Escape Room Review: Doldrick’s Crazy Train is off the rails fun

The Attractions Magazine team was invited out to Doldrick’s in Kissimmee, Fla. to try their all new game, Crazy Train. The room’s striking 1930s cartoon style aesthetic has intrigued the escape room community since its first teaser images were released, and based on Doldrick’s past successes, fans have been impatiently awaiting this game’s release ever since. Now that it’s finally out, is Crazy Train a runaway hit or does it need a little more steam? Read on to find out!

In Crazy Train, players take on the role of trainees in a very specialized mounted service (what exactly you’ll be mounted on I’ll leave as a surprise). But before you can take your place as a new mountie, you are tasked with guiding this train through forests and over mountains to reach your destination. Of course it’s not that easy as a nefarious villain named Skeemin’ Plotz (think Snidely Whiplash) will stop at nothing to derail your adventure and stop you in your tracks.

If this all sounds a little silly, that’s because it is – very silly. In fact, in all the best ways. The story line (like so much of the room) felt like it was lifted right out of an old timey cartoon. A runaway train, a mustache twirling villain, a plucky group of heroes, and an over-confident narrator with a Trans-Atlantic accent, Crazy train has it all.

I particularly enjoyed that the cartoonish nature of the room allowed an easy explanation for the inherent silliness of solving puzzles to make a train move. Why are we doing this? Because it’s a cartoon, that’s why. Crazy Train is also overflowing with Doldrick’s signature brand of humor and pop culture references. Even from the intro video (which in hindsight felt longer than most videos, but we didn’t care), the jokes start coming fast and furious and don’t let up for the entirety of the room. The pop culture references also don’t let up with nods to theme park attractions, ’90s kids shows, and Broadway musicals. And those are just the references we caught. The layered writing in these moments worked really well as those who don’t catch the references merely enjoy the lines, but those that do catch them are rewarded with extra enjoyment.

Stylistically, Crazy Train is an absolute masterwork of what it means to fully immerse players in a created world. Taking its cues from the early Silly Symphony style cartoons of the 1920s and 1930s, Crazy Train fully embodies that aesthetic. The experience throughout is boldly painted in stark blacks and whites in the over exaggerated style of the time. Our team dressed all in black and white to match the game and we highly recommend you do as well!

The art style is shown in every aspect of the room, and everywhere you look you are fully immersed in the room’s world from the fully painted and stylized floors, walls and props, to the wacky machinery required to run the train, to the happy cartoon scenery bouncing along outside the “windows.” And that’s just the visuals. The room is fully voice acted and even has an upbeat song (with fully original lyrics) that feels so natural we almost didn’t realize it wasn’t an actual song from the 1930s.

Crazy train also makes great use of its technology to enhance the experience and to never overshadow it. The “windows” on the train are each video screens playing looping animations of the world outside interspersed with story moments and scenery changes. The sheer number of animations that must be required is mind boggling.

There is also an effective use of projection mapping throughout the experience which is used to highlight key elements and enhance both the immersion and gameplay. We had a few hiccups here and there with some of the reactivity of the technology based on our interaction with it, but we chalk that up to more of us getting over excited and attempting to trigger things before they were ready. The physical props and mechanisms themselves were exactly what you would want them to be from this cartoon world and all felt sturdy, tactile, and fun to play with.

For gameplay, Crazy Train’s puzzles offered many unique spins on some classic styles that were truly allowed to shine in the cartoon world. The puzzle flow felt logical (well, with cartoon logic, but logic nonetheless!) and ultimately all made sense. The few times we felt stuck and asked for hints, it wasn’t because we weren’t understanding the puzzles, we had just overlooked an element. And of course the gamemaster was able to quickly understand what we were missing and get us back on track.

All of the puzzles had physical elements to them which felt satisfying and enjoyable to put together, take apart, or cartoonishly explode. As for gamplay flow as a whole, Crazy train is basically a completely linear experience with each task and puzzle being required before moving on to the next. This is truly neither a criticism or a complement, just a fact about the gameplay some players may have opinions on.

For our experience, there always seemed to be plenty to do without having to break off to solve multiple puzzles at the same time. We will note there was at least one puzzle that required listening to clues and while we didn’t ask about accommodations for those with special needs we do hope those accommodations can be made so all players can get the most out of the experience.

Crazy Train is one of the best escape rooms our team has had the pleasure of playing in Central Florida and stands as a testament to the designer’s creativity and ingenuity. Every aspect of the game, story, aesthetics, construction, and puzzles feel lovingly crafted and serve to fully immerse players in the world and take the experience to the next level. Our team of four highly experienced players made it out of the 75 minute room with about 17 minutes to spare and spent the majority of that time laughing and smiling and in awe of the experience. Crazy Train is a wild ride you will not want to miss.

For more information or to book your own ticket visit DoldricksEscapeRoom.com.

• We like to use the Morty app to track and rate all of our escape room experiences. You can find our reviews featured in the editorial section of any room we’ve done. And of course you can follow us on Morty at @Attractions!