Hongdae escape room Deliver, level 4 with no jump scares: Cube Escape

The difficulty and fear factor of the Deliver theme at Cube Escape, an escape room café in Hongdae

Why we chose an escape room café for an indoor date in Hongdae

I've had a lot more free time lately, so I end up visiting Seoul often — this time we came to Hongdae for a date.

It was so hot out that an outdoor date felt like it would wear us out physically, so we headed to Cube Escape, an escape room café in Hongdae, for something indoors instead.

I like a normal date too, but coming here once in a while to solve an escape room actually gets our brains turning and makes us think more flexibly, so we keep coming back.

Since we hang out in Hongdae so much, this was already our third visit to Cube Escape Hongdae Branch.

We'd already done two themes here before — Romeo Point and Gestapo — so this time we tried the Deliver theme.

What is the story concept of Cube Escape's Deliver theme?

To give a quick rundown of Cube Escape Hongdae's Deliver theme: through a friend's referral, you take a short-term, high-paying part-time job that's supposedly just delivery work. But it turns out you've been dragged into something illegal, and now you have to escape.

The QR code video and staff briefing before entering Deliver

Before starting the theme, you sit down and scan a QR code with your smartphone, which plays a video explaining the rules and things to watch out for.

After watching the whole video, you tell the staff, and they go over the theme's story once more in person.

How many hints does Deliver give? Now a smartphone hint system

To explain the hint limit first: our Deliver theme allowed a total of 4 hints.

The way you get hints has changed since our last visit. Before, you'd use an intercom to ask staff for a hint directly.

This time, you entered the puzzle number and a hint code through a smartphone to get the hint, which felt a bit more convenient overall.

The time limit was the standard 1 hour, same as other themes, but we were immersed as soon as we walked in, so the hour felt like it flew by.

How hard and how scary is Deliver at Cube Escape Hongdae?

I'm not a fan of themes that startle you or feel scary, so Deliver's difficulty and fear factor mattered a lot to me.

The difficulty was rated 4 out of 5 stars by Cube Escape Hongdae's own scale — pretty high. Romeo Point, which I'd done before, was also rated 4 stars, but we cleared that one fairly smoothly and escaped, so I wasn't too worried about the difficulty this time.

But it was listed as having some fear factor, so I went in a bit nervous, worried there'd be jump scares.

Turns out, Deliver didn't have nearly as much of that startling or scary stuff as I expected. If you dislike horror or scare easily, this is a theme you can handle without much trouble!

Did we escape? Failing Deliver with the last 2 puzzles left

Unfortunately, even after using all 4 hints, we failed to escape with 2 puzzles left. Ugh. The theme requires you to really shift your way of thinking at points, which I think is why it took us so long.

Looking for an escape room in Hongdae? Give the Deliver theme at Cube Escape a try.