Jeffrey K.
Yelp
I was disappointed in Paranoia Quest's Zombie Apocalypse game. I would like to address some of the issues I have, but in doing so, I will try to avoid spoiling any part of the game. However, if you want to avoid anything at all, please read just the summary and skip the detail section.
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SUMMARY:
Paranoia Quest has great production values but the overall experience is lacking. There are some great ideas in play, but overall, it fails to live up to its potential.
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DETAIL: [Will try to avoid spoilers, but read at your own risk]
The Zombie Apocalypse room was not a good experience for me or my group. The room suffers from vague puzzles, odd bottlenecks, and an inability to keep everyone engaged.
I will start with the positives. The venue itself is clean, well-prepared, and has great production values. Everything is well done, which makes the frustrating parts of the experience even worse. You can tell there is a lot of time, money, and thought that went into the planning of the room.
If you play with a live zombie, he is fun and looks great. His (or her?) movements are believable and there are some fun surprises. The structure of the game is such that you will have multiple opportunities to run into him. I thought he did a great, fun job.
Now on to the negative. First, I hope the staff and owner of Paranoia Quest will read this in the spirit of constructive criticism. I'm not trying to be rude, or just run down something they have worked hard on. However, they deserve to hear some feedback to make their game better. I mention this because before we ever started the game, the owner complained bitterly to us about a recent customer who left a bad review. I don't know who he was talking about, but it was really awkward.
The main problems with Zombie Apocalypse stems from the design of the puzzles. You will be a part of a large group. There were eight people in ours. However, several of the early puzzles are so cramped and narrow that only one person can view the clues at a time. Space is super tight, so while one or two people look around, the rest of the group just stands there with nothing to do.
This is a problem for at least the first half of the game. I spent the first 30 minutes doing nothing because the clues were one-track and there was nothing to be done until it was your turn to view the clues up close. It's unclear where the challenge even begins, actually, Without specific spoilers, you spend a lot of time waiting around while the clock runs down waiting to get to the meat of the game.
This improves somewhat near the end, when things are more intricate and there are some cool props like custom apps on an iPad and lots of well-done visuals. This should have been the focus of the game, not the boring bits in the first half.
Having said this, though, there are problems even in the well-done areas. Some items are not to be touched (computers, TV's, and other breakables). This is fine, but they are not clearly marked. One person in our group accidentally sat on the computer, because they didn't realize it was a custom case. The markings were not clear enough. Even worse, one clue specifically references the television, even though it has a do not touch sign on it. The clue reads like you need to manipulate the television itself, even though the real action is elsewhere. It's needlessly confusing and people don't know what to do, or how much to burrow around when some technology is interactive and others are off-limits.
Overall, this place has some potential. However, they really need to rethink some of their design decisions. We had way more fun at the more low budget Escape Room Atlanta the next day. Paranoia Quest could be a lot better if they tighten up some of their clues and have a more friendly, enthusiastic staff (the fun zombie excluded).
