How we evaluate

One of the key questions when designing escapegoats.de was how we wanted to evaluate escape rooms and immersive adventures. Do we create a ranking list based on average values? This is the usual procedure for most other review blogs. But I have decided against it. And I would like to explain this decision to you. I would also like to explain to you what is important to me in our reviews and how we rate things. But I can make one thing clear in any case: Reviews of escaperooms and immersive adventures are always subjective. And I’m certainly not going to claim that our reviews aren’t. What I can promise, however, is that we will always try to be fair.

Fairness

So what does it mean when I promise to be fair? It means that we know that every experience is different. Every experience is a snapshot in time. Whether players have a great experience depends on many factors, not all of which are within the responsibility or influence of the provider. For this reason, we only try to evaluate the factors that can be assessed independently of the group and the time. And we try to measure problems that occur by whether they could have been foreseen. Overall, for each evaluation we will ask ourselves how likely it is that other players will have similar experiences.

Which experiences are evaluated

We only rate escape rooms and immersive experiences if we have played them ourselves.
That is obvious.
But we don’t rate all the experiences we’ve had.
There are rooms that we played a very long time ago or where something went fundamentally wrong but was beyond the control of the provider.
I will not list these escaperooms here.
We have also played a large number of escape rooms, so it will be difficult to write a detailed review of every experience.
So we will concentrate on the experiences where we feel the urge to write a review for some reason.
This can be for a variety of reasons, but mostly it’s probably because we want to help other players find the right rooms for them.

Evaluation criteria

I have decided to use different rating categories to do justice to the different escape rooms and experiences.
We use the following categories and criteria for our reviews:

  • First impression: A good experience also depends on the beginning.
    This often determines the emotions with which players approach the room and whether you feel picked up or not.
    We rate this with up to 10 points
  • Setting, atmosphere & immersion: We rate the quality of the scenery, sound, smells etc. as well as the perceived immersion.
    Sometimes even a not super high-quality setting can create a great atmosphere.
    Here, too, we award up to 10 points
  • Scare factor: The scare factor is not really a rating scale, but rather an assessment on our part.
    We assess how scary or creepy an experience is.
    What counts here is not just the pure fear that a player feels, but rather the number of jumpscares or the general atmosphere of the room.
    The scale here ranges from 0% to 100%
  • Intensity: The intensity of the experience describes the degree of tension experienced by the players.
    This can be caused by a frightening atmosphere, sound, time pressure or much more and only partially correlates with the scare factor.
    Here too, the scale ranges from 0% to 100%
  • Acting: Here we rate the quality, commitment, timing and usefulness of the acting, if there are any actors in an experience.
    Again, we give up to 10 points
  • Puzzles: Although the focus of immersive adventures has shifted somewhat away from puzzles, puzzles and tasks are still a central component of every escape room or experience.
    Here we evaluate the creativity of the puzzles as well as the puzzle flow and the sensible use of the tasks.
    For example, there are quite simple tasks that contribute very well to the story and should therefore be rated highly.
    Here, too, up to 10 points are possible
  • Story: A good story is always part of a good experience.
    Although this is not so important in classic puzzle rooms, these experiences are not without a story either.
    As you would expect, there are up to 10 points here too
  • Owner: Even if the name only refers to the owner, we are evaluating the way in which we were received, how we were looked after and how committed the owners or game masters were. It is about the people we were in contact with before, during and after the experience. Points between 1 and 10 are also possible here, but we will refrain from giving very poor ratings and instead emphasize those that we remember particularly positively
  • Suitability: This is not a rating, but an assessment of who the room might be suitable for. We consider physical requirements, physical contact, darkness, triggers or certain types of players

Our conclusion on reviews

In addition to a written summary, we have also decided to classify experiences into certain qualitative categories.
The following ratings are possible with us:

“Don’t play”

I very much hope that we don’t have to use this category too often.
But of course there are still some escape rooms and experiences that we don’t recommend.
Either there is something so seriously bad or problematic that we wouldn’t advise anyone to play that room.
Or it’s simply a waste of money because the experience is so bad that it’s not worth the time or money.

“Average Experience”

If an experience falls into this category, you shouldn’t expect anything great.
It’s a room that’s fine all round and that you can definitely play.
However, we would not recommend traveling far or going to great expense for such an experience.
There is still a risk of being disappointed, even if there is no warning to avoid the room.
In school terms, we would give it a 3-4.

This category is where the escape rooms and experiences that are really worth playing start.
With a “Decent Experience” you can’t expect a top room, but you probably won’t be disappointed either.
It is worth playing these rooms and taking a short journey.
Nevertheless, they will not be the experiences that people talk about for weeks or that you will find on top lists.
In school grades, you would probably give it a 2.5.

Now we come to the absolute top rooms.
These are the rooms that you will find in the top lists and will be talked about for a long time to come.
Here, every euro is worth the experience and you can take a longer trip without being disappointed afterwards.
For most of these experiences, you can’t do much better and it’s only up to the taste of the players to decide which order to put them in.
Here we are talking about school grades between 1 and 2.

Only very few experiences receive our “must-play” batch.
This is because a room not only has to receive a great rating, but also have something very special to show off.
This can be an outstanding spectacle, a bombastic backdrop, a perfectly thought-out story or simply an optimal overall concept.