The Mystery of the Missing Crown Jewels

Xcape Wellington (Lower Hutt, New Zealand)

Time limit: 60 minutes

Player limit: 2-8

Age limit: Under 14s require adult in the room

Difficulty: 7/10

Date visited: December 2025

This was the second of our 5 rooms in one day at Xcape — one of the highest rated escape room establishments in New Zealand — situated in Lower Hutt, about 15 minutes north of Wellington.

Here are my thoughts:

• Expectations can be a funny thing. Of all the rooms at Xcape, this art/jewel heist theme was the one I was least excited about, but Crown Jewels turned out to be my favourite game at this venue.

• I really enjoyed the size of the room, which was not huge but felt bigger and longer due to clever space utilisation. There were multiple spaces that were each unique in their own way, creating a sense of adventure as we progressed through the game.

• The props in this room were amazing. You can tell they really put quite a bit of money into the budget, as the artworks, jewels, and other props all looked to be of very high quality — and dare I say even realistic.

• Xcape utilised a hybrid hint system in which our GM could see and hear us at all times, and there was also a screen inside the room that showed our remaining game time and any hints the GM wanted to deliver.

• The puzzles were what elevated this game to another level for me, especially as there were some cool concepts and use of tech we had not seen before. We found the linear puzzles, which aligned well with the jewel heist theme and were largely tech-based, to be challenging but fair, requiring various types of skills to solve and teamwork to enhance efficiency.

• The only hiccup was when a crucial piece of tech malfunctioned, rendering us unsure of what to do next. It was only when we asked for GM assistance that the fault was discovered, but unfortunately the next mechanism broke down too, and the puzzle had to be manually bypassed.

• Even though we wasted a lot of time due to the tech issue, I believe things evened out in the end because the puzzle that was bypassed was a very complex one that I think would have taken us a while to figure out anyway.

• Out GM told us that the owners of Xcape purchased the venue next door and are in the process of building a brand new set of rooms that promises to be even bigger and better!

Escape time: 45 minutes and 44 seconds

Theming	Atmosphere	Puzzles	Creativity	Fun
A-	A-	A	A-	A

Verdict: A super fun and engaging heist room with high production value and challenging, thematic puzzles. Our favourite room at Xcape!

OVERALL RANK:

H	E	Z	J
A	A	A	A