The Quest for the Throne

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We’ve previously visited Lock & Key in Buffalo NY to play The House of Secrets in early 2017 and Virus Outbreak in early 2016. This time we were directed to their new location across the street. As is the norm in Buffalo, the ease of metered street parking depends upon the time of day. We had little trouble on a weekday afternoon.

On the day of our visit, the new Lock & Key lobby was still in the process of being decorated. It was already looking sharp, with plenty of seating and some escape items for sale. The staff was friendly and excited to have us play their new room, The Quest for the Throne. Some of us enjoyed the pre-room presentation more than others, but we were all eager to start our quest to find the true heir to the throne!

Upon entering into the king’s chamber we took note of the medieval hardwood furniture and the plethora of props—it didn’t take long before we were fighting to wear the knight’s helmet. The good quality continued as we uncovered more items, but we were a little disappointed with some visible camera wires and the lightweight construction of the Excalibur-esque sword. We didn’t experience any major room flaws during our gameplay so we considered this a slightly above average room quality.

While the props and furniture were in good shape, we didn’t fully agree with all of the decor choices when considering that the players would be immersed in a story. The style of the walls, throne and rug were a great fit with the theme, but some of the other furniture didn’t match our expectations medieval times. The ceiling was bare with standard fluorescent lighting—a warmer, candle-lit style would have been a better match. We liked the choice for the subtle background music. Scenery is just half of what gives an escape room its immersive qualities. The progression of the story is the other half and we felt that The Quest for the Throne was average because we didn’t feel that engaged with the narrative. We would have traded in some of our time spent with puzzles for a slower pace and more explanation about the progress of our quest.

Lock & Key has always been really strong with their puzzles and The Quest for the Throne did not disappoint. Nearly all of the puzzles were inclusive and covered a wide range of difficulty. We enjoyed that some solutions led us down open paths rather than just rewarding us with a new object, key or combination. Experienced players may find some overlaps with puzzles they’ve seen in other escape rooms, but you can also expect to see some very unique interactions. We didn’t run into any problems with the quality and the designs were generally on point with the theme, however some of the puzzles were hard to relate back to the story. There were a lot of locks to open and some of the number games may leave people wanting for pen and paper.

Overall, we felt that Lock & Key did a very good job with what they had. The room is small, but it is smartly arranged so that a team of 4-6 will not feel cramped (a max of 8 people sounds accurate for this escape room). Our group of 4 enjoyed the escape and we appreciated the inclusive puzzles, smooth flow and lack of major design flaws. The Quest for the Throne is a good fit for beginners and intermediate players looking for a medium difficultly room with a moderate level of immersion.