Immersia: The Lost Temple of Cthulhu

Game experience: VERY GOOD
Immersion	Puzzles	Hosting

The immersive jungle environment. Some mechanisms that feel like magic. The very friendly welcome and immersive gamemastering.	A somewhat less impressive final part in the last room.

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I’m sure that you’ve heard of Cthulhu, this cosmic God created by H.P. Lovecraft, a 100m-tall humanoid with an octopus head and dragon wings:

(author Dominique Signoret, licensed under CC BY 3.0)

What you might not know, though, is that (according to Wikipedia), its name should not be pronounced kə-THOO-loo, but [kʟ̝̊ʊlʔ.ɬuː], with a “voiceless velar lateral fricative” (please don’t ask me for a vocal demonstration). Luckily for you, you won’t need to pronounce correctly his name to play Immersia’s game (although, on second thoughts, that might help…)

“Beginning of the 20th century. A meteor crash in the Pacific Ocean created a tropical archipelago from which forces of evil are summoned…

Strange noises and terror emanate from there and all those who ventured in the jungle vanished. Unfortunately, Professor Thornton, head of the secret society for the fight against evil, has bad news: only little time remains before fanatical cultists awaken Cthulhu, the demon of destruction…

He needs your help to thwart their plans: are you ready to face the darkest of evils?

So put on you ranger boots, sharpen your machete, and enter the jungle, in search of Cthulhu’s Lost Temple.”

The immersion was sophisticated on every respect. It starts with the pregame, in a corner of the hall evoking the jungle/Cthulhu atmosphere. You will be presented the scenario and distributed the roles: who will be your cartographer, your astronomer and your expert in ancient languages? And your team leader – who, as anyone knows, always makes bad decisions? And who will inherit the central, probably most important last role? The gamemaster will help you by walkie-talkie in a both immersive and humorous way during your adventure. The decors were created by movie professionals, and this really shows, especially in the first room, which features very detailed and beautiful jungle elements – not an easy environment to reproduce in a room! The final room was more polarized, very impressive for one part, and slightly less for another part. The scenario will evolve during your time in the room, and unexpected events as well as special animations will bring some exhilarating tension, enhanced by the sound immersion.

The puzzles are of good quality. The game is largely a second-generation one, with very few padlocks, and a lot of electronics-based systems that enhance the magic of the Cthulhu atmosphere. The searching process is relatively easy, except maybe for one element. There are no real red herrings, although one room element is a bit borderline in this respect.

The welcome and debriefing were extremely friendly, and our gamemaster Clovis – one of the managers – is a true passionate with a lot of innovative ideas for the future evolution of escape games. He was very convincing in his role(s) during the game, and this really added a lot of value! He also provided appropriate hints.

The puzzle structure was somewhat sequential at places, with a limited number of puzzles (though quite good ones), and some spaces are a little bit narrow, so I would rather recommend this room for four players – although you will still certainly have a nice time at five players. In any case, this was a very good discovery, and this recently-opened venue enters right away among the major players of Paris’ escape scene. A game much recommended to every fan of non-Euclidian dimensions and out-of-spectrum colors!

Game tested in April 2018

Other reviews (in French): Les Glandus, Escape Game Paris, Carte Escape Game, L’Escapeur