The Other Side

Fox in a Box (Gold Coast, Australia)

Time limit: 60 minutes

Age limit: None

Player limit: 2-8

Difficulty: 4/5

Date visited: September 2025

Right after playing our very first escape room at Eclipse in July 2024, we asked our GM which other rooms she recommended, and she said one of her favourites was The Other Side at Fox in a Box. It’s taken us more than 14 months, but we finally got to play The Other Side on our Brisbane/Gold Coast trip in September 2025.

My thoughts are as follows:

• This was a brilliant game, one of my favourites of the entire trip. There is a lot of info about this room if you want to learn more about it, including what inspired its aesthetics and narrative, but I would personally recommend going in blind to fully enjoy the surprises. I think I had heard about its backstory before, but luckily, I had forgotten all about it by the time we played it!

• The first part of the room is rather unassuming, with cool retro aesthetics that exude an eerie air and sense of foreboding into the atmosphere. But the rest of the room was where the game delivers and truly shines. For a franchise room that has multiple replicas around the world, the set design and production value was very impressive. While we played it on the Gold Coast, there’s actually also the same room in Brisbane, though we heard the Gold Coast version is slightly bigger and better.

• It’s a slightly creepy room that younger kids might get scared of at certain points, but there are no live actors or jump scares.

• The puzzles were very fun, testing our hunt and seek skills as well as interpretation, observation, communication, and team work. While it can be done with 2 people, I felt our team of 4 — as usual — was the perfect size, especially as an extra pair of eyes or two can make a big difference.

• It was not a particularly challenging room, as we made it out without any help in 35 minutes. I would say most of the potential trip-ups came not from the difficulty of the puzzles themselves but from missing small details.

• Strictly speaking, it’s not a room that will blow you away with any specific elements. The theming, atmosphere, puzzles, flow, and tech were all great, but nothing escape room enthusiast wouldn’t have seen elsewhere. What made it special for me was how well everything was designed and put together, and I loved the cool transitions and reveals along the way.

• On a final note, I was not the biggest fan of how Fox in a Box scheduled all its rooms to start at the same time for every time slot. They do have a big reception area, but not staggering the start times means that it does get quite crowded and chaotic before the game starts, and getting there early (as they suggest) has no real benefit as you’ll just have to sit and wait anyway.

Escape time: 35 minutes out of 60

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

Verdict: The GM who recommended us this room back on the first day of our escape room journey was right: This is a classic room. Cool vibe, fun puzzles, and excellent execution of a clever concept. There’s a reason why The Other Side can be found in various locations across Australia and around the world.

OVERALL RANK:

H	E	Z	J
A+	B	A+	A