and with one torch between us, it was impossible to find everything required. We never found a few of the items we were looking for and just guessed to get through to the next puzzle. Trying to find something green, against a green backdrop, in a dimly lit room, with one torch is just ridiculous and not fun. The theming was non-existent. It feels like Escape Reality just want to run the games as cheaply as possible and we cannot recommend enough that Escapers avoid this room. When experienced Escapers can't get out of a room within the allotted time, the company really needs to review the why. We will not be back to experience their other rooms and we often make a day of it at one site. 

Sadly this is not a good escape room. 

Lots of counting objects around the room. Not my idea of fun. 

Also, the clue system here leaves a lot to be desired as does the games hosting. 

Pretty basic escape room flawed by the hint delivery system.

Escape Reality's hint system is bad. Really bad. There's no walkie talkies or audio feed into the room. I don't even think the games master can hear you! 

Instead you are given an iPad and asked to scan a QR code attached to the puzzles for hints. This used to give you a 5 minute penalty but they have supposedly removed this penalty now, however when we went to scan a QR code we were informed there would indeed be a penalty and so we didn't use it. Broken iPad maybe?

Because there's no audio feed into the room, the games master actually enters the room to give you hints! This totally ruins the entire experience and all feeling of being immersed in the theming is thrown out of the window. 

The room itself is fine. There's nothing special about it but also nothing overly negative. Count some objects here, put a code into here, rinse and repeat. 

We have played all but 1 of the rooms here now, but hadn't been at this venue for a long time as we were trying out other companies. Now that I have seen how a lot of other companies deliver hints, I can safely say that Escape Reality needs a total overhaul. Honestly I don't want to return for the final room until the hints delivery system is fixed. 

This is no reflection on the games master. They are working with what they have, it's such a shame they aren't given the tools needed to deliver the experience that I'm sure they want to deliver. 

Great for first timers!

A fun game with some quirky surprises. We flew through it as a team of two so I'm not surehow much there would be to do for a bigger team.

I enjoyed this game, the theming was good and a few good surprises on the way. We still didn’t love the hint system and when you call for help the games master comes into the room ... which isn’t brilliant