Le Cirque des Âmes Perdues Ver. 2025 [Circus of the Lost Souls]Immersia Escape GamesEscape roomIRLOur third room at Immersia and this one was definitely our favorite! They made wonderful use of the space, which made the room feel much bigger than I'm sure it was in actuality. Wonderful puzzle design with a wide variety of puzzle types so people can do puzzles that play to their strengths, and the puzzles were all on-theme. The hint system was a clever choice and super fun to interact with, as was the actor, who was a joy and also unobtrusive. I love a room where I am so immersed in the story that I forget to think about how fast we're going—Immersia truly knocked it out of the park with this one.
Le Jubilé d'Or [The Golden Jubilee]Escaparium - LavalEscape roomIRLWhile this is nowhere near THE room to see while at Escaparium, Golden Jubilee was still a joy to play. The first room was beautiful, and the second room was something we've never experienced before and I thoroughly enjoyed it!! The ending felt anticlimactic—we actually didn't even know we'd won until the GM told us through the walkie talkie, but the room was still delightful. Some puzzle types we'd never seen before, the majority of which had great themeing as well. This room would be a market standout in many cities, and personally I think the mixed reviews are only because it is situated amongst the greats.
La Cathédrale Oubliée [The Forgotten Cathedral]Escaparium - LavalEscape roomIRLThis room is a masterclass in special effects—our group was blown away by every aspect of the experience. Two floors in the cathedral was absolutely astounding; rooms like this are the reason we keep coming back to Laval to play. My only note is that the room seems to be best designed for exactly four people, and for us as a group of six, it felt like too many cooks in the kitchen. SLIGHT SPOILER BELOW . . . . This is the first time I've ever seen a breakable prop in an escape room, and that was such a delightful surprise!
Sword in the WallCo-OperativesEscape roomIRLAnother great wall! Today's staff member was very kind and attentive as well.
Lucky Dice DinerExpedition EscapeEscape roomIRLBefore even getting to the room itself, I want to note that this is by far the kindest, most caring escape room company/staff that I have ever encountered in my 60+ escape rooms. I am severely immunocompromised, and the staff wore masks throughout our visit, had air purifiers on in the building, and sanitized objects prior to my arrival. I have never felt so seen, safe, and cared for when doing rooms before. I look forward to returning to Expedition Escape the next time I'm in Pennsylvania and cannot thank them enough for taking my accessibility so seriously. And as for the room itself: Absolutely ASTOUNDING what this room was able to accomplish with little space! Use of lighting, music, and other sounds created an experience comparable to multi-room escape rooms despite having only one room. Puzzle themeing was some of the best we've seen, and had a wide variety of puzzle types that allowed players to engage with puzzles best suited to their skill set. The room's narrative, and overall vibe, was light and jovial, creating a super fun environment (we were dancing to the jukebox throughout the experience!). This has definitely been my favorite room of 2026 so far :) Also shout out to our GM, Sara, who was incredibly kind, did me a huge favor before the start of the room, and was perfect at giving us exactly the type of hints we asked for. Thank you, Sara!
Curse of the Hidden TempleExpedition EscapeEscape roomIRLI have to start this review the same way I started Lucky Dice Diner by noting that this is by far the kindest, most caring escape room company/staff that I have ever encountered in my 60+ escape rooms. I am severely immunocompromised, and the staff wore masks throughout our visit, had air purifiers on in the building, and sanitized objects prior to my arrival. I have never felt so seen, safe, and cared for when doing rooms before. I look forward to returning to Expedition Escape the next time I'm in Pennsylvania and cannot thank them enough for taking my accessibility seriously. And as for the room itself: This room does a wonderful job creating that feeling of being the main character in an adventure story through well-made lighting, sound, and effects—we had an absolute blast playing! The tech was astounding, and this room is also all tech, no traditional locks. If you're looking for a fun, immersive experience, look no further! The one thing I think could really take this room to the next level is having adaptive difficulty. We escaped in 34 minutes as a team of two, and there was definitely clear opportunity to add additional puzzles to the last task of the storyline for anyone hovering around the 1/2 time mark, to make sure everyone is having a full close-to-an-hour experience. Shout out to our GM, Anna, who gave me a wonderful birthday surprise since we'd initially booked these rooms for my birthday in October—I was absolutely delighted! And a huge thank you for being so understanding when we were late and apologies again for our timing mix up!
Help Not WantedThink Solve EscapeEscape roomIRLWonderful example of a lower-budget room making the most of what is available to them! Wide variety of puzzle types, a few of which we'd never seen before. Great room theme, great use of limited space, simple and effective tech, and a lovely game master who was very respectful of our hinting preferences. The one thing we wish had been different is that we wish we could have had a whiteboard and marker to write on in the room. Other than that, no notes!
Conundrum MuseumBoxarooEscape roomIRLOur group had a wonderful time with this room! This is a great option for groups whose favorite part of an escape room is puzzling. High-quality puzzles with a lot of variety, with little spectacle, but still strong tech so I wouldn't consider it an old-school room. I really appreciated that many of the color-based puzzles also included different patterns to accommodate anyone who might struggle with color differentiation. Boxaroo knocks it out of the park once again! ⚠️Flash Warning⚠️ Request a seizure-friendly room if needed. Apparently a seizure warning is hidden in the waiver, but no one in our room knew about it prior to entering the room, even after having called Boxaroo ahead of time to ask about accessibility. None of us are sensitive to flashing lights, but this could have been catastrophic for someone else.
Witch's HollowStained Hourglass Escapes LLC.Escape roomIRLWitches Hollow was a delightful game. Our group of 4 (3 enthusiasts and 1 newer player) escaped in 46min using a divide-and-conquer approach to the room's nonlinear game design, so not every player participated in every puzzle. That was fine with us, but if you're looking to be involved in every puzzle, you'd really only need 2 players. This room is primarily tech-based, with one mechanical lock that still makes sense immersion-wise. Lots of different puzzle styles, meaning everyone can play to their strengths. My favorite things about this room were: 1. The choice you make in the beginning has an actual impact on the story 2. The ending felt so special 3. The acting was spectacular and we thoroughly enjoyed the character interactions If you HAVE to pick between Stained Hourglass' two rooms, I would personally choose Boring Office, but both games are absolutely wonderful and you should definitely play both if you can.
The Mole of The MountainUpside Down Escape GamesEscape roomIRLThis is one of those rooms I'll be talking about for years to come; rooms like this are why I do escape rooms. Firstly, a HUGE thank you to the GM from a logstical perspective. We arrived for our 11:45 arrival at 11:55 (we drove 2hrs to get here and the traffic just wasn't on our side), and the GM was very patient and kind when she had every right to be frustrated. We also took 76min to escape this 75min room, and because we were so close the GM added an extra minute to the clock without us knowing. I absolutely love when rooms are willing to bend the clock in favor of letting players complete the storyline. And what an amazing storyline it was! From the intro video to the very last seconds in this room, I was amazed by the story, the set, the details—anyone designing escape rooms should visit this room for inspiration. Not only were the narrative/set/immersion amazing, but the puzzles were just as high-quality. We saw some unique puzzle types we've never seen before, and clever spins on classic puzzles (extra shout out to the washing machine!), and appreciated the wide variety of puzzle types allowing us to tap in on many different types of thinking. I truly do not have enough praise for Mole of the Mountain, it is well worth traveling for.
Nocturnal KeepUpside Down Escape GamesEscape roomIRLNocturnal Keep had some great puzzles with lots of variety in puzzle type! The GM (possibly owner?) is an enthusiast herself, which is always a major green flag in my book. I really appreciated the clarity of the task and steps to accomplish it, and thought the hint system was fun and clever. The room theme is pretty generic, but is still worth playing for the puzzles themselves. There was one point where I was asking for a hint for two minutes straight and had to ask three separate times before receiving a response. While I can appreciate that they were short-staffed and the GM was juggling a lot at once, it's also stressful when the clock is ticking and you're trying to get the attention of someone who isn't there. Additionally, there was one puzzle that required color differentiation in which it genuinely felt impossible to differentiate the colors because they were too similar. Even using the provided lanterns, we could not tell which color was which. I ended up having to go to my jacket and get my phone flashlight to have a strong enough light to tell which color was which, which was a bummer because it kind of broke the immersion. If you, like me, are someone who prefers to play the rooms at a location based on the quality of the room, ending with the strongest room, the order I would recommend is Nocturnal Keep, Baggage Bandits, and then Mole of the Mountain. Nocturnal Keep was a nice room and we enjoyed ourselves, but having played both of their other rooms already, it didn't live up to what we know the designers here are capable of.
Projet R.E.S.E.T. [Project R.E.S.E.T.]Immersia Escape GamesEscape roomIRLThis game had a unique mechanic that blew us away, and it executed its theme very well, leaving players with a valuable life lesson. My critical comments come from a place of loving this game and seeing its potential to be even stronger, not a place of disliking it—we really enjoyed this game. Great environment, great use of space, and a fun ability to order items to help with your gameplay. We also appreciated the GM's willingness to show us how they made the magic of this room possible after the game was over. While there are some minor tweaks we would have liked to see, I'll stick to our three major confusions/frustrations. Our first critique is of the tablet. It did not serve as a functional hint system for us, because almost any time we were stuck on a puzzle we had already figured out all the information the tablet could provide. Additionally, when you're playing as a team of 2, it is unrealistic to expect that someone will have eyes on the tablet at all times, especially in an environment as engaging as this one. Our next critique is that, to us, it felt confusing to receive the role of "criminal" in the game and then be expected to play out the role of a rule-follower. Especially with the quick discovery of a grate in the cabinet, we were expecting, as criminals, to subvert Project RESET and make an escape through the grate. However, the grate in the cabinet was not an escape route, and we were expected to follow the Project's rules to a T. While I understand that the story centered around rehabilitation, it took us a long time to realize that we were not supposed to act as criminals in any way. Our final frustration was that we lost the room when I knew the final code and was one number away from having typed in the whole code. Genuinely we needed two more seconds and we would have completed the room. From a design perspective and a business perspective, especially when your room has no count down clock, I think it makes sense to simply give someone an extra one second so they can have the satisfaction of completing the room, rather than giving them the "failure" ending only to have the GM come in at the end and say that, actually, we had completed all the puzzles in the room. When we played the Grand Immersia Hotel two days earlier, we were ten seconds over the 60min mark (not even as close as the 1-to-2 seconds away during Project RESET, and this time with a countdown clock), and the GM still played it out as if we had completed the room in time, which we really appreciated. All of that said, one common critique I saw in this room's Morty reviews that was not an issue for our team in the slightest was the audio-based puzzle, which was possibly our favorite puzzle of the whole room. Again, we loved this game! But we liked the Grand Immersia Hotel much more.
L'Île perdue de la Reine Vaudou [The Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen]Escaparium - LavalEscape roomIRLLost Island of the Voodoo Queen absolutely blew us away; we truly felt like the main characters of an adventure movie. As of writing this review, this is absolutely the best escape room I've ever played in my life. The opening sequence did a beautiful job setting the story, the set was mind-bloggling from start to finish, and the lighting choices made the space genuinely feel more like an outdoor environment than a room. Additionally, the GM was probably the best we've ever had. He was an amazing actor, completely focused on our group, never broke character, kept us progressing through the story without making us feel like we were getting hints, and most importantly kept up great banter with us throughout the game. The special effects also blew us away, and were both surprising and realistic. This was one of those games where I wasn't thinking about any sort of race against the clock, I was simply immersed in our adventure. This game is a must-play and absolutely worth traveling for. David's 2020 review on Room Escape Artist still holds up to this day, the only part we disagreed with was the negative about too many breakaway objects, which Escaparium seems to have since fixed. In our playthrough 5yrs after REA's review, we were only able to pick up things that we were genuinely meant to work with.
Le Grand Immersia Hotel [The Grand Immersia Hotel]Immersia Escape GamesEscape roomIRLFrom the moment the instructional video ended we were instantly immersed in the world of the Grand Immersia Hotel. This room is a must-play. Large and detailed space, committed actors, strong narrative, puzzles that made logical sense for the narrative, and even great choices of background music (I heard some iconic Sleep No More songs!). Some of the most impressive highlights were the timekeeper—amazing design choice—and the possibility of an alternative ending. While our team escaped with the main ending, simply discovering the alternative ending was magical in itself. Huge props to Immersia for this knockout game, I truly felt like the main character in a suspenseful action movie.
Baggage BanditsUpside Down Escape GamesEscape roomIRLWe absolutely loved this game!! Wide variety of puzzles utilizing many different senses and skillsets, and even a couple of unique puzzle types and other mechanics that I've never seen before! Wonderful set design and storytelling as well, and a fun and unique hint system! Our team of two finished with... I think 10 minutes to spare? Maybe 5? I didn't look at the time lol. We worked our way through each puzzle with good flow but never felt like we weren't being challenged, this room felt like my personal ideal difficulty level. Our GM was also amazing, and completely respected our request to not receive any hints we didn't ask for. She was also kind enough to come help us open a lock we were struggling to open after we'd spent about five minutes repeatedly putting in a code she'd confirmed was correct (This was not a room quality issue, idk why we couldn't get the lock to open but the GM opened it without issue). This room was well worth the 2.5hr round trip drive! We will definitely be back to Upside Down Escape Games 🦉
Elixir MixerCo-OperativesEscape roomIRLAfter completing Big Dig last year, we came back for another Co-Operatives game! The staff member recommended this one to us and we commented that it was rated challenging, and he said that all the games are designed to be the same difficulty, and the challenge ratings are based on player feedback and how well they do in the games. That definitely rang true to me, as we didn't find Elixir Mixer to be more challenging than Big Dig. Great puzzles and fun theme! I do wish the ending potion had more of a "big reveal" to mark completion. The potion was just a bottle full of glitter and didn't look any more exciting than the ingredients we'd been collecting. But besides that, it was another great Co-Operatives game with fun puzzles and kind staff. We look forward to returning a third time!
The Double-CrossEscape Rhode IslandEscape roomIRLGreat room! They did a great job with the story and the theme. The puzzles were fun, nonlinear, and varied in puzzle type. They also did a great job setting it up so you were never standing around not knowing what should happen next, everything was very clear. It took our team of two, one enthusiast and one newbie, about 61 minutes (thank you to the GM for letting us finish and complete the story!) We strugged with one puzzle's execution, even though we understood it cognitively, but even so I really enjoyed the puzzle because it was unique. My only piece of constructive criticism is that I would have loved a lock demo ahead of time for one of the locks in the room. It's a lock type I've seen once or twice before, but I don't find it intuitive and struggled to know whether it was my code or the lock that wasn't working. Thanks to Escape Rhode Island for the great game!
The Boring OfficeStained Hourglass Escapes LLC.Escape roomIRLThe Boring Office is currently my #1 favorite escape room, for so many reasons. 1. Our group needed to play on a specific day and with 3 players instead of the 4 required on that day. Stained Hourglass was really accommodating and created a personalized coupon code to allow us to play. 2. This room was the absolute perfect theme in my eyes, and the narrative was beautifully executed. 3. Stained Hourglass went all out to personalize the room to my birthday, beyond what I could have ever imagined, and it made my birthday so so special <3 Other points of note: - "Employing" players in different "departments" was a great way to lead people toward puzzles that played to their strengths - This room has adaptive difficulty, which allowed our group to be adequately challenged - Wonderful variety of puzzle types! - Great usage of effects! - Without spoilers, shout out to the first room's puzzle specifically - Absolutely hilarious end goal We cannot wait to return to Stained Hourglass!
The RelicRed Door Escape Room - FoxboroEscape roomIRLThis was a really enjoyable room! We enjoyed seeing some puzzle types that are less commonly used, the theme/decor was strong, and the tech was well done. We played as a team of two and unfortunately didn't make it out in time, and were actively working on the last puzzle when 45 minutes hit, but our GM was kind enough to wait a few moments to let us finish so we could still enjoy the big ending. Unlike the room we'd done at Red Door this morning, where our loss felt primarily due to poor GMing (it was a different GM), this loss was simply a clever final puzzle that challenged us well :) My one critique of this room is that I solved one of the puzzles before I was supposed to, and then did all this other puzzling work to get to a point I'd already reached ten minutes ago. There is another aspect of the room that, while I did not do it early, it's also possible that someone could do it before they were supposed to. While I appreciate non-linear rooms, there does have to be some level of certain tasks getting you to another task, and I think the room could use a little re-working to ensure no one finds/solves anything before they're supposed to. My other critique would be the small space, however I think Red Door made really great use of what little space they had for this room, probably the best use of a small space I'd seen so far. Overall, great room!
SurviveRed Door Escape Room - FoxboroEscape roomIRLThough small, this room made good use of the space it had. Environment was immersive and puzzles were worked into the environment and on-theme. One unique gameplay mechanic was a fun addition to the room, however it meant that players had less time to grapple with the puzzles than the allotted 45 minutes. Our team of two did not escape and had one puzzle left when the clock ran out, which I think could have been avoided with stronger GMing in the one moment we asked for a hint. Overall, this was an enjoyable room, but not a market standout. EDIT: I noticed that older reviews said the room was too dark. I didn't feel that way at all, it was simply dim lighting to me. I don't know if that's just a difference in opinion or if Red Door changed the lighting after feedback from players, but I thought it worth noting.
![Le Cirque des Âmes Perdues Ver. 2025 [Circus of the Lost Souls]](https://images.morty.app/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/410625c8-9d9c-4b87-84a2-c413b2a46add.jpg)
![Le Jubilé d'Or [The Golden Jubilee]](https://images.morty.app/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/4c35f397-544c-4b03-8b91-130330ea6831.jpg)
![La Cathédrale Oubliée [The Forgotten Cathedral]](https://images.morty.app/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/2c2890dd-87b6-4712-8136-8403e436ec72.jpg)
![Projet R.E.S.E.T. [Project R.E.S.E.T.]](https://images.morty.app/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/d5c254a6-7f15-453f-903d-fd22af4c6532.jpg)
![L'Île perdue de la Reine Vaudou [The Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen]](https://images.morty.app/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/ea8040b8-d20c-48b1-a683-d874c1ae6eb1.jpg)
![Le Grand Immersia Hotel [The Grand Immersia Hotel]](https://images.morty.app/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/8eba2910-0320-4167-a277-bcf15f8e921e.png)
