Adventure escape rooms in Melbourne
A lot of people arrive at an escape room having already decided one thing: they are not doing horror. What they usually discover next is that the only alternative on offer is described as family friendly, which reads as a polite way of saying easy.
That is a false choice and this page exists to remove it. Six of our sixteen rooms carry no fright element whatsoever, and among them are some of the hardest hours we run. Not frightening and not challenging are unrelated properties, and we rate them apart precisely so nobody has to trade one for the other.
The six
Game of the Dragon
South Yarra, difficulty 4/5, up to six playersA throne to claim and a great deal standing between you and it. Among the harder rooms in the network and the largest capacity of these six, so it suits a bigger group staying together.
Secret Agent Man
South Yarra, difficulty 4/5, up to six players, teens and upA field test with gadgets, layers and a lot of moving parts. The only one of the six carrying a teens-and-up recommendation, on complexity rather than content.
Treasure Island
St Kilda, difficulty 3/5, up to six playersA ghost ship and what is aboard it. Heavy on physical searching and mechanisms, which is why younger players lead in it. More on the genre at pirate escape rooms.
Cluemanji
South Yarra, difficulty 3/5, up to six playersA jungle that will not let you leave until the game is finished. Bright, tactile and busy, and one of the easiest rooms to put a mixed group into.
Monsterz
South Yarra, difficulty 3/5, up to six playersA monster world played entirely for warmth rather than fear. Built with younger players in mind, and the gentlest room in the network by some distance.
The Nine-Nine
Hawthorn, difficulty 3/5, up to six playersA comic police caper and a heist to pull off. Funny rather than tense, and consistently one of the most requested rooms we have for family groups.
How to read the difficulty numbers
Two of these six are rated four out of five and four are rated three. Nothing we run is rated one or two, so a three is not a beginner's room, it is the level at which a group working well together has a real chance inside the hour.
If nobody has done one before, take a three. Cluemanji, Monsterz, Treasure Island or The Nine-Nine.
If the group has a few rooms behind it, take a four. Game of the Dragon or Secret Agent Man will not be a formality.
If the group wants a genuine beating, the two rooms rated five also have no fright element, and they are covered on puzzle rooms. They cap at four players rather than six.
What "no scares" actually means here
It means no fright rating at all, not a mild one. These six contain no darkness used as a threat, no sound designed to startle, and nothing built to make a person jump. Two further rooms sit at a spooky rating, which is atmospheric and strange rather than frightening, and they are handled on fantasy escape rooms and sci-fi escape rooms.
Across the entire network, at every venue and in every season, nothing in any room is a person. We use no live actors, so even our restricted horror rooms contain nobody waiting in the dark. That is worth stating on a page for people ruling fear out, because it is usually the specific thing they are ruling out.
Every fright and difficulty rating is published room by room on the scare scale.
Which venue
Four of the six sit at South Yarra, which makes it the venue to pick if the whole group is avoiding horror and you want a real choice on the day. Treasure Island is at St Kilda and The Nine-Nine at Hawthorn.
If the party is split, with some wanting a fright and some not, book across rooms at one venue at the same start time. Everybody gets the hour they actually wanted, and the debrief is more interesting when two groups had opposite experiences.
Questions
Are these the kids' rooms?
Five of the six carry no age restriction, which is not the same thing. Two are rated four out of five and will test an adult group properly.
We have one person who really does not want a scare.
Then this list is the whole answer. Nothing on it has a fright rating, so there is no judgement call to make and nothing to warn them about.
Which is the hardest of the six?
Game of the Dragon and Secret Agent Man are both four out of five and groups disagree about which is tougher. They are hard in different ways.
Best one for a first escape room?
The Nine-Nine or Cluemanji, on the basis that both explain themselves immediately and neither wastes any of your hour teaching you its world.
Can eight of us play together?
Not in one room, since six is the cap. Two rooms at one venue starting together is the format, and it converts an awkward number into a competition.
Adventure is the widest filter we publish, so if it is still too broad, these are the narrower ways in.