Octagon House

This is a tough one to write. Play at your own peril. This is a “thumbs up” if everything worked smoothly, but our experience was a “thumbs down” overall. Octagon House is a very unique and inspired escape room that is both thoughtfully and lovingly crafted. The entire experience however was also, unfortunately, marred by multiple technical difficulties. Key elements were flat out not working, solved puzzle elements would trigger, but were not obvious they activated leading to confusion on how to progress, coupled by various issues with game flow. I debated how to rate this room as it wasn’t a completely terrible or unenjoyable experience, but I also find it’s probably undeserving of a thumbs up in its current state. There is zero excuse that an employee should have to intervene and actually enter the game, multiple times during your playthrough, to remedy issues and errors. It’s in strong need of some overhauling, playtesting and TLC to ensure an exceptional player experience. I wanted to give this a thumbs up, but I just couldn’t and settled on a thumbs down. Details below. Lets start with the good. The business clearly loves what they do. The GM was very nice, professional and did the best they could even with all the problems. The Octagon Room is a labor of love. It’s unique and definitely has a surprising level of detail given the budget of the business. It’s an impressive use of space, with a floor plan I would have loved to see during its planning stages. I’ve genuienly never seen anything with this kind of layout, and it deserves credit where credit is due. You never know what’s going to be behind each door, and it kept you interested and engaged, wanting to see what happened next. Story is iffy, could be less vague and actually spooky, as it’s not exactly focused. Gameplay is basic enough, however some things are overlooked and not clear enough about how to advance, leading to a lot of issues with flow which could be easily fixed with just a tiny bit more attention to detail. There are some genuinely atmospheric rooms and we really loved how much effort and detail went into the execution and theming of each room. Definitely high marks and the high point! Now onto the bad, and this is a doozy. A lot of props and other facade elements are in need of maintenance or refreshing, which detracted from the overall experience and any potential immersion. The introduction by the GM is far too long about what to do and not to do (not the GM’s fault), moreso than any business I’ve ever visited. I’m talking like, 7 minutes straight of gameplay explanation and needless exposition. Usually, this means people are getting incredibly confused about how to progress and wrecking the place. Never a good sign. This became very apparent upon entering when you were immediately met with a vase that is visibly, and literally, taped to the floor and the GM basically giving away how to solve the first puzzle. The gameplay hit multiple snags and was plagued by issues that were in fact, game breaking and prevented us from progressing, in which the GM had to intervene (on multiple occasions). Not the most ideal solution for any playthrough, but the situations were unavoidable unfortunately. One time? Okay (maybe). But four separate times? It’s honestly unacceptable, especially when you’re charging people for an “immersive” experience. Our timer would pause multiple times, and other times keep running whenever a major issue arose. What was a supposed to be around 45-50 minutes of gameplay probably got stretched to about 1 hour and 10 minutes (or more). There were moments where we just had to stand around for minutes until the GM could walk from the control room and meet us. I’m really between a rock and a hard place here. I don’t like giving poor reviews to businesses, especially small ones trying to compete with the big guys. But I think it’s very necessary to point out glaring issues out so they can improve and survive. I really did like the room, and this would be one I would really recommend IF it wasn’t plagued with problems. But I’ve also played a lot of escape rooms at this point, and there is an expectation (at the very least) of delivering a smooth experience. I’m not asking for the world. I’m asking for a good time. I think that’s fair as a paying customer. If and when these problems are fixed, I recommend you go check it out. As of this writing? I cannot recommend it and I would say wait until they, hopefully, overhaul it.

Didn’t love it. Lots of random stuff in the room. Nothing too challenging

Loved it! This is a unique room unlike ive ever seen before definitely worth it! Zack is also super great!

Very well thought out room with tons of rooms to go through. Staff here is always excellent.

We enjoyed the room. It is a good medium difficulty room for our family playing 2 adults and 2 kids (13 and 10 years old). We liked the mystery of the room with very clear and intuitive flow of the game.

It was fun, puzzles were interesting but it was overall pretty easy if you’ve done a lot of other rooms. Staff was super nice.

We really enjoyed this one! It flowed well and we enjoyed the mystery of it all. :) Terri is amazing. We will definitely be back to try out the rest of their rooms!

Unique room. Lots of fun and a bit spooky. Decor wasn’t great, but it got the job done.

Very unique room, I haven’t seen this concept before and thoroughly enjoyed it. They said it was the room they put their heart and soul into and it shows