Steampunk: Alchemist Revenge

Quest Room (Brisbane, Australia)

Time limit: 60 minutes

Age limit: None

Player limit: 2-5

Difficulty: Medium 3/5

Awards: Best of Morty (2024)

Date visited: September 2025

This was our second game at Quest Room following Sherlocked. We’ve always been a fan of the steampunk theme, though the boys and I were weary after our first steampunk-style room, Kraken: Nemo's Revenge at Escape This, was a huge disappointment.

Here are my main points:

• We really enjoyed this one, and E absolutely loved it, listing it as one of her favourite rooms. It just shows that it does not matter what the theme is as long as the room designers pay attention to the puzzles, game flow, and the overall player experience.

• The theming was very good. It’s quite a large space, and each section of the room was filled with sturdy, metallic steampunk-themed props, though it’s not quite at the level of rooms that have floor-to-ceiling theming and immersion. That said, the room was immaculately maintained and clean.

• Despite it being an older room, the tech was still impressive, and must have been mind-blowing for players back when it was first released. I can’t imagine the amount of wiring hiding behind the walls.

• The strength of the room lay in its puzzles, of which there were many and all flowed seamlessly from one to the next, thanks to some fantastic signposting. There was a good mix that tested our skills of observation, pattern recognition, timing, senses, and dexterity. We felt very busy all throughout, but it never took long before we figured out what we had to do next because everything was logical. There was one particular mechanism in the first section of the room that we loved and set the tone for the rest of the room.

• A couple of the puzzles were actually very similar to those in Kraken: Nemo's Revenge, demonstrating that many escape room creators do indeed source props and puzzles from the same suppliers (mostly in Russia and Europe). However, the puzzles were just done so much better in this room, mostly due to the modifications made and partly due to the excellent signposting. Attention to detail makes a huge difference.

• We never really got stuck on anything and didn’t need any hints, yet still took just under 41 minutes to complete the room, so I would say the challenge comes mainly from the volume of puzzles as opposed to their difficulty.

Escape time: 40 minutes and 52 seconds

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

Verdict: An older steampunk-themed room with great puzzles and flow that still feels fresh, thanks to tech that was ahead of its time, appropriate modifications and tweaks over the years, and outstanding maintenance. 

OVERALL RANK:

H	E	Z	J
A-	S	A-	A-