🎵 Do the plesiosaurus! 🎵

overview

Seeking shelter from the snow, you find yourself trapped in the cabin of a crazed carny hunting three of Vermont's most mysterious creatures. Can you uncover the truth, solve the madman's puzzles, and save Champ?

Well, actually we'll be saving 3 creatures today, but Champ's the most famous one, so they put him/her/them on the backstory.

The true story behind this game is a bit sadder. Balthazar Webb is the owner of a carnival, and he's captured three of Vermont's monsters (Vermonsters? get it?) to use in his show. We must discover the history behind the carnival, Balthazar's life and his encounters with the creatures, and save the three monsters - Bigfoot, the Awful, and Champ - before... well... something happens. The story doesn't exactly explain what will happen when we run out of time, but whatever. We're here to save Champ!

The story unfolds throughout the room, delving deeper into Balthazar's past and making us realize how much of a terrible person he is (or was?).

quick stats

gameplay time: 60 minutes

recommended team size: 2-5 players

difficulty: 3/5

scare level: 1/5

location: Burlington, VT

website: https://www.escaperoom60.com/

considerations: -occasional loud noises -one prop smells bad (purposefully)

scenery

Vermonsters starts out in a pretty nice-looking cabin meets carnival. The interesting thing about this game is that they don't really try to hide anything. Pretty much everything you'll use is right out in front of you already. It's kind of overwhelming when you first walk in.

Solving a couple of puzzles, you'll find a window looking out to the impending blizzard. For whatever reason, after this was opened up, I felt a lot less like I was in an escape game and a lot more like I was in a cabin. The room didn't exactly feel cabin-like until the window was revealed.

Through a set of metal bars lies the second room, which pretty much looks like the same as the first. But oh, no, don't underestimate this room. You see, this is where Balthazar keeps some of his monsters, even if they're hidden a little at first.

The room looks fine. I honestly don't think Escape Room 60 thought they had to do much, due to the excess of props, locks, and boxes in the room. If you took all the props away, it'd probably not give off much cabin vibes, especially with all the clown posters around the rooms and the big carnival plinko game on a wall.

However, the fact that they did include all those props makes the room feel more alive, somehow. Even if it doesn't exactly feel like a cabin, or a carnival, it still feels cool.

puzzles

The puzzles in Vermonsters were a mixed bag. Most of them were fine. Some of them really shone, especially the ones that related to getting the monsters. Some were pretty bad.

All the puzzles relate to the end goal - free all three monsters. It's just that some felt very out of place, and the majority, while entertaining, got me thinking, "So... what does this have to do with finding a monster, exactly?"

There was one particular part where we encountered a monster, who then left a code on one of the props. It would have been a cool encounter, were it not for the technical difficulty (see pros and cons), but I was confused about why a monster was leaving us a code.

However, if you take a step back, the puzzles are fine. Most of them are pretty fun to figure out, especially the ones where you're calling a monster. After the moment I mentioned above, I thought, "It doesn't make sense, but does it really matter?" And the answer, I think, is that if you're looking for simply a good time with some friends, this is a fine room for you. But if you want to play an escape room where you're transported to a different world, this isn't the one.

You'll still feel like you're in an escape room. A fun escape room? Yes. But an escape room nonetheless.

pros and cons

pro: puzzles that are fun to play! The giant plinko game was most certainly a highlight, and a puzzle about a ski resort was clever and resourceful.

con: it almost feels like the puzzles, set, and props are all disagreeing with each other about what they want this game to be. Sometimes it feels like a cabin escape, sometimes a carnival, and sometimes a different thing entirely. I think Escape Room 60 is trying to achieve a little too much with these mixtures of themes. Often it doesn't really work.

pro: probably a great room to introduce people to escape rooms!

con: during one of the only monster encounters, the audio was entirely off. It's a lot less impressive to see a monster silently roaring at you. I feel like if this technical issue didn't happen, it would have been a lot more memorable.

pro: two words. "Sasquatch Urine".

con: it was very unclear when a monster had been freed. Multiple moments our group went "wait, that's it? Did we free a monster?" and we would never know until we found another piece of paper, either telling us to continue hunting for the monster, or instructions to find the next one.

con: there was a point where the game could have had a perfect ending, but Escape Room 60 continued the puzzle train for a couple more minutes. I would have definitely appreciated the game ending a couple puzzles earlier. We had reached the climax - and then just kept going.

con: I was promised an animatronic. He did basically nothing. There was no use for him, and he didn't even help solve a puzzle. He just said some handy-dandy words (that we didn't need) and gave us a key. There was so much more potential for him, and I love him, so please?

overall

Vermonsters is just - there's no other way to put it - crazy. Sometimes that's a really good thing, and super fun, and sometimes it really drags the gameplay. I can see people loving this game, and I can see people hating it. It really depends on what kind of person you are. If you're looking for a fun night out with friends, you can't do much better than Vermonsters if you're around Burlington. If you're looking for an immersive experience to take you away for an hour, then you're gonna want to look for a different venue. Escape Room 60 knows how to develop puzzles, and now they just have to work a little more on what story they're trying to tell.

rating

7/10