10:79 at Rigatoni Tower

Scarborough Fair Escape Rooms (Sydney, Australia)

Time limit: 60 minutes

Age limit: None

Player limit: 2-6

Difficulty: 4.5/5

Date visited: October 2025

Yippy-ki-yay, new record holders!

I first visited Scarborough Fair not long after they had opened, playing The Curse of Davy Jones with the kids and their cousins. It was a solid room with good and challenging puzzles, but we felt some tweaks had to be made in order for their games to live up to their full potential — not uncommon for a new establishment.

Fast forward to October 2025. With E working for the day, I took the boys down to the Shire to visit their cousins again. But since we had some free time beforehand, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to return to Scarborough Fair. This time, we chose to tackle 10:79 at Rigatoni Tower, their oldest and most challenging game (until the release of their latest game, Portal). It also happens to be inspired by Die Hard, which happens to be my favourite action movie of all time. Our decision was based on the belief that this room would have received the most feedback, and Scarborough Fair would have had the most time to refine and polish it up. Were we correct?

• Yes indeed! 10:79 at Rigatoni Tower was a very tough and unforgiving room with an abysmal success rate of 12% (apparently half the teams don’t even make it out of the second section), so it’s perfect for veteran teams that love a challenge.

• Like with all of Scarborough Fair’s experiences, you start off watching an intro/info video in their little private cinema, a fantastic idea that I wish more venues would employ.

• The backstory is that terrorists have planted a bomb in the tower and the police are too scared to go in, so it’s up to the team of players to save the day. 

• We had a lot of fun in this room. The puzzles were indeed difficult and required a lot of focus, careful reading, an ability to follow instructions, attention to detail, and teamwork. I don’t think this is a room we could have come close to completing when we last visited almost exactly a year ago.

• I believe Paul, the owner and room designer, must have implemented a lot of the feedback over the past year, because (contrary to some earlier reviews) the game flow felt quite smooth and the signposting was mostly sufficient for us to navigate the puzzles with no issues.

• There were maybe a couple of puzzles that didn’t feel as elegant as they could have been, but we were able to figure out the solutions due to experience and willingness to try different alternatives.

• It felt like a decently sized room thanks to excellent space utilisation, though there were a couple of areas that required some (but not all) players to crawl or crouch.

• The tech was strong — everything aligned with the theme, triggered correctly, and there were no hiccups. The final tech-heavy puzzle was particularly cool and added a sense of urgency and tension because of the time limit and the fact that you only have one chance to get it right.

• The main weakness of10:79 at Rigatoni Tower was theming and immersion. It’s not bad, but felt like props decorating an office environment as opposed to authentic floor-to-ceiling set design. That said, this didn’t make as much of a difference because it IS set in an office building!

• If you’re a Die Hard fan, you will get a kick out of all the movie Easter eggs littered throughout the experience. I know we did.

• Despite bit of bickering by the boys, we ended up completing the room with 13 minutes and 39 seconds remaining, setting a new “no clues” record — our very first one! We were surprised because such a time would not set records in most escape rooms, a reflection of just how tough this room was. It also felt especially satisfying as I know some insanely good escape room owners and enthusiasts have tackled this room before.

Escape time: 46 minutes and 21 seconds

Theming	Atmosphere	Puzzles	Creativity	Fun
B	B	A-	B+	B+

Verdict: A very solid room that will appeal to teams who love a tough challenge and those who are fans of Die Hard.

OVERALL RANK:

H	Z	J
B+	B+	B+