The Case of the Kidnapping

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Freeing HK is located in the highly populated and vibrant area of Mong Kok on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. If travelling by MTR, your stop is Mong Kok Station (Sai Yeung Choi Street Exit), then walk north. A word of caution, there is a second Freeing HK future location also on Sai Yeung Choi Street displaying a large Freeing HK signage. We initially went into this building before realizing that we were in the wrong location.

When we finally arrived at the Pakpolee Commercial Center, there was a long lineup to use the two available elevators of the 23 story building. We discovered later that the building was full of restaurants and shops and that’s where the majority of the people were headed. Since Freeing HK is located on the 4^th floor, it was much more efficient to use the stairs.

Freeing HK’s lobby is extremely small and the hallways are tight.  As we entered the lobby, there were multiple groups inside and we found it difficult to maneuver around to check in, use the lockers, and finally get to our game.  Prior to the game, we were given a single piece of letter size paper that outlined the story for the room.  The background was engaging and built up our excitement for the room, but we would have definitely preferred the traditional verbal or video introduction as this allows the company to set the tone and mood to the room.

In terms of room quality, Freeing HK did a great job at trying to maximize the area for the game by using every possible inch in this room including the utilization of crawl space. The room however, still felt cramped even with only our team of five people. The confined space made it difficult to move around and diminished our overall experience. In one particular area that was modelled to feel “high-tech”, cords and wiring were openly exposed leaving the impression that this area was poorly constructed. The room attempted to use a minimalistic environment to emulate the eeriness of a clinic/lab setting by using white walls and a limited amount of props, but unfortunately this only made the room feel very plain and bare.

The simplicity of the props and room design also took away from the immersive experience.  Without thematic decor, strong props, or story progression, it was difficult to identify where we were at each stage of the game and we quickly forgot about the overarching story. One thing that we did appreciate was that Freeing HK developed an ending to the story (albeit in Cantonese), and that the finale contained a few surprises which we will let you play to experience.

The puzzles in Case of the Kidnapping were fairly standard and there was a good variety of search, logic, and sound. The room only had a small amount of lock boxes which was a welcome change for us enthusiasts. There was one particular puzzle that we thought could use a little more direction as after struggling with it for a while, we discovered that our answer was correct but the pieces needed to be flipped around.

Overall, we would recommend The Case of the Kidnapping to those that are new to the escape room scene. For enthusiasts, you may find the difficulty level of this room on the easier side and the immersion experience to be lacklustre.