Prison BreakThe Escape Game - OrangeEscape roomIRLA surprisingly difficult room for what you might expect in an outdoor mall escape room offering public rooms. There were definitely a few challeges for the puzzles a long the way that led us to be very shot on time. A few clever puzzles in here that were a bit of a surprise to see in the public setting, i.e. might not consder them for strangers working together. Setting and atmosphere are fantastic, like their other rooms. Puzzles are solid in here as well overall and on theme. Good solid room.
Cold War BunkerWild Goose Escapes - FullertonEscape roomIRLAlmost purely mechanical room with some tech integrated. Decently difficult puzzles, kinda surprising. May possibly be that it felt like a few connections were slightly difficult to make, so possibly continuity. Puzzles are linear so we definitely got lost a few times. Overall a solid room though, enough of an entertainment to be worthwhile
Timeliner: Train Through TimeThe Escape Game - OrangeEscape roomIRLWas a little wary of an escape room in an outdoor mall offering public escape rooms. We arrived rather late in the evening and managed to do two rooms with a private party. Room would fit small to medium groups, anything more might get to be a little crowded. Story is somewhat stereotyical time travel narrative but is executed well enough in a slightly larger setting of a train. Each time period you jump to offers only a few puzzles per, but still interesting and well done enough. Puzzles aren't too hard but challenging enough to be interesting. Overall an interesting room that was a bit of a surprise.
The AtticEscapeX Rooms - IrvineEscape roomIRLA decently put together, non linear room. Everything's spread out so for decently larger groups, you'll be able to do something without steeping on someone's toes. Mostly easy-medium puzzles, although a surprising amount of them with lots to do. A few red herrings in the mix, but not too bad, and the actual puzzle is usually close by. Spooky atmosphere, I've found I've had to adjust my reviews as almost nothing is scary to me.
The Ghost Of MentryvilleArcane Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLThis room, like some other immersive rooms its much more theater with escape elements. There is an actor involved in this room, but the interaction is strictly story driven. Room itself is semi spooky possibly for some, but there's no scary elements just limited to decoration. Atmosphere for the room is excellent, appropriate to the story, and very well done, particularly the table that is a focus for a majority of the room. Keen eyed folks will have their opportunity and another solution. Great room for my 100th!
London Fog: The Mists of TimeThe EntrapmentEscape roomIRLGreat room, unexpectedly fantastic puzzles. We've admittedly not done the other rooms in this room that apparently follow the story, so there may have been some thing that led up to that. Space seems surpsingly small but opens up into a fair amount of space. Well decorated, and a pretty good atmosphere for the story. There's a good amount of the environment that's built into several of the puzzles, even despite some of it not appearing to be. Takes some investigation for bits and pieces of the room. Great use of puzzles as well. There's only one lock in the entire room and that's for a door. The rest of the puzzles are a part of the room. A few puzzles are moderately challenging, but for the most part its a solidly well leveled room in terms of difficulty.
EdelineCloud EscapeEscape roomIRLA surprisingly great room! Atmosphere is fantastic, gives a very Japanese-esque house/doll vibe. There's great use of tech in this room, no puzzles lead to any code or physical locks. Plenty of tech in the atmosphere and ambiance. Quite a bit of ambiance are tech involved. Puzzles are pretty good, as mentioned there are no simple combination/code locks, everything is puzzles that involve the ambiance and are very integrated into the environment. Story is good, nothing particularly different necessarily, but the story wrapped around the atmosphere definitely knocks it up several notches comparatively. Definitely recommend.
The Initiation - CLOSEDNerdy by Nature Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLFairly simple room. Aesthetic is simple older style, but involving a few hidden treasures and puzzle, a la National Treasure style hidden things within other objects. Puzzles are mostly cryptographic in nature with puzzles leading to codes for physical locks but fits the theme appropriately though. Room is fairly linear so there's no getting lost.
Grinchmas Carnival - CLOSEDLegacy Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLA pretty straight forward room. TA few of the puzzles seem a little bit a stretch, it did take one clue and even then while we figured it out, not sure how we were meant to be led there. Room is an overall reskin of another for the holidays, and while reskins can be difficult, it did feel fairly low effort.
TombstoneMaze Rooms - West LAEscape roomIRLGood atmosphere in this room, pretty well designed. Lots of little rooms make up the town street, most of which you get to enter. Plenty of tech use but like Garretts, the tech is often used to get to a standard lock/combination solution. A few practical puzzles as well, but makes sense for the room, and actually quite clever. The ending is fantastic and was a surprise, pretty well done.
Whatever Happened To The Garretts?Maze Rooms - West LAEscape roomIRLFun little room. Not overly difficult, but a few clever puzzles in it. Plenty of nostalgia in this room as well. Some great 80's themed items make for a great atmosphere. There's some pretty clever usage of tech as well associated with it, using old Ataris, etc. Overall not terribly difficult though, but still a good little room as it was.
Something's Out There!Maze Rooms - West LAEscape roomIRLThis is a great room! The atmosphere is good, reminiscent of slasher films. First room I constantly felt like I needed to wipe my shoes off before going inside, it was that good. Puzzles are pretty good, I would say they fit the theme pretty well. Good use of tech in this room, a lot of maglock style of releases. I hesitate to say that there was anything broken persay, but a few maglocks in our visit failed to release on queue. I know they can be slightly finicky, and they did release on the GM's command. The rest of the tech usage was spot on and worked great for the room. Probably my favorite room out of the 3 at this location.
13th Basement - Naughty Elf - CLOSEDExit Game OC - AnaheimEscape roomIRLThis is a fun take on the already existing 13th Basement room. Puzzles for the most part are the same, but the addition of a live actor and the interactions that involves alter the puzzles accordingly and in some very fun ways. The live actor is not a spooky or scary addition to the room, just a fun slightly naughty one. It is not any scarier than the normal 13th Basement. The puzzles are still fun and well integrated. Decent use of tech, making this an interesting room.
Pirates Of TortugaPanIQ Room - Long BeachEscape roomIRLFor some reason I feel like pirate based rooms are usually just a little bit better than others and this is no exception. The room has a great atmosphere and is pretty well designed for the pirate theme. The puzzles are pretty well done and all on theme. There were a few clever uses of tech that we weren't expecting, but no spoilers in this review. Overall this may be my favorite room at this location, perhaps besides Insane Asylum. Once again our game masters, Jonathan, Jenna, and Flavio were fantastic.
Insane AsylumPanIQ Room - Long BeachEscape roomIRLThis room is a little more mechanical than the other rooms at this location, but still might be my favorite next to Pirates of Tortuga. There are a few puzzles that are very, very clever in this room, that can really throw you for a loop if you aren't very analytical. There are also some very clever physical puzzles that will make you work together or collaborate to get them completed. Overall a great room for groups that can really work together. Great game, we managed to set the record for their leaderboard in the process! Great game masters as usual, Jenna, Jonathan, and Flavio, thank you.
Wizard TrialsPanIQ Room - Long BeachEscape roomIRLGreat atmosphere for an escape room. There are a lot of tech usages in this room, making the puzzles fun to do and adding to the whimsical nature. The tech is well implemeted and probably the most tech usage out of the rooms at this location. Story is pretty good. Overall the room is a bit more difficult than the other rooms here I would say, but most of the difficulty comes from the second room, ramping up the difficulty significantly over the first room. Once again shout out to our game masters Jenna, Jonathan, and Flavio.
The Haunted ManorPanIQ Room - Long BeachEscape roomIRLA slightly shorter escape room than normal clocking in at a 45 minute time limit makes this room a bit easier to do than others. That said there are a few very clever puzzles, or at least clever implementations, that some groups may get somewhat stuck on for a little while that took us by surprise. The room does make use of them in several places which does slightly up the difficulty vs time aspect. Atmosphere is pretty good, well designed for the theme. Overall a decent quick and easyish room, enough so that we got on the 30 day leaderboard. Our game masters Jonathan, Flavio, and Jenna were fantastic.
They're ComingMaze Rooms - Culver CityEscape roomIRLRoom was pretty solid, the introduction is fantastic. Spot on and almost fooled us. Puzzles are for the most part fairly easy for each experienced group, rate it an easy/medium depending on experience. Flow is pretty good, but there was at least one instance where we weren't quite sure how we triggered the next room, and not sure if we missed anything. The puzzles are split between tech and mechanical, with good usage of both. There were a couple of usages of tech that I thought were great and quite clever. Great usage of tech. Overall an experienced group may find a bit too easy, but great atmosphere and tech to go with it in this room
Battleship - CLOSEDDeceptive GamesEscape roomIRLA head to head type of escape room. A spin on the classic game of the same name, you solve puzzles of various difficulties to obtain cannonballs in order to sink your opponents ships. We played collaboratively, where we split the cannonballs between each team for each round. Even such, some of the puzzles were challenging and we didn't get to all of them. A surprisingly difficult room by the end of it. Overall fun, and well designed. Atmosphere was fantastic.
SEV3N - CLOSEDDeceptive GamesEscape roomIRLNon linear style room that's pretty challenging in nature. What you're solving is pretty close to the actual puzzle/lock/whatever you're solving it for, so it does make it a little easier to figure out. Still, the puzzles were pretty challenging and we escaped with something like 30 seconds to go. The actual puzzles themselves made you think for the most part, although at least one we overthought. Needed a few prods, but we figured them out.
