Lab RatHatch EscapesEscape roomIRLLab Rat is one of those escape rooms you've heard about so many times that eventually you have to try it, and hopefully the hype and high reviews have not set the bar too high for you. After playing it ourselves, I can see why it's so beloved. I can imagine that when it first opened, it would've been top notch. Its set design and immersion is solid; you really do feel like, well, a "lab rat." Now, it's been some years, and a lot of high-tech, modern escape rooms have since opened, but I can see why Lab Rat with its older tech still gets positive reviews nowadays. As aforementioned, its immersion. Then the puzzles are clever and unique. There were definitely a handful we'd still never seen before, and they were fun and satisfying. There's some unique and fun mechanisms at play, too. It's a well put together room and experience overall. About the only "negative" thing about Lab Rat might be its (weekend) price at $70/person. Weekdays are $40/person, which is better. You also can't play with just two people unless you pay for the price of 4 people (Saturday) or 3 people (any other day). HOWEVER, there are Groupons for the Hatch Escape rooms for Tues-Thurs for groups of 4 people. There's one for Lab Rat for $100. We got it for $80 with a sale discount on Groupon that day. So our usual group of 4 got to play for $80 total instead of the $280 we'd normally pay to play on a weekend. Something to keep in mind. Because although Lab Rat was great and still a strong recommend, it's probably not in my favorite favorites and therefore $70 is a quite steep for an escape room (with no live actors or extended gameplay time). [Lab Rat is 60 minutes of gameplay but it says 75 minutes of experience to include video clips, during which they thankfully pause your game clock]
InksidiousEscape Room 66 - Los AngelesEscape roomIRLI can see why people love this room for a Gen 1 room. It's a cute room with cute/clever puzzles. Even though you see a lot of locks, the puzzles to solve them are satisfying and fun. Recommend for a small group, maybe even just 2-3 if you're decently experienced players.
Through The Sugar GlassQuest TavernEscape roomIRLThis was such a great room! Cute gingerbread house/candyland theming (with actual candy you can keep!) We did this with two ppl. We usually play rooms with a team of 4 so we were unsure of how we'd do. This room is hard-medium probably. The puzzles were varied and interesting and fun. Having done a decent amount of rooms by now, it's great to still see new types of puzzles for the first time. There is at least one section where having 3 players would make it physically easier, but this room is totally doable with two experienced players who can communicate well. We got out with about 10 minutes to spare. Nothing really stumped us but our experience definitely helped, especially considering the nonlinearity of the room. The room is a small one but the entire space is utilized super well and completely interested in the theme/storyline so it's a strong recommend for 2-3 players!
The Mad RapperScenario Escape RoomEscape roomIRLI can see why this room is so loved. Its custom sounds for its theming and storyline definitely is a highlight. The puzzles were varying and clever and fun. Storyline/immersion: really solid. The plot makes sense, moves along, and it's a satisfying enough ending. The set design is solid. It's not a fantasy or adventurous theme, so not the most special visually, but the sound design throughout the game makes up for that. Puzzles: Love it or hate it. I loved most of the puzzles. My partner did not enjoy them as much, so I can see why there are some reviews that knock on that aspect. There were a variety of puzzles. Some were visual, some were audio, some were critical thinking, some were skill based. So depending on what you like/dislike, that might affect your opinion here. That said, I will say there were a couple puzzles that I also didn't like as much. One especially required a decent jump in logic/association that I didn't expect and we ended up having to ask a hint for. Another puzzle I personally liked but I could see others struggling with (esp if English isn't your first language, or you just don't like playing with words lol). In that sense, it sorrrrt of felt like outside knowledge being required. There is a decent amount to do in this room, but maybe it felt that way with only two players. This can be done with two experienced players, but it's definitely meant for maybe 3-4 decent players. Overall, I loved this room a lot and would highly recommend it!
Big Brain Labs60Out - HollywoodEscape roomIRLThe newest room in Fall of 2025, so it's full of new tech and it's so clean and modern. Fun story, fun room, fun times. My only possible critique is that a lot of it felt linear in that our entire group felt like we were just moving from one puzzle station to the next. There was not much need to look for things or think super hard about puzzles because you just arrived and did them at a specific place in the lab. We were told later that we could've split up in at least one part of the room so I'm not sure about the linearity if that was the case for other parts of the room. But i will say that my entire group got to experience all the puzzles together by sticking together, and we still had a lot of time to spare so maybe it was better that way. We went with 4, but this wasn't that difficult so it's probably doable with 2 experienced players
Wrongfully ConvictedThe Escape RevolutionEscape roomIRLI was wondering about the contradiction of positive and negative reviews for this room. After doing this, I'm closer to the negative side and relate to most of the negative descriptions of this room. First off, time starts when the GM opens the door. You still have to put your stuff away into lockers and be given all the rules. And if you have questions, that's going to burn time too. So you're already definitely down at least a few minutes before you can even start. The split start was promising and cool. Things kinda fell apart after that. The "puzzles" didn't feel like puzzles but more like a scavenger hunt. They didn't really flow or make as much logical sense as you would like. We ended up having to ask for 5 hints because we knew we were falling behind and kept hitting walls, which hasn't happened to us before. We finished with 4 minutes left but it wasn't satisfying. This is all especially a disappointment because the prison break theme has a lot of potential. And the set design and props and tropes they included really helped the immersion. But the puzzles and flow just ruined it. Our GM was great though! Not a recommend from us though. We've had so many more fun and satisfying experiences already that this just didn't hit.
Escobar: Part 1 (The Betrayal)The Escape RevolutionEscape roomIRLFor better or worse, Escape Revolution (E.R.) definitely has their own style. This is our 2nd room at this location (Prison Break being the other). I didn't have high hopes for this room, and by the end, I still had mixed feelings. While there definitely puzzles that I thought were solid and clever, there are also the issues I have with the two Escape Revolution rooms I've seen so far. tl;dr: flow issues & leaps in logic. 1) The least of the issues is that there is a lot of going back and forth between rooms. This is pretty normal, but you definitely notice it more when the set is on the larger side (add stairs, too). So this part isn't necessarily bad, but it is rough if you're falling behind on time 2) Imperfect flow. There have been times in both rooms we've done at E.R. where we just don't know what we're looking for or trying to do next. I think it was worse in Prison Break for us, but there were some moments of stuck in this one as well. 3) Leaps in logic. In hindsight, you can see how things sort of make sense. In the moment though, sometimes you have to reach a little more than you would in really well-designed rooms. Given 8 sheets of paper filled with a myriad of text, even after figuring out which sheet is important, you're left wondering what you need from that paper. Because you have 2 locks and 2 other physical pieces that take numeric input, and you don't have an idea of which one you need to focus on right now, much less which of the 500 digits you need from the paper. It's really open-ended. There are other small examples of this. After you're done, it might seem to make some logical sense, but in the moment, it wasn't near straightforward enough for progression. We fell behind from the start and ended up asking for clue after clue to keep moving, which I've never had to do and not how I ever want to escape a room. This was most likely the most clues I've ever had to take. Sometimes we were stuck, but as things went on, we really just knew we were running out of time and couldn't waste more time if we wanted to see the whole game. The positive: the set design, puzzles, and storyline were cohesive. Those parts were well-designed. The puzzles and flow themselves were where my issues were. But being in the space and set was very fun and definitely put us in the right atmosphere. Final thoughts: As with any E.R. rooms, the first issue is they start the timer as soon as you walk through the door with your game master. You put away your stuff in lockers. Then the GM gives a speech about the background story and basic rules. Then you might ask questions. By the time you actually get going, you're already 5+ minutes into your 60 minutes. Poor business decision for escape rooms. This room has its perks and fun puzzles and some "A-ha!" moments that people would love. I'd recommend a large group looking to have fun and not expecting the most brilliantly logically designed room. Casual players looking for an immersive set experience will enjoy this. Don't get stuck on one puzzle for too long and don't be afraid to ask for hints because there is a decent amount to do and a lot of back and forth. Most of the objectives take X amount of time to do no matter how good you are so that's another reason you can't waste too much time wandering cluelessly.
Wizard's Treasure60Out - HollywoodEscape roomIRLSuper cute room. It's easy but super fun and immersive. The GM recommended we just slowly enjoy all the puzzles together because any experienced group would not have issues finishing this one. This is a great recommendation for beginners looking for an immersive set. We spent our extra time just talking to the GM about escape rooms!
The Secret of the Serpent SanctumFind & SeekEscape roomIRLThis was the hardest escape room we've ever done. It was really humbling. We're from Los Angeles, and this would've been AT LEAST a 75+ minute room there if not longer. Also, we were given two notepads, which was also new to us. But a few puzzles would require ridiculous memorization ability if you didn't want to use the notepads. Ultimately, we "escaped" but that's only because they gave us extra time to play until we finished. The set design was just okay at first, but the last room was pretty cool. This escape room was so misleading because we were breezing through puzzles at first. Then we started to slow down. By the time we got to the last room, we only had 15 minutes left. We should've used hints sooner but pride prevented us (and we didn't know how much left we still had to do). The puzzles started off simple, but then they became multi-layered, and we were not used to that at all. But I will admit I really did like these challenging puzzles. It's a shame doing an escape room is basically a one-time thing because I would love to re-do this room. I wouldn't say that all the puzzles were the hardest puzzles ever, but I think the sheer amount of puzzles makes it really hard to escape in the given 60 minutes. They did mention the escape rates are not high at their business. My advice for this room, especially if you have 4 people or less, is to split up and manage multiple puzzles at once whenever possible, and manage time well, even if that means using hints. Definitely a strong recommend for experienced players. And a strong "don't recommend" for beginner players because you really need to be used to escape room puzzles and thinking in that mindset to get through this one. Small note: For all their rooms here, they give an audio cue when you solve a puzzle, which is really helpful! There's also a different audio cue when a hint is given on their TV screen in the room.
Here, Kitty KittyEscape Room LAEscape roomIRLIf you love fun, logical puzzles in a cute, cat-centric setting, this one is definitely for you. Even though it's a small room, it's completely packed with satisfying puzzles. We did this with two people and we are both experienced enough. But it was a struggle because there is A LOT to do. If you do this with 2, you have to make sure you're moving along on a solid pace and working separately as there is a decent enough amount of nonlinearity. If you get stuck for too long, you just might not have enough time to do everything. It's a small room with a lot, so the perfect group size is 4. 3 ppl if you're experienced. 2 is doable if you're really experienced, and maybe take a hint if you're getting stuck on something for more than a few minutes. The puzzles themselves aren't necessarily super difficult, so this is just a sheer amount of puzzles thing. We provided feedback to the GM about one puzzle pretty much requiring outside knowledge. It wasted a lot of our time because we didn't ask for a hint soon enough lol. If you don't know it, you'd be stumbling around trying to guess. You might eventually hack the answer if you have enough escape experience, but at the cost of time. There's a second puzzle that also sort of requires outside knowledge, but this one isn't as bad and most people would probably know enough, especially with a few in-room clues, to figure this one out. Overall, we loved this room and it was so fun. But just like every room at this location, it's on the hard-ish side more than not. Puzzles are logical throughout and there are always a good amount of puzzles. But that's a good thing.
