Art HeistQuandary Escape AdventuresEscape roomIRLHad an amazing time with the art heist, really loved all the puzzles and in room clueing. Seeing small symbols next to the locks helped us sort what combo goes where and was great advantage for the players. I also loved the way the space felt like an art gallery. The owners talked to us about the behind the scenes stuff and I will be forever grateful.
Captain Spoopy Bones and the Magnificent Quest For Some Other Pirate's Treasure!Doldrick's Escape RoomEscape roomIRLMy wife and I had a really good time with Captain Spoopy Bones. The wow moments were very well executed.
CarnevilExtreme Escape - Stone OakEscape roomIRLMy wife and I decided to play their scary room to knock out the list of playing all the games this company offers. It is among our three least favorite games we have ever played at extreme escape all three share this common theme where it’s supposed to be scary and it’s just ham-fisted.
Cursed CastleMastermind Room Escape - St. LouisEscape roomIRLThe staff was nice, being buzzed into the building at night felt super weird. A lot of the puzzle pieces were worn down or not working properly. We did see and appreciate some new puzzle types, but overall wished we picked a different experience.
EnduranceLocktopia Escape RoomEscape roomIRLOlivia was an excellent game master. From the moment we walked in asking if we could make two game work at the end of the night. She offered to stay 20-30 minutes late to give us time to play back to back games. The endeavor: thematic and narrative through and through. Such a fun experience and totally recommend it to all escape room players. It should be considered for a golden lock award by Terpeca and Morty. Project Gateway: less in every way. Still fun. But lacking a lot of connective reasoning. Some puzzles were just illogical and didn’t fit any narrative sense. Sequencing DNA? The story is shut off the gateway. It felt like a nonsense time waster with no explanation as to why we’re doing that. All in all we had a great time and wish we had as fun a game master as Olivia any time we come back to Houston.
HoudiniGreat Room Escape - Austin [prev. Mindspark Escape]Escape roomIRLFirst time experiencing live actor in our game, was very put off by this, So with that overshadowing our experience we trudged ahead through broken puzzles and the aloof in room game master. Red herrings everywhere you turn and just a really oppressive feel with the slamming of axe throwing on the other-side of the wall.
Oval officeTexas Panic Room - AustinEscape roomIRLFor a single-room game, there was still a lot of excitement, The clues were cleverly woven into parts of the scenery that really captured my imagination. I was on a history buff run when we played this game and I felt connected to the things we were interacting with like It was an episode of West Wing.
School of MagicEscape Room San Antonio - Stone OakEscape roomIRLSchool of Magic is an incredibly immersive experience that gives STRONG Harry Potter feelings. The set design is incredible and has made me think about what’s possible in this game space. There were a good balance of number locks and tech puzzle. But a large amount of reading. Each step created another page of lore to read to lead us to each new puzzle creating a very linear experience. We observed a puzzle solution out of order. But worked methodically to get ourselves back onto the linear path. I loved most of my experience in the room and being the first group to play it commercially (just launched room) I am very comfortable overlooking any speed-bumps from the Murphys law protocol.
S.E.R.AEscape Room San Antonio - Stone OakEscape roomIRLFor just two players it felt like we had a lot to do and there was a lot to sort into useful/not useful. I enjoyed my time in the room and the references to top sci-fi things made me happy I.e. the terminator, Mega-man, portal, and Horizon zero dawn. There were puzzle types I had never seen implemented before which is neat after 40+ games and owning my own escape room.
Sherlock Holmes: Dark Shadows [prev. Parliament Games]The Exit GameEscape roomIRLFirst, I want thank the manager/owner for talking with us about the escape room industry while we were deciding to open our own. Second, I agree with the negative reviews about this experience. Puzzles were disjointed, had no flow, some just broken. Game-master wasn’t paying attention and asked us “where are you in the game” if I had any idea where I was in the game, I wouldn’t be asking for a clue. I really hope they take to heart the bad reviews and fix up the experience. Or close it and open a new experience that doesn’t rely heavily on outside knowledge of how escape rooms work. I love this industry and would even offer some help sometime if the owners want direct feedback puzzle by puzzle.
![Sherlock Holmes: Dark Shadows [prev. Parliament Games]](https://res.cloudinary.com/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/a9e8a0dc9d760e16cb7304b08e148104.jpg)
