Memento

Cubic Escape Room (Sydney, Australia)

Time limit: 70 minutes

Age limit: Children under 12 require an adult

Player limit: 8+ recommended (under 15 requires adult)

Difficulty: 3.5/5

Date visited: July 2025

Cubic is perhaps one of Sydney’s less popular escape room establishments, but there’s recently been a bit of a buzz over their newest live-actor horror room, The Soul Catcher. Having really enjoyed the live actor experiences of The Sacrifice and Intruders at Mission Escape, we decided it was finally time to pay Cubic a visit, especially while they had a discount special that could save us quite a bit of money if we played multiple rooms on the same day. And so I booked their three most popular rooms, starting with Memento. With E wanting to only strain her brain for 2 rooms in one day, I did this one as a trio with the boys. 

Memento turned out to be quite an unusual experience. Cubic is known for being padlock free and narrative-driven, the type of rooms we have typically struggled with. The backstory revolves around a family and their memories, and I feel like how much a player likes the room will likely be tied to how much the story resonates with them.

The very first section of the room was rather unassuming, but we were presented with a vastly different room design every time a new door opened. On the surface, this might seem immersion-breaking, but it made sense as part of the overall narrative they were trying to convey. We particularly liked the kitchen, which had an extremely simple yet elegant design that matched the tone and narrative.

Contrary to some of the things I had heard, the theming and props at Cubic were absolutely fine, at least on par with many escape rooms we’ve been to. Memento did not look flashy, but it wasn’t supposed to given the theme.

The puzzles were fine for the most part. They started off quite straightforward but got more challenging as we progressed. This was the kind of room where every prop was only used once, but you might have to go back and forth between different sections for clues. There were also various animated videos and voice-over narrations throughout to help you fill in pieces of the memory puzzle and flesh out the story — but to be perfectly honest, most of these went over our heads 😂.

The clue system was done through a walkie-talkie, which was a little hard to hear at times. I also wasn’t a big fan of the GM simply telling you the answer as opposed to giving you a hint so you can figure it out yourself.

As a result, Memento did not resonate with me as much as I had hoped. It’s a perfectly fine room with an interesting concept and approach, but I feel like the story really needs to touch your heart, which is more likely if you’ve had a similar experience in your own life that you can relate to. J liked the room more than Z and I did, in part because of the story and also because of that kitchen theming.

Escape time: 59 minutes out of 70

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

Verdict: A padlock-free, narrative-driven room with some interesting design concepts, but how much you like it will likely depend on how much you can relate to its story.

OVERALL RANK:

H	Z	J
B	B	B+