Boxaroo - "Storyteller's Secret"

Cici Cao

Feb 10, 20203 min read

Updated: Apr 12, 2024

LOCATION:  Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Photo above is property of Boxaroo

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Storyteller's Secret
📅 DATE PLAYED: February 10, 2020
🎬 GENRE: Adventure
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 7.5/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-5PPL
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 75 Mins.
💰 PRICE: $40-47/PP (pending on group size)
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

📖 THE STORY

We are visitors of Emily Carter’s cabin. She’s a young writer whose bestseller adventure novels are known by fans from all over the world. What’s her secret?

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

From the moment that we stepped foot inside the cabin, our world changed. Reality disappeared and we were now inside of a story book. It was almost poetic the way the transition happened. There’s probably just one word to describe the scene that we saw... "BEAUTIFUL".
The colorful set design felt like a large canvas. As we were going through the room and solving the puzzles, every “brush stroke” made the room become more “alive”. The more we divulged ourselves into the room, the deeper we felt connected with it. The music and lighting also went perfectly with each chapter.
Set design and puzzle was fully absorbed as the story literally wrote itself. We’ve never seen this done by any other escape room that we’ve played till date.
Even though the physical space of the room was not the largest we’ve seen, the amount of content was surprisingly satisfying. Especially for a 75-minute room.
There were so many “wow” moments we didn’t even have time to think about it until the game finished. But this only left us wanting more.
The ending puzzle was another big “wow” moment for us. We loved the creativity behind it and how the developers even thought of it is beyond us.

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

If there’s one thing we can say to make this a perfect game for us (this is probably us nitpicking since we already love it so much), it would be to start the immersion from the door. It would be great if an “intriguing small puzzle” could be added to lure us into the storyline with some more interactive storytelling from the game master.

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

This room easily made it to our top-rated room list for 2020. It’s one of our favorite games for sure. We actually felt the emotion of the storyteller and still think about it until this day. If you are in Massachusetts, Boxaroo is a "must-do"! If you love adventure, a beautiful set design, and tons of intriguing puzzles, you’ll love this room for sure! We can’t wait to return to play their other games.

** Fun fact: It’s ingenious the way this room was making you reset the room for them as you complete your journey. You might want to rethink though the game after you played it on how they are able to do that.

🔎 HINT

“Revisiting” may not be a bad idea.

Photos above are property of Boxaroo

BOOK NOW

(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Boxaroo for providing us with a media discount for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.