Zodiac Killer

Fox in a Box (Gold Coast, Australia)

Time limit: 60 minutes

Age limit: None

Player limit: 2-6

Difficulty: Hard

Date visited: September 2025

Our final game on the Gold Coast was a last-minute addition (escape room addicts doing what escape room addicts do). I’ve always had a fascination with the Zodiac Killer, and this was one of their other rooms that got decent reviews, so we ended up choosing it over Wild West Saloon, which is apparently on the easier side. Here are my thoughts:

• The room concept is that you and your friends have been captured by the infamous Zodiac Killer (who was never caught in real life) and chained up in his lair. You have 60 minutes to find a way to escape before he returns.

• I liked how the room designers were ballsy enough to actually give the Zodiac Killer an identity and a backstory, which you gradually discover throughout the game and is actually integrated into the puzzles.

• The theming was generally good and aligned with the late-1960s theme. Nothing spectacular, but done well enough to create an eerie, ominous vibe when combined with the dim lighting and sound design.

• There was a good variety of puzzles, ranging from hunt and seek to traditional, mechanical, and tech. I would say this was one of the more difficult rooms on our trip. While we got off to a quick start, we actually asked for 2 hints in the end, both times because we failed to see certain objects in the room — one was hidden in plain sight; the other was just missed due to the lack of lighting.

• Apart from the creepy atmosphere, the room does have a jump scare or two. If you can handle sudden loud sounds, you’ll be fine.

• There was a really cool transition space that was surprising and enjoyable, though the second part of the room was unfortunately weaker in both theming and puzzles. There were some unnecessary/unrealistic props and a bunch of stuff that appeared relevant but turned out to be completely useless and wasted a lot of time.

• There was also one very frustrating puzzle that was extremely difficult to trigger correctly. We had failed it so many times that we thought we must have been solving it wrong, until Z miraculously got it to trigger on what must have been at least the 20^th attempt.

Escape time: 42 minutes and 49 seconds

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

Verdict: A solid, mildly scary room with good atmosphere and some strong elements but also a couple of letdowns that prevented it from being a truly great experience.

OVERALL RANK:

H	E	Z	J
B+	B-	B+	A-