The Legend of Sorro BaySweet EscapesEscape roomIRLWe did this as a team of 2. It was challenging and we barely made it out. We needed hints which were delivered really well and helped make the experience positive. Good puzzles and design of the environment. We had a couple notes for improvement, we felt the intro/entry process to the room was a little awkward and definitely felt rushed out of the room. The staff weren’t super eager to engage with us about the experience. The second note for improvement was a bigger deal. There are a few points in the room where you need to put your hand into an opening to retrieve something. In one of those, my hand got completely covered in black powder. It was unavoidable and I was shocked how dirty my hand was. We’re really relieved it wasn’t my wife ruining her white sweater. That would have been awful.
The Pumpkin King's Christmas CabinThe Locked InnEscape roomIRLThere’s so much to do! We always love Locked Inn rooms. Similar to their 1985 room, you will be busy. I thought the puzzles were fair, though a couple could use a little reworking in my opinion (especially a clunky one involving a list of candies). Group size matters a lot in this room too. You’ll need a group of at least 4 to be able to complete everything, but at some points in the game flow there might be only one thing to work on. This turns a portion of the group into spectators since there might not physically be enough room for everyone to participate on the task at hand. But later on it’s all hands on deck, so don’t attempt this with too few people. Without spoiling anything, I used all 5 senses in this room. We especially loved the distinct Christmas smell when we first walked in. The vibes were awesome. Kudos to Locked Inn for good puzzles and good prop design. They get a lot of good buzz for their Room 1985 experience but I personally preferred this room. I really hope people book this room all year around because it’s not a holiday pop-up, it’s a challenge that enthusiasts should flock to.
Secret Society - CLOSEDMastermind Room Escape - St. LouisEscape roomIRLThis is a solid gen 2 escape room with heavy use of combo locks and a few instances of RFID. The larger puzzles are well designed but there were a couple locks that weren’t solved by logic but more by word association. It also has an unorthodox ending that I felt mixed about. Another oddity is the use of walkie talkies so the game master can communicate into the escape room. I don’t know why there isn’t a speaker built in. Overall this particular room is solid and a generally fair challenge. It’s dated when compared to newer rooms with more bells and whistles, but still fun.
Devil's Advocate [prev. The Runic Ritual]Two Trees EscapeEscape roomIRLThe room itself was mostly fine. Pretty average difficulty with parts of the set that were very detailed and cool. But we probably won’t be back. Maybe for Vault 805, but we’re not sure. Our issues with not being responded to after hint requests, the lack of a visible clock or readable hints, the unclean restrooms, the broken glass at the entry, the broken elements in the room, and the awkward vibe in the oddly silent room all added up to us deciding to skip Two Trees for a while and come back once we’ve spent our money on other places. I’m bummed to write all that because the staff were very nice and they obviously put work into the room. I hope it’s better for everyone else.
Room 1985The Locked InnEscape roomIRLOverall we had an amazing time solving the many puzzles in this room. Some puzzles were pretty unique and fun. You definitely need to move at a fast pace in this one. Not to spoil too much, but there were situations where we unlocked something that we didn’t have a sight line on. This led to a lot of confusion about whether our solutions had “worked” or not. There were many instances where the person running our game had to come over the speaker and let us know what had happened. It wasn’t the end of the world, but unfortunately hurt the immersiveness of the room for us. Still, this is a great room as far as being full of good props, challenging puzzles, and wow factor.
Captain Maniacal's LairbratoriumRed Door Escape Room - OxnardEscape roomIRLVery fun beginner/warm-up room. There’s not a ton of challenge here for experienced escapers but it was still fun. Javier II was a fun puzzle to center the story around. I think kids would like it a lot. Also I recommend doing this when it’s dark as one of the room’s walls is a floor to ceiling window.
Prohibition [Outdoor] - CLOSEDPuzzle Effect - San Luis ObispoEscape roomIRLI did this with my friend and her 8 year old daughter. I’m glad she brought her daughter because without her, we would have been so bored and finished in under 20 minutes. The day was salvaged by the 8 year old’s enthusiasm for her first escape experience. However, I have to rate the room low because there just isn’t that much here. 7 simple codes and only some of them actually require that you go to various locations.
The GiftRed Door Escape Room - OxnardEscape roomIRLThis was an above average game experience for me. I like the quality of the room setting. Some puzzles were cool and novel. Some puzzles were overly simple and a little disappointing. Regardless the room was good fun and well worth the stop. At this location so far I’ve done Confinement and Once Upon a Time. This was the funnest of the 3 but Confinement was harder and more satisfying to complete.
ConfinementRed Door Escape Room - OxnardEscape roomIRLWe had a great experience with this room. There is an early puzzle that to me required a leap in logic but it didn’t sour our time. This was a full of puzzles, codes, and riddles. It was fairly linear so I’d recommend a small group. Extra points for using a prop as a puzzle in a way that I’ve never seen before.
A Christmas StoryOscar’s PlaygroundEscape roomIRLWe had a bunch of fun and this room is essential for anyone who likes the movie that this is based on. Pretty standard puzzles that were fun to work through. Good theming. The environment of the loud, neighboring arcade made it a little hard to know what noises were for us and what was just arcade noise. Overall I’d give it an 8/10.
Rita's RelicsEscape! at Margarita AdventuresEscape roomIRLVery high quality room that will be a fun challenge to enthusiasts. It is tougher for new people but anyone and everyone will be blown away at how well done this room is. Bravo! and if you’re ever traveling along Highway 101, make this room a priority to visit.
Atlantis RisingPanIQ Room - Las VegasEscape roomIRLLots of novel puzzles. Some are more finicky than others but overall a unique experience. Good theming with a real challenge even for experienced people.
Once Upon A TimeRed Door Escape Room - OxnardEscape roomIRLParts of this room were very very cool. A few other things were really unintuitive. A real mixed bag. The good outweighs the bad by a lot though and I’d recommend it.
Blackbeard's Brig - CLOSEDEscapeWorks Denver - Convention CenterEscape roomIRLThis has a very high puzzles per hour rate. Tons of little locks to decode. We were busy the whole time because it was just 2 of us. It was satisfying to get out but the final stage of the room wasn’t my favorite. It was not very intuitive and I’d call it buggy.
Egyptian TombEscapeWorks Denver - Convention CenterEscape roomIRLWe had a great time. Unfortunately we were grouped together with strangers to maximize the group size. It wasn’t the best but that’s not the room’s fault. We loved the Egypty feeling of the room and had a ton of fun.
The ReelPuzzle Effect - San Luis ObispoEscape roomIRLThis was a good room. It’s the one I’d most recommend here but all of them are good. There were some puzzles that were challenging to the point where I was getting frustrated. But once I knew the solution, I’d realize that the puzzle was just smarter than me. Other parts of The Reel were really fun to solve without being too easy. I remember one element involving math that was tough once our brains were fried.
The SubmarineEscape the Room - Fort WorthEscape roomIRLSo much of this room was spent navigating around on a computer and solving puzzles in a digital space. Extremely finicky and unintuitive. We walked away feeling like we got hosed on an old point and click video game. It was a real bummer because we saw the potential in how cool the rest of the room could have been.
Pipe Works - CLOSEDPuzzle Effect - San Luis ObispoEscape roomIRLSuch a standard room. Really great option for an inexperienced large group though.
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