Starship: Final Frontier60 to Escape - GurneeEscape roomIRLWow! 60 to Escape continues to level up in the immersion department. The intro to this room helped us understand the storyline but was too long, and no visuals made it a little boring. The set was strong and the highlight of this room, and the puzzles all made sense with the story and ranged in difficulty, with a good dose of communication puzzles, correlation/observation puzzles and logic puzzles. There was one minor time suck puzzle, one annoying puzzle towards the end and maybe a slight reliance on color puzzles, but they were solid overall, with one endgame thematic communication puzzle being a highlight. This room didn’t have the personality of other 60 to escape rooms, but I still think it is the best room at this location! The ending was memorable as well.
Mad ScientistParadox SquaredEscape roomIRLWow! What a great experience. The game master/owner loves what he does and it’s obvious in every puzzle of this room and with every interaction we had with him. The puzzles were all logical, all felt different from each other, were very fun to solve, and encouraged teamwork. The set design isn’t anything crazy but wow is everything well thought out. No guesswork required. No “I solved this puzzle but I don’t know what it opened”. No frustration, just anxiety of not knowing if you would escape. This room has quite a lot of puzzles. A lot of the puzzles were very unique and creative. This is probably the best one room escape room I’ve ever done. You will be immersed from the second you walk through the door!
The Forest of FablesCU Adventures in Time and SpaceEscape roomIRLThis is exactly what an escape room should be! It’s a disservice to this experience to just call it an escape room. It is an immersive puzzle experience. The puzzles were fun, unique, tactile, on theme, encouraged teamwork, varied in complexity, and advanced the storyline. Everything felt so on theme in the story world and it was easy to become very immersed. And you will have to be because the players felt like active participants in the story, not just like viewers of it. The story was intertwined with every last inch of the set and every puzzle, for the whole time. The actor elevated the experience, and did a great job. The set was gorgeous and expansive. There were always new surprises throughout the room, of varying levels. 75 minutes allowed you to fully enjoy the experience and not feel rushed between the scene changes and actor interactions. The puzzles were very approachable for anyone as even though there were a lot of them, none of them were particularly challenging. CU Adventures in Time and Space has another banger on their hands!
The Sherlock HomeSolve The Sherlock HomeEscape roomOther What a great experience! The owners were lovely and super helpful. The amenities in the house are amazing. It just feels like you’ve been transported to another dimension with the level of detail that has been added to this house. The puzzles were all fair. My only complaint would be a puzzle or 2 that we didn’t understand, and the hint cards did not help us make the connection, so we had to just get the solution. So the hints could be improved in that way. Another thing was the puzzles required extensive searching, which is fine, but there are 0 hints to help with searching. So if you can’t find something you’re screwed. Something I really appreciated was how the puzzles picked up steam, getting more interesting and interactive as the game progressed. Totally recommended!
Pirates Curse60 to Escape - MilwaukeeEscape roomIRLA dynamic and exciting experience! Immersion is high from the moment you walk in with a very detailed set from floor to ceiling. One room in particular stood out as especially beautiful and well crafted. The puzzles were all solid, on theme, fun, engaged multiple people, and varied. They ran with a pun that was pretty cool, too. The main track puzzles weren’t very challenging, but it didn’t take away from the room since there were a set of bonus puzzles independent from the main puzzle flow that served as an extra challenge. The bonus puzzles were not as well integrated into the set though, and one puzzle from the main track seemed to overlap with a bonus puzzle, causing confusion. Also, the final puzzle on the main track could’ve been much harder, it was kind of anticlimactic. Overall it was wonderful, polished, exciting, and great for people of any experience level.
Behind The CurtainTwisted Limits Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLThis is such a high-quality room. Just from the puzzle design and flow it is apparent that it’s a bit on the older side, but this was a well-executed gen 1.5 room. The set looked great, and there was a wide range of different types of puzzles. No logical leaps were ever required. Excitement was built throughout, and everything culminated nicely at the end of the room. This was a physical room and I was actually sweating by the end. Joe and Damian are amazing and were more than willing to talk about escape rooms!
Mafia HeistMind Trap Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLAn absolutely stunning room. The puzzles are decent, with some pretty interesting ones, but the set was the focus being enormous and dynamic. Hyper- realism was achieved, and sometimes it was a little too easy to disassociate from the puzzles and just waste time admiring the incredible set. That is a mistake because this room has a ton of puzzles and you will have to move efficiently to escape. The puzzles were well integrated, logical, and enjoyable (for the most part), apart from some puzzles that felt bland or just tacked on. The puzzles were a little forgettable in comparison with the grandeur of the set. The story was ok but felt like a backdrop. It is mostly linear, so I wouldn’t really recommend more than 5 people because there will be a lot of standing around.
Operation Arctic Storm: The Final MeltdownThe Escape Ventures - OrlandoEscape roomIRLGreat. Great in every way. This room felt like such a fulfilling and well-rounded experience. To start off, the customer service and immersive intro let me know that this was going to be an excellent experience. The puzzles seamlessly flowed together, integrating the set in exciting and constantly novel ways. The puzzles ranged from easy to pretty complex, and they were all totally logical, creative, and fun. The set was showstopping in terms of quality, and was a joy to move about. Little touches of humor and personality made it a very memorable room. We did it with 4 people and everyone had things to do for the most part. The difficulty was maybe on the easier side of medium, but there was still plenty to do for our group of 4.
Invasion60 to Escape - MilwaukeeEscape roomIRLThis room was awesome. It had everything. It had unexpected reveals, unique puzzles, a full storyline, characters, good set design, and well-executed puzzle flow. It was a ton of fun!
Merlin's Legacy60 to Escape - MilwaukeeEscape roomIRLFantastic room! The puzzles were logical, fun, varied, and tactile. The set was super engaging and well-built. The combination of a good storyline, an amazing set, and good puzzles made this room very immersive and so enjoyable!
