Alcatraz

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Causeway Bay located on Hong Kong Island is one of the region’s most notable areas for its shopping malls, restaurants, and hotels. It is also home to Lost HK which features 10 escape games, including some in VR and AR. If travelling by MTR, your stop is Causeway Bay Station (Exit A, inside Times Square Tower 2). Head south on Matheson Street until you reach Yiu Wa Street. At Yiu Wa Street turn right and you will see the Lost HK sign.

The lobby area for Lost HK was the largest we’ve experienced compared to several other places we visited in Southeast Asia and was definitely on the roomier side by Hong Kong standards. Similar to other escape room companies in Asia, games were located on different floors of the building and Alcatraz required walking up two flights of stairs. The name Alcatraz is named after the famous federal maximum security penitentiary in San Francisco that ceased operations in 1963. At the entrance of the game, the game master provided us with a short story background of the room, and then we were individually placed into one of the three jail cells inside.

Alcatraz was a single room escape game and a majority of the experience was spent solving puzzles inside the individual jail cells. Although the overall size of the room was quite small, it was well built with the appearance of metal bars and cement walls that made you feel as if you were in a real prison.  At several instances, Alcatraz attempted to flesh out a story by providing us character profiles, but the background was rather weak and given the theme, their story was relatively predictable.  The room did possess several cool technological elements. Our personal favourite, while slightly off theme, involved a version of target practice that was required to release yourself from your own cell.

The strength of Alcatraz’s room quality is the highest contributor to the room’s immersion experience. Short of giving us orange jumpsuits to wear, the design of the room created a believable prison environment. One thing we did find different compared to other prisoner games we’ve played was the relatively bright lighting. We think that dimming the lights just a bit would create a more realistic feel to the room and increase the adrenaline and heart rate.

Puzzles in Alcatraz were mainly team based and required contributions from members in each cell to succeed. The game involved searching your own cell, then communicating and exchanging information with your teammates to solve the puzzles in each cell. Due to the co-operative and collaborative nature of the game, Alcatraz makes for a great team building activity for groups. Generally, we did not find puzzles overly difficult and enthusiasts may find the room is somewhat short. Lost HK also list the maximum number of players for Alcatraz at 12, but we would recommend no more than six to remain immersed in the environment and so that all members are involved in the game rather than being idle.

Overall, Alcatraz is a well-balanced room that fares well in all performance aspects of quality, immersion, and puzzles.  Although you probably won’t feel like Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz, the game will allow you to channel your inner Michael Scofield to escape from this prison.