Project Minotaur - CLOSEDQuest Room - HollywoodEscape roomIRLI can’t believe I finally got to play project Minotaur! I’ve been stalking this room since it’s opening, but unfortunately it was way beyond my budget for many years. Since quest room closed, I was able to go due to the finale sale, but I’m so sorry to all the wonderful game masters, builders, actors and creatives that so clearly poured their hearts and souls into this. Pros: - loved the chasing/rushes - Music/special effects were amazing - Actors were incredible. Both the creature (Robbie what the heck that was terrifying) and Chris (we salute your commitment to the bit but also: ow that must hurt) - So many secret passages. If anything I want more. What a blast. - So unique as a room. Never done one like that. Will be so hard to top but won’t stop looking for something this thrilling bc we loved it. - Perfect blend of scary but not too scary. The creature isn’t horrifying to look at, the GMs weren’t out to get us, we didn’t get yelled at or punched or anything crazy. They really nailed it. Even the scaredy cats in our group had a blast. Cons: - Wish they’d either incorporated more Greek myths or done away with them - they kinda weren’t evenly sprinkled throughout imo and stopped adding to the game after a point but I loved the fates. - The set was super well done but was ultimately just kinda. Apocalyptic ruin. Which was on theme. Just kinda boring visually (I know they reuse the room for other horror escapes tho so it has to be versatile) - They did more story than I thought they would! Wish there had been more of it to solve as we went. More story clues please! I want to help solve the mystery! - The last room - would’ve loved a screen to see the finale/more holes/plexiglass? The whole team couldn’t see what was happening due to the placement. Onto the room review: I will be fully spoiling this one because it is closed and I want a record of it for those that are curious but won’t ever be able to play. My team had a blast but I do think if we’d paid the original price point, I would be harsher in my critique. An experience that’s over 100 dollars has a lot to live up to for the average room goer, and I think it’s reflected in a some of the less favorable reviews on their Morty page. That being said, the amount of work that went into this room is a lot so I’m not sure what the solution would’ve been - paying 2 actors, multiple camera setups + involved high tech puzzles, AND special effects take a lot of work & costs a lot of money. So I get it. There’s not a lot of story for Project Minotaur which I always think is a bummer for escape rooms - if I’m gonna be in a horror movie I want to help solve the plot and I think it would’ve made more sense if we were on a mission to find a missing doctor given the ending - but the majority of horror rooms sadly don’t have a narrative beyond “get outta here” so I knew what to anticipate. They give you jumpsuits, knee pads and a hood for a blindfold and split your group into 2 cells while the intro plays out. You were tourists in Greece who wanted an adventure so you ignore the tour guide and go into an abandoned military base where you get trapped / try to escape (I actually think this was a little convoluted bc there wasn’t a lot of story throughout the maze to play into this but whatever). The room was basically jail cells, a morgue, many hallways and a sacrifice room. They had a sick puzzle as soon as you started with statues of the 3 fates where the team had to work together between the cells to roll an eyeball back and forth to get the right sequence of sound cues. It was pretty confusing esp in the dark and we almost lost the eye more than a few times between the cells but I loved the idea. The Minotaur bursts from the door and tries to attack you but you can fend him off by running back into the cells and holding the doors for dear life. During all of this is so much sound & ominous music, it’s great. There’s more minor puzzles as you escape into an air vent (with the Minotaur right behind you! I didn’t know the actor would follow us as we were CRAWLING my stomach sank to my feet!!!) and then you pop into a caged morgue. It’s here you meet a GM doctor who through charades will steal a shoe / explain that yall need to kill the Minotaur, who will pop back into the room when the Dr leaves as you try to move forward (Eventually the Dr speaks, kinda. This is your hint system). There’s a guillotine puzzle, a morgue escape hatch, and then you finally get into the meat of the room: those damn hallways! We got so lost, it really WAS a maze! It’s just dingy walls but they all look alike. We got to a Medusa head that was screaming (this confused me bc you could fully see her eyes which is like. Her whole thing. I thought for sure there would be a mirror puzzle here but. Nah. Again, whatever I guess). The Minotaur is always around and we kept going back and forth constantly. At one point my friend literally got dragged away by the ankles and we had to go rescue them - I about attacked someone on my team bc we had to go all the way back to the start but then they left the key we’d need to get my friend out of the first cell!!! So then we had to go all the way BACK!!! And do it AGAIN!!! The whole time I’m trying not to soil my jumpsuit bc the creature is going to attack at any second, now you’re telling me you forgot the key and we have to go BACK!? We are NOT surviving this horror movie. EVENTUALLY we got everyone but then we hit the sacrifice room - a chair and machine with skulls that I presume would turn someone into a Minotaur. But of course, the doctor, who is ALSO popping up and jumpscaring us constantly, said we had to go get another power block for the machine which of course meant back into the maze AGAIN. This guy with a PHD is out here literally parkoring up the walls like spiderman (yes he did this multiple times) as I’m praying my knees don’t pop in the silence just from walking! The hallway had the block sitting in the middle of the hall in THE most obvious horror trap and I told my team to be ready to MOVE once I got it - turns out the creature ofc barreled at me immediately and then I turn around and almost stampeded my team bc apparently hauling ass to them meant stand still and watch me grab the thing we need causally as I’m running at them screaming with a guy on stilts gunning for me. We got the sacrifice going, the chair spun around, the Minotaur attacked one last time, and then the Doctor and the Minotaur battled it out - wish we could’ve seen the final scene better but they only gave us 2 holes to watch from so a good chunk of the team missed it which was a bummer. The end of the story is that the Doctor actually had turned himself into the Minotaur and was transforming Dr Jekyll style the whole time! We won and lived to see another room! Overall we loved it. I’m so sad they’re closing. It will be hard to find anything to top this experience. Thank you for such a great night, even the scaredy cats on my team had a blast. And we only got one bruise and a scrape between all 7 of us despite the odds (we’re not the most coordinated). So a win is a win. Thank you Robbie and Chris, and I wish nothing but incredible careers for the escape room team. You gave us a wonderful memory despite the horrors and we really needed it.
Operation Arctic Storm: The Final MeltdownThe Escape Ventures - Orlando Waterford LakesEscape roomIRLThis was so fun! Man, all it takes is 1 solid escape room to remind me why I love them so much. Side note, this was the most informative GM prep speech I’ve *ever* gotten on how to play a room - THANK YOU. Do you know how many locks I’ve messed up because I simply couldn’t get them to open properly, despite having the right codes etc? & Chris not only explained the rules but also double checked to see if we had specifics + re-went over stuff with our group. Bless you sir. Originally I wanted to play the Watcher but my group voted for Arctic (Watcher I’ll be back for you someday my beloved), and we all had a blast! The story went a bit more creative/fun than just “you’re at an Arctic station” which I really appreciated, & I also loved the amount of rooms! They didn’t have the fake snow going for our group which was a bummer, but we still had fun. I do hope they can bring it back though because that would add just another level of fun to the experience! A lot of reviewers say this room is super physical so I was expecting to have to parkour up a wall or tunnel or something but it was way less than that, it was honestly pretty chill & if you’re really worried about you can look at the other reviews that say exactly what the one “hardcore” physical thing is, or reach out the business! I really recommend this room for team building because working together is necessary on this one! That being said, more than 4 people & it will get a little tight - we were 4 adults & def got cramped at times, but I’ll take it because I’d rather have more rooms over extra space. It’s a lot of fun overall + a very solid experience. Check it out if you’re all interested, & even if this room doesn’t call out to you, def look at ALL their other options - this company is awesome and I really think they shouldn’t be missed! I can see why they have such positive reviews & awards - thanks again Chris and Escape Ventures!
Lab RatHatch EscapesEscape roomIRLMy team used 1 word to describe Lab Rat: Janky. I’d like to be constructive in my criticism, & I do think my team just wasn’t the right audience for Hatch. So here’s who I think might love this room: - if you love Gen 1/Gen 2 rooms - If you prefer the aesthetics of puns over story/cohesion - If you like unique escape room themes Here’s who I think should avoid this room: - If you like story/thematic payoff - If you like fresh, out of the box puzzles - If you enjoy team building/bonding as part of your experience Here’s what we personally didn’t like: - Padlocks. Many. Padlocks. - Visible wear + tear. I know that’s not completely the rooms fault as maintenance is a pain, but also it was noticeable. - the theming/story didn’t really pay off, which I thought was both weird + an easy fix? - The game had kinda harsh undertones that I don’t think really added anything to the lore or was funny enough to be included - The puzzles didn’t totally flow - even if we’d had more time we wouldn’t have figured it out. I know rooms can be non-linear but the sometimes complete randomness got frustrating after a while on several occasions, and more than stopped the momentum for our team. There was 1 point where we got so stuck on a puzzle even the game master couldn’t help us through it. - The pricing. On the site it says about 45 per person, but that ONLY counts if you have more than 5 people, otherwise it’s closer to 60 a pop. To be fair, I do think you should play Lab Rat with 7+ people, but I also think it should be more clear on the site with that info. - The game intro video is too long, sorry. I feel pretty bad writing this review. Lab Rat is THE MOST awarded/popular escape room in LA, and while they can’t control the awards they get, everyone & their mother seems to absolutely LOVE it and gush about how wonderful it is, year after year. As I’m writing this, there’s only 3 👎 reviews on Morty currently, but after my game, I’m not only left wondering why, but also how I can play the game that everyone else seems to have experienced but I somehow missed out on? Mild spoilers below if you’d prefer to go in completely blind, but here’s the review I wish I’d read before: Lab Rat is billed as a family game, but I have to say it felt a bit mean spirited. The tone of the room is that you’re being bullied the entire time by the overload scientist, and repeatedly called idiot or dummy or stupid. You take “drugs” for no other reason than for the scientist to make fun of you, even though there’s so many other fun ways to incorporate how taking drugs as a test subject could work/what the side effects could be. One of the puzzles was almost verbatim like “it should be this answer but instead it’s (this completely non related answer) because that’s stupid + you’re stupid”. I would have a really hard time recommending this to a family, both for those reasons and because it just wasn’t very fun, nor did it help us work well together. At one point you have to pick one person to do something for a certain puzzle but it’s so vague that you can basically sabotage the team / the person you’ve chosen, and it’s very sudden + isolating, not to mention I can see people freaking out once cut off with no warning. I’m not sure why they limit it to one person - totally seemed like it should’ve been 2 or even half the team. I found the puzzles to be mildly baffling - the drug thing mentioned above is so easy to incorporate into the story but instead it just feels randomly placed there because drugs = funny? Sure but that could’ve been an interesting clue or puzzle too? Some of the effects happen in different spots so the team can miss them literally because it’s behind a whole wall. Some of the clues are verbal and only happen once, so you better hope you heard it the first time or you’ll have to ask for a hint, but that’s a bit hard as well because the speakers are hit or miss. The lighting cues are all over the place and repeat so often that they became distracting from the puzzles, and we were told we wouldn’t need our phones/flashlights but my team really struggled to see properly at certain points with the lighting, or hear stuff given the speaker placement. A lot of yelling to each other occurred. Even though the game isn’t scary, there’s a ton of loud bangs/noises from stuff opening suddenly or falling - my group got repeatedly jumpscared despite our best efforts. I wish I’d told my team to bring loop earplugs or that I could’ve warned them. Also, a bit odd to have a family room include someone getting simulated electrocuted super loudly with no warning, if I may say. The puzzles were not what I’d call intuitive and only somewhat linear, and my team had to ask for hints constantly only to learn that we were like inches away from succeeding but just hadn’t hit something correctly. I really wish they’d give time checks/room percentage as well, as we wasted a lot on meaningless stuff only to get stuck at the end. A lot of stuff had visible wear and tear. Some stuff was just like ‘you find the clue here’ and then when we were like how would we know to look for that the answer was basically just like “you just poke around and hope for the best”. Like ok but you can also connect stuff together too? The whimsy shouldn’t outweigh the need for structure. There were some fun moments, but for a rather pricey room & legacy, I had high expectations. I don’t get how you have this concept but then the game just kind of boils down to animal puns. And not even rat puns, like a bunch of animals for some reason. Zootopia style. I thought it was going to be tests and mazes like they have rats do, or like oversized stuff like the Borrowers, but I honestly got confused about the world and how I fit into it as a player. Like why are some things giant but the pun posters are to my human sized scale. I wasn’t expecting or asking for a huge lore dump but it almost felt like 2 separate ideas. I know I’m ripping into this game, and I know Hatch puts a lot of effort & love into their stuff, but between the price + the reviews I really expected to be blown away. It kinda felt like someone just wanted to play a rat character. And then I would also assume I’d hyped it up too much myself, but my group also didn’t like the room. We enjoyed the chaos as much as we could and laughed afterwards, but I can’t recommend this, and I don’t think I’d have booked it if I could’ve read a review like this beforehand. I hope Hatch continues to do more, they clearly have the audience for it, but I don’t think that was us, nor does my group have any interest in returning. I also think if you’re looking for a fun family game with cool props/sets, do some research on equal LA spots. Sorry to be such a downer - it’s just that my team has literally wanted to play for years & I really did try to temper my high expectations but it wasn’t the right fit. I appreciate the creatives at work and am excited to see what the future holds for Hatch - thank you for a fun evening regardless of our experience.
Something's Out There!Maze Rooms - West LAEscape roomIRLTIP: We were SO immersed we lost track of time! I recommend you ask for verbal time checks if your team needs them! You know when something’s a well known classic, but then someone does it SUPER well & suddenly it’s the best thing ever again? Like chocolate cake is great but then when you taste one that’s so amazing you can’t ever go back to any other chocolate cake but that one? That’s this room. This room’s theme is not unique, but boy, it does it *so well*. It was beyond immersive, from the moment you step in. You WILL get scared. The sounds are great. The atmosphere. The sets. The puzzles. And yeah, other escape rooms have all that but they just nailed it. One major note is that this is NOT a supernatural room - I was hoping it would be since that’s my favorite but I don’t regret booking this for a second. I just wish they’d taken a more creative theme/story because for me, with Garrets they really went above & beyond expectations and this one was not that creative story wise. However: boy, from the second you start, they knocked it out of the park. I want to go into detail about all the cool stuff but I can’t ruin it. Who would like this room? Horror fans of serial killers. Who will not like this room? Children and chickens. It got us GOOD. And, like, repeatedly. For context, I’ve only ever done a couple scary rooms before this (the Orphanage, Pig Farmer) and neither of those consistently kept up the tension or the scares (I don’t think that was the point necessarily in those rooms but I would’ve appreciated it). There are NO scare actors in this, but you don’t need them. I was on my toes from the jump. This would be a blast to play on a date or with an adult group of friends who like getting scared. The puzzles flow so well too, they were fun and engaging and almost no locks! They really got creative, and yeah, they’re not the hardest puzzles (it’s a medium room) but I will take creative>impossible any day. I appreciated that even though there wasn’t a lot of story, the way they told it was REALLY great and it just kept pulling you deeper & deeper in. I would still personally rank the Garrets higher than this from a story perspective (the ending of Garrets). Beyond that though, or if you like more grounded stories, this one is absolutely worth it. Also, it’s newer, so nothing is broken or worn down, although I think that’ll actually help this room in the long run aesthetically. I feel like this room for sure will win some kind of award in the future, even if it’s just for the little details. It was a blast, if any of this review resonates with you, I think you’ll love it. Mild spoilers below, but here’s the type of people who would absolutely love this room: . . . . . . . . . . . . . - fans of: Friday the 13th, The X-Files episode “Home”, the Hills Have Eyes, or anything killer hillbilly related.
Grandma's Masterplan60Out - MelroseEscape roomIRLI want to first be clear and say that the staff was so super sweet and kind - they even helped me to book the room when I had questions about accommodations. That being said, this room was not good. This is the second room I’ve done from 60Out and not liked - which is weird bc the first one had amazing sets but a subpar story but this one had both. If you want a better room that’s crime related, I’d check out “Stash House”, or “The Heist” from Escape Game LA if you want a more family friendly option :/ A couple disclaimers - I’m not trying to sound snobby. I’ve played 13 rooms. I’m not an expert. But I’ve done some really interesting ones too and this was pretty disappointing. It’s a fairly popular room from what I gather online, and even won a best storytelling award (which I don’t really get; it’s an interesting twist but doesn’t pan out at all imo). Also, I know the room is older but yikes, is that why the sets were super bleak? I didn’t really care about the equipment being visibly used if the room is loved for being a classic but this was so like… basic. It had a couple of parts I felt were immersive but overall was lacking so much. I think this room is good for young families, maybe? But if I were a kid I don’t think I’d be super engaged unless I was REALLY into heists, and even then I think I would try to find a room somewhere else that does it better. Here’s my breakdown - They call this one “expert level” - I’d put it at a medium. Most of the puzzles were really not that impressive or innovative. There were a couple that stood out but mostly it was fairly predictable or just like, a puzzle for the sake of a puzzle. There was one moment of placing things in a certain sequence that didn’t even fit into the story at all. Sometimes we could guess how stuff was going to work out without even getting the prompt - plus most of the ones that were hard were just hard because they weren’t very logical, not because it was outside of the box or anything. The story is a cool twist - granny was a bank robber, you have to collect your “inheritance”, heist ensues - but given that prompt, it felt so lackluster. ***(Slight room physical description below if you consider that a spoiler)*** I knew we might be in trouble when I walked in - Granny’s room was really barren and dull colors, with very few decorations or set dressing, and this unfortunately stayed consistent for the whole game. I know people physically tear escape room sets apart but this was so sparse, plus it wasn’t a fantasy set or anything, it was an old woman’s house, I thought that’d be pretty easy to decorate or even replace stuff if it gets worn out - I was just hoping for a little more. Granny’s background was barely explored - even once revealed, I was hoping maybe the first room was supposed to be plain because it would open to like a secret super room with weapons or pictures of her being this total badass, or maybe that like her sweet old lady stuff was actually a bunch of spy equipment or clues disguised, but no. It was basically a black room. Given the theme of heists, there’s so many cool ways you could take that and make it interesting or do like different types of puzzles to break in or extract stuff but this was so basic and again, the sets were very bare bones and plain colors. It’s pretty easy to guess a puzzle or figure out the entrance when there’s like a grand total of 5 objects in a room. I did like some parts of it but not enough to where I felt like I was getting even close to what I paid for. For the price and the time (40$ / 75 minutes) I thought we were getting a bargain but this was pretty disappointing and I really don’t recommend it to anyone. I doubt I’ll do another 60Out - that’s two duds now and I just would rather save my money and do a more expensive one that’s amazing. Thank you once again to the staff - you guys are the sweetest and I’m sorry I’m writing such a harsh review when the people working there are so lovely - I just wish the rooms could be as fun as you guys.
Heretics [prev. Bloody Elbow] - CLOSEDQuest Room - KoreatownEscape roomIRLWant to say right off the bat that our group had an grand time and our “dungeon master” was incredible. I think their name was Danny, and let me just say that Danny needs to be a stand up comedian or comedy actor because that dude was pure gold. And was pretty patient with our group, as well as in character for the whole game. All that being said, I don’t think I’d really recommend this particular room unless you really, truly love dungeons! It’s not a bad room at all, I just think that if you want a more unique experience (especially for a steeper price point than other escape rooms) you should probably look at their other rooms! (Perhaps Red Giant?) For Bloody Elbow though, I was hoping from the website description that there’d be more witchcraft elements or a bit of a mystery for this room, but not really. Basically it’s what it says on the site, you’re locked in a dungeon & there you stay. Even the separate “components” (other doors than the main one) are dungeon based. I do have to say that it’s their “easiest” room and while we did escape we were certainly stumped quite a few times! We had some newer players in this group but I was happy we weren’t able to rush through it, and would be excited to try their harder escapes. I’d rate Bloody Elbow at a medium hardness. I’d also like to say that thankfully there wasn’t any crazy crawling or climbing features in the room, nor any “germaphobe” components (some reviews mentioned puzzles involving movement and ‘germaphobes beware’, so I was a little wary). The set is great for a dungeon, it feels and looks like a dungeon. I did think there were some cool puzzles, and I loved that it was linear and involved multiple components regularly. While I’d call it more thrilling than scary, I do think that it’s too scary for kids, as there’s dead body(ies) parts and fake blood. Teens and young adults will probably get a big kick out of it though. Like I said, I just wish there’d been something else involved in the story, but our group had a great time. And while now that I know the full experience and would recommend doing a different Quest Room over Bloody Elbow, I would like to say that we had a blast and I can’t wait to try something else from this company again! Thank you Quest Rooms!
Stash HouseStash HouseEscape roomIRLThis was such a blast! I was hesitant about this house only because I didn’t know what to expect and a room about trying to become a gang member and proving yourself by going to a house to flush drugs didn’t seem like a super great topic for a group of white people to be “playing” at in 2022 given the history. Now having gone, I will say that the story is more campy, like “what if you wanted to work for Tony Montana” and you’re breaking into his penthouse rather than a staged house for a gang. You are told that you’re there to try to become a part of a gang but there’s nothing that you have to do beyond solving normal escape room puzzles. We had such a great time. We did it with a group of 4, but I will say that we are a very solid team who works super well together. We were able to split up the puzzles between teams of 2 and switch off when needed which I think helped us get out quickly. I would not recommend doing this with a group who has trouble communicating or has several people who try to lead, nor would I recommend this for beginners at all. You have to work well as a team and have an idea of how escape rooms work. There’s not a ton of story but it’s not needed and I think what was there was pretty cool. I really enjoyed the puzzles and found myself able to bounce around - if I got stuck on one I could hop over and see what the other people were doing and help with that. They were also pretty linear puzzles which I really loved bc you didn’t have to keep going back and tracing your steps or figuring out what you missed out. It also helps out with the story when you can solve stuff like that. I can see why this one is hard - I don’t THINK it’s “expert level” but it is not a beginner room and experience with other rooms definitely helped us (although who am I to judge this is the first “hard” room I’ve ever done). I think this room is perfect for people that want a more “grown up” or “realistic” room or just enjoy crime genre. I wasn’t super excited to go bc I’m not into that genre and I had a blast! Also for an hour and a half I thought the price was very fair (just wish we didn’t beat it so quickly only bc we were having such a great time!).
Magic KingdomMaze Rooms - VermontEscape roomIRLEDIT: DO NOT DO THIS ROOM! OR LOCATION! After reading the alleged attached review on Yelp (not from my group), I can say in my personal opinion that I recommend no one should go to this location FOR SAFETY CONCERNS. The fact that it sounds like 0 improvements have been made FROM YEARS AGO, plus the alleged harassment, is downright harrowing and I can’t imagine paying for any of that. I love other Maze rooms but this is a franchise, not a corporation. DO NOT GO TO THIS LOCATION. I went back fall of 2026 and the space had a broken window, plywood up in from of the others, and expansive spray foam on the walls which while creative, does not seem up to fire safety laws. The bathroom sink was cracked and there was no first aid kit on site even our group injured ourselves in a different room due to unsafe conditions (see my Matrix review). STAY AWAY. Also wtf is a Steve add on? What does an alien have to do with a fantasy room? THAT wasn’t there when I first played. And while I wasn’t in this woman’s group for the pic I attached, it sounds sketch as hell and I am inclined to believe her given how unsafe this place made me feel. This idea at best should’ve been executed with a puppet, but now just sounds like a way for a pervert to get away with being a creep. Allegedly. Huge yikes. Older review: Not gonna lie, had kinda a rough time with this one for multiple reasons. I can kind of imagine how hard it is to create an escape room and I thought there were some cool parts to this but unfortunately there were too many setbacks and disappointments for me overall. We did escape, but I’m not sure how. Many traps went off incorrectly or at the wrong time, and I wouldn’t even be mad except that some things were broken on top of that, and a lot of the story that didn’t align with what we were being told to do. I respect it is a “non-linear” room but for us there was a lot of chaos going on. The room was a bit “clunky” and I think probably best suited for younger teens who like fantasy. I personally think it’s too confusing for littler kids, but to be fair we were all adults. I also didn’t get the layout of the rooms if we are being honest - the aesthetic vs the story didn’t quite make sense. I can’t get into more without spoilers, and I do want to give kudos for some of the fun aspects of the room that are there (although the talking Jackalope that’s in the trailer doesn’t happen, which was a bummer and one of the main reasons I booked the room - not sure if it’s broken or they just did it for the website). As always with Maze Rooms, my group had fun, but none of us really liked the room that much. We are always grateful for the memories but I would not book it again, nor can I recommend it. I am interested in checking out “Warlocked” by Questrooms or anything by Quest Tavern - perhaps if you are like me and love fantasy, that is the way to go. I know this review sounds very harsh, and we did have fun but overall it is not the best Maze Room.
Men In Suits (MIS)Maze Rooms - LAXEscape roomIRLGood and bad things for this game, but ultimately I can’t recommend for the price unless you’re a huge MIB fan. Also there is one puzzle I am BEGGING y’all to change if you’re reading this. More below but for anyone with sensory or germaphobe conditions, this puzzle was a bit too far. Men in Suits is one of their newest rooms, and I’m sure the price reflects that, but at 40 per person for a group of 6, rather than 32 per person (closer to other prices for Maze Rooms that I’ve paid), given the story and the puzzles, didn’t really seem to even out in the end. If you’re super into MIB, maybe you’ll like it, the sets are pretty good, the puzzles creative as ever (but also a bit disjointed). However, I really enjoy MIB & didn’t love this room so take it with a grain of salt. The little story there is doesn’t make sense, and you don’t even get to see the main thing you’re looking for at the end. The puzzles are creative (as always with Maze Rooms) but felt disconnected. I realize it was supposed to be hard but there’s a difference between tricky and just doesn’t make sense. There were things we had to go back and rely on that weren’t super logical to follow, or puzzles that didn’t have to do that much with the at-hand mission. I’ve done about 7 rooms so I’m not an expert but it wasn’t well connected and didn’t flow IMO. I’m going to get into one that I have the most problem with, as did my group, keeping it as spoiler-free as I can. There’s 2 puzzles that require you to (blindly) pick an object up. That object was COVERED in grease or something (or, as my group declared in horror, “lube”). I’m sure it wasn’t, I think it was supposed to be alien slime or spit, & I’m also sure it’s to make it easier to grab, but it was disgusting and my group was begging me for hand sanitizer. Please for the love of god change that puzzle. Put gloves next to it, alcohol wipes, put it in sanitizer gel, attach it to a string to pull it out, put a working sink in the room, ANYTHING. That was super gross and not in a fun way. ESP since you can’t see what you’re doing when you grab it. I feel bad for nitpicking stuff - I’m sure it’s super hard to make these rooms, there’s a lot of fun visuals and cool ideas here, care was put into details and out of the box puzzles, and I can tell fans of the movie were creating it - but unfortunately I wish there were still time tweak it bc it just doesn’t flow as well as it could and the story lacks. Also it was only air conditioned in some parts of it (if you’re doing this in fall/winter ignore that). Ultimately the group still had a blast and I don’t regret going, but if you have the choice I would 1000% recommend Whatever Happened to the Garrets instead. It’s not a far distance from this, has a way better story+puzzles, and some similar sci-fi elements (or does it… dun dun dun). TL;DR: MIS is maybe fun for teens and family, but could be improved and there are better ones out there from Maze Rooms to try.
The Pig Farmer: Cult Of The 7 Sins [Outdoor] - CLOSEDEscape Woods Escape roomIRLLet me start off by saying we did not win this one but it is an ambitious room & we still had fun. I’d put this at like a 6 but there’s only ‘thumbs up/down/heart” on this app so there you go. This is an OUTDOOR escape room - you’re in a small circle of little trailers (20 ft or so). There is a lot going on here - someone from Hollywood, hire this team to write you a serial killer mystery series! The concept was very cool. 7 deadly sins but used as a basis for a cult… There was a lot of detail in the written text + someone really did a great job with the mythology of the killer’s ideals. Although I’m not sure why they did pigs AND the 7 sins since there was so much I felt like it could’ve been 2 different, but great, stories. I’ll get the critiques out of the way so I can go back to praising it. The story is cool but there’s a LOT of it - there was a whole book with tons of pages+text that our group got lost on. Also, because it’s an outdoor game, a lot of props are worn. Not broken, just used + weathered. Which does go with the story, but exercise caution & don’t go running into trailers - watch your step and open/close things carefully. Much like their other outdoor escape room, there’s a LOT of padlocks in this one, but there are some puzzles beyond that. I will say that we got stuck on one lock and then at the end the GM was trying to show us how to open it & he was also struggling so it made us feel validated lol - to be clear, it wasn’t broken, it was just a hella hard lock. I’m not sure if I would recommend it to a lot of people because it was very hard, but in like a “we must’ve translated a number wrong and this padlock won’t open, try again & again” kind of way (not a direct example, no spoilers). Also you’re not in a huge area like their other outdoor room, which is literally a maze. So if you get stuck, you do start to feel it, or in our group’s case, get frustrated, but I will say that our group didn’t work super well together. We had a great time but there were definitely some miscommunications between us, so that combined with hard puzzles did set us back/cut the flow more than a few times. Also, it’s pretty dang linear - which is good but if you get caught on a puzzle you are stuck there and can’t, like, side quest to help in another direction. I think between this one and the outdoor maze, I would recommend the maze IF you know how an escape room works and have played them before already (can’t stress that enough, see my other review for the maze). This one is not for beginners at all, but Hopper’s Cabin, the Hunted & Sleepy Hollow all sound pretty cool, I’d probably give those a shot before this. Back to the good stuff - the story is really cool, even though I’m not sure it flows super well into the gameplay at times, but it’s really nice to see someone actually care about a plot & think it through with a ton of research. Please note this is not a mystery, you’re just trying to “get proof”. The GM was beyond amazing, totally made the game for us, he absolutely outdid himself and helped us even when we were being idiots, plus he was hilarious - hope he becomes an actor someday, he’d kill it. I do think they could’ve added an actor to play the farmer but most of our group was glad they didn’t because they were already freaked out by the idea. I SO recommend playing in the daylight/dusk - I can’t imagine trying to figure out some of the clues in the dark as it was already hard to see some of the stuff. Overall, I’d say this one was ok, but hard to recommend when compared to their other ones, and I *would* recommend their other ones because they do such a great job. Much love to the farm and employees!
The Orphanage60Out - KoreatownEscape roomIRLThis one was cool but a bit of a bummer only bc based on the reviews I thought it was going to be… More? It’s really only scary in the start and then kinda is just creepy and ominous after that. Production value was pretty cool but when you get into the room you think it’s going to be bigger and more detailed than it turns out to be. I realize red herring visuals are a thing with escape rooms but I really thought we’d be getting to do much more than we actually did. The story/lore can basically be summarized in a sentence (no spoilers from me but it’s not a complicated story or anything) and there were lots of things that I thought were going to be super fun to explore/discover/solve and then just turned out to be nothing. My team solved the room pretty quickly but we do work pretty well together (not a humble brag I promise I just apparently know a bunch of geniuses bc they solved some stuff faster than I could lol), and I know this was an easy level room but I thought we’d at least an hour out of it. That’s on me though - overall the staff was fantastic, the sets looked really cool, and there were some inventive puzzles. I just wanted more. I would probably recommend this room to high schoolers or younger adults that like horror, cause it’s not super scary or super difficult and has unlimited hints if you get lost. I just wanted more bang for our buck, and was looking forward to solving a cool mystery, alas. Also there are NO live actors, and you will have to crawl a very short distance, heads up!
The Maze: Curse Of The Dragon - CLOSEDEscape Woods Escape roomIRLTl;dr: This is a great maze. If you are trying to team build though, it is easy to get separated and not work together. If you have never done an escape room, it is not beginner friendly. You should know how to work together, when to ask for hints and what kind of puzzles to expect bc it’s even harder to get help when the game masters can’t see you and you’re lost and you don’t know what’s going on. This was a wonderful experience and I LOVED it, but not for beginners! For context, I’ve done a few escape rooms and have a core team who I work well with, but I went to this one with a group of newly-met coworkers to try and team build. I’d never done an outdoor escape room and they hadn’t done ANY escape rooms and thus with this being a maze, they got separated and stopped working and communicating with each other. They also didn’t know the protocol with asking clues and hints and therefore we ran out of time (though we did technically escape). This is just to say that all of that is on US, not Escape Woods! This is such a fun time! It’s a giant maze made out of wood palettes, but there’s also set building integrated into it. I recommend doing it at night with lanterns, it looks super cool (though it is a bit harder, but worth it imo). Doors move and open, though mostly what it is finding the path to a door with a padlock. You’ll have to work out the code, and then that goes to the next door and the next. It’s basically a padlock based maze but you do get a chance to separate and work on different doors (the downfall of my team lol). It def has an “outdoor camp” feel in the best way possible. I would recommend reading the description online before doing it bc it goes a bit deeper into the lore/story of the maze than what’s written in the actual maze itself. It is not spooky, and was a great time, even my team agreed that they all had fun. Again, I don’t think it’s the most beginner friendly just bc you should know how an escape room works and how some of the puzzles typically go, but like I said, as long as you’ve done one or two this is DEF worth it. The guides were amazing and lovely. Fun fact, we originally wanted to do the Pig Farmer but couldn’t book it in time. Once we failed the maze I asked the guides how hard the maze was compared to Pig Farmer and they looked at us and said “This one is considered easy” so THAT worked out in our favor lol! I’ll def be back to do more however! Thanks for a lovely evening guys!
Whatever Happened To The Garretts?Maze Rooms - West LAEscape roomIRLThis is one of the coolest ones I’ve ever done and DEF not what I expected even after watching the trailer on the site. Best way I can sell this with no spoilers is IF YOU LOVE STRANGER THINGS/80s you will probably love this!!! I booked it for my friend’s bday who is into cold cases….. in the end it goes WAY beyond non-fictional cold case genre but also it was SO much fun that it was the perfect. 10/10. Such cool, inventive and thoughtful puzzles and SO immersive. We all loved it and got a chance to shine. Thank you! Who would like this room? Minor spoilers below! . . . . . . . . . . . . Fans of: Stranger Things, the Twilight Zone, and unexplained weird mysteries/conspiracies!
World of Illusions - CLOSEDMaze Rooms - HollywoodEscape roomIRLThis was such a fun night, but the room isn’t perfect. There’s a couple puzzles that just aren’t super well thought out, and one that just didn’t make sense at all. Not to spoil that one puzzle, but it was color based and my whole group of 5 got a different color sequence than what they said it was. I don’t want to accuse the owner of being color blind but all 5 of us agreed. I had such a great time though. We all worked super well together, it’s so much fun to look at everything, some of the puzzles were truly fun and inventive, everyone got to do something and excel (to be fair though my team works really well together). It’s definitely not always linear or clear puzzles, which I wish were more thought out but we were able to ask for help so I was ok with it. It’s very whimsical but also a bit mysterious. Not what I would call creepy or scary but def has like a “dark carnival/magician” thing going, which I only mention bc I was worried about it being a little corny but it was great. There was one broken painting but it didn’t effect our gameplay and I’m sure they just hadn’t had time to replace it when I was there, so no points docked. I would not recommend it for beginners just bc I think there’s probably other ones you could do where the puzzles are a bit more logical/you know what to expect a bit more (maybe Fun House? That one is on my list) but I will say that if you LOVE this theme and can work well together, go for it! Maybe I should lower this review to a thumbs up but we all had such a solid night that any puzzles that didn’t make sense were easy to overlook for us.
Masquerade Ball Room - CLOSEDEscape House Los AngelesEscape roomIRLI played this room many moons ago but it still remains to date the worst room I’ve ever played, whomp whomp. I’ve done some duds; grandma’s masterplan, men in suits, magic kingdom, but wow this one was on its own level. I got a Groupon deal & it was on Groupon for a reason; it was cheap, broken + disjointed. I talked my coworkers into going & then I walked away like a clown at the end bc by trying to save us money I booked a lemon. I don’t want to be rude if the owners are somehow reading this, but considering this place is closed, I doubt they are. If I can be constructive, I think maybe the move would’ve been to not have 3 rooms at your establishment, and maybe instead just pool the resources into one quality room experience. And also, to try more escape rooms yourself because you should have a good idea of what makes a room good in the first place, even if you don’t have access to fancy tricks or robotics. From what I remember, there was some kind of mystery during a masquerade that you were supposed to solve - and that was 2 problems right there. A masquerade - the room was kind of just a suggestion of a vintage-y look that had like vaguely nice wall paper at best but was mostly kinda sparse. There wasn’t enough ballroom or Venetian glamour to suggest a ball or even a party - I think the concept of a masquerade is super cool for an escape room but you really gotta either commit to the bit and go full opulence rococo/victorian/Venice or change the theme bc otherwise what are you presenting aesthetically that makes it a masquerade? And the second problem - it was a mystery. Well lemme tell ya - there wasn’t really a mystery. I think you were trying to find someone who turned out to be a stuffed scarecrow body in the next room. I really value escape rooms that put story in their room rather than just a theme - it really brings the immersion full circle. I also love mysteries & figuring out clues and noticing details as I go. I realize that’s super hard in 60 minutes, especially when you’re also working to do puzzles, but maybe if we’d had some suspect character cards beforehand, or came across envelopes to open or even evidence? There was just barely any story and certainly no mystery. I could totally see this being a super fun experience in idea, but in execution there was just no way they delivered either the mystery or the idea of masquerade. I remember the puzzles being janky - that might be partly my group, who didn’t know what to do and therefore just kinda started poking at everything in hopes it would work, leading us to do stuff out of order - but that was also because stuff was super disjointed and didn’t make a ton of sense or come together cohesively, so yeah, we started poking. And the stuff that was there was really, again, barren and not impressive. Laminated papers and padlocks/keys. There was some explanation in story about the lights being turned off and then some kind of faint glow in the dark floor puzzle that was kind of ok, but mostly just got annoying being in the dark for so long, and I have to wonder if they did that to save on like set costs. There was also a some kind of piano puzzle that required you to play notes or something - that was also in the dark so it was super hard to see, we got way too stuck on it + then took forever to get a hint/solve it, & that’s with the experience of musicians in our group. It was a bad puzzle. Things were super beat up, the end room was a small little bedroom set that didn’t match the theme either, and I get that you can’t just stuff a highly realistic dead body in a room but the scarecrow dummy was really funny. It was made from white cloth and just kinda sagged at us once we got the wardrobe open. Total waste of my money+time sadly, but I hope if the owners someday try again they can do better.
The Alchemist - CLOSEDEscape Room LAEscape roomIRLI wasn’t a fan of this room but we also failed big time so feel free to call me biased. Also, played several years ago, so my memory might be hazy - therefore take this with a grain of salt. This was precovid so you were allowed to book rooms with strangers, which I did. I think the MINIMUM for this room was like… 10 people? And man, did they mean that. We were a part of 10 right before the GM came up to us and told us people had dropped out of the booking… Nothing we could do so we went ahead. The first room wasn’t that crazy, we got a little lost and also skipped through a puzzle or 2 but the second room was our downfall, and I don’t know if it continued after that but it didn’t matter because we didn’t. They split the group into 4 smaller teams so you could each work on 4 element puzzle, and we only had enough people for 2 teams, so we got stuck pretty quickly, plus we had limited hints (the GM was super awesome through all of this btw and very funny). Our time ran out and that was that. I think mostly it was very hard (which it was advertised as being) and we were beginners so that’s on us entirely, but I didn’t find the puzzles themselves to be that fun to do. It was a long time ago but I do remember there were elements of figuring out codes and science-y puzzles that I didn’t find engaging. I thought it would be more mystery and fantasy based but they really went literal scientist/alchemist with it, which was a disappointment to me. It was kind of fun but I think that was more that I enjoyed my friends company, and mostly we left feeling kind of bummed and underwhelmed by the experience. The set was ok - lots of stone from what I remember and stuff like scales and books - but I’ll be sure to research more carefully before I come back to this venue. I have a feeling with the right amount of people picking/having a better idea of what the story is, we’ll have a much more fun time, but for now, not a fan of this particular room. I know it’s closed, there’s a video of it on YouTube if anybody wants to see what it looked like!
The Will - CLOSEDEnigma Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLI wish there was a way to rate rooms as like, not the best room but my group had fun. I think this room was first generation as well, so I don’t wanna be harsh in this review but I can’t give it a thumbs up either. This room wasn’t great, but it wasn’t the worst. I need a thumb in the middle. I can’t recommend the room ultimately but it was my first one and it was enough that I wanted to keep trying escape rooms! However, this is not a poetic review about my journey into escapedom. It’s about the room. Meh! That’s my review. I will say that partly it was on me - this room was a surprise gift to me, and I didn’t get to pick it. Literally any other room at this location would’ve been more up my alley, but like I said, still had fun. As I recall, you’re trying to find a will, and the guy who wrote it ends up being from a secret society I think? There was almost no story. There were two rooms - one was a study, and the second, which opened through a secret bookcase was also… a study. It ended with you getting the will. Not a ton of effort went into the immersion/lore there, which is unfortunate because the set wasn’t really impressive either so it just ended up being… ok. And unremarkable, which for the price wasn’t great, even in 2016. Again, I know this is a first gen room but still. I think a wild story with a contrasting second room would’ve impressed me a lot more. The puzzles I remember being hard, but it was my first room, so I doubt it was actually super hard. There were some scuffed/laminated up clues, and a couple kinda cool puzzles/triggers but nothing too exciting. They didn’t give us a starting point so we kinda just started poking everything which wasn’t the way to do it, because it was a linear room, so the flow wasn’t great and we were bumbling around bc we didn’t have a clear idea of what to do, it being our first room. The staff was cool, except there apparently was a kill switch button that forced all the doors open in the room - and if you pressed it, the game was OVER for some reason. I think it must’ve been connected to resetting the puzzles somehow? Because they were ADAMANT about us NOT touching it at all, otherwise we’d be kicked to the curb, and I don’t know why they’d freak out so much otherwise. Well, and I still don’t know how, the button went off, of course. They came in to boot us, but we protested our innocence and they let us stay, if a little reluctant. No one could figure out what happened. I get it, but also, maybe don’t have a panic button and just leave the door unlocked? Like I said, first gen room, so maybe that was a thing back then. And I still don’t know wtf happened to set it off. But beyond that the staff was ok, as was the room, and here I am today, still loving escapes. So cheers!
![Heretics [prev. Bloody Elbow]](https://images.morty.app/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/19484bfe-3a27-4e45-9d7b-46df4e3701c7.jpg)
![The Pig Farmer: Cult Of The 7 Sins [Outdoor]](https://images.morty.app/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/d29feea6-0a41-463c-98fd-29cd18e9b688.jpg)
