Neighborhood WatcherThe Escape Ventures - OrlandoEscape roomIRLAfter nearly a 100 rooms done, I still think this might be one of my favourite themes for an escape room yet. Lots of 80s-90s nostalgia, but still very engaging for people who weren't around for those times. I loved playing as a kid, and the gamemaster was incredible at setting the tone. Without spoiling too much, the second room is such a huge tonal shift in a good way and incredibly immersive. All the puzzles are great at fitting with the theme. I do think that the experience could be heavily predicated on your gamemaster's ability, but man, if you get a good gamemaster this is such a fun room without having to be super hightech or anything. In fact, the last puzzle wasn't reset correctly, but I was able to overlook it and stay immersed in the storyline.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLYou can really tell that the owners really love what they do with this room. There is so much attention to detail and innovation when it comes to mechanics in this room. I really hope that everyone gives this room a try just to incentivise other owners to take risks like 13th Hour did. What they did with the house was truly innovative and an absolute delight to experience. The puzzles were on the easier side, especially compared with their other rooms, but the experience is second to none. The animatronics are comparable in quality to some of the older Disney rides (which is pretty impressive considering how much money Disney has). I had the opportunity to discuss this room with the builder, and the investment they put into this room really astounded me. They were definitely not looking to make a quick return of investment from this room. Truly a labour of love.
Heresy: 1897Doors of DivergenceEscape roomIRLThis was an experience right from the moment we finished checking in. The staff here really try their best to get you immersed into the storyline and really paid off as my party and I felt actively engaged in the story. This is one of the few escape rooms that actually have replayability as you can get a different set of puzzles and ending depending on the choices you make. At the end, they also give you some cards as a record of your achievements. My only critique about this room is that one of the "puzzles" is more like a game than a puzzle so that one took us a while to finish.
Bros for Life: Fraternity HeistThe Escape Ventures - OrlandoEscape roomIRLI did really love the atmosphere and theme of this room, but I did think this room was slightly overrated with the escape room community. That being said, I have a feeling that your experience could be heavily dictated by your gamemaster's ability, and I felt like I had just an okay one. He was very nice, but I didn't think he added anything to the experience. They really did nail the college campus vibe here which was the main reason I gave it a heart. Puzzles ranged from alright to fun. Last room was super fun and silly. The storyline was a lot of fun to follow overall. There were a couple of dexterity puzzles which I despise so that might've contributed to my slight disappointment.
Madness: 1917Doors of DivergenceEscape roomIRLMy God. This was the absolute best experience I could've asked for from an escape room. While Heresy: 1897 was already ground breaking for the genre, Madness: 1917 really dialed it up to an 11. You are presented with a scenario from the start which I believe influences the path you take as well as whatever ending you got in the first room. The party is then split into separate rooms. The theatre in this room cannot be understated. The acting here is top notch, and I actively felt connected to one of of the characters. The atmosphere is more tense and engaging than Heresy while also having stronger and more interesting puzzles. Thisis not to disparage Heresy, but more so to praise the new level Madness established. I have only one minor complaint which is that we were able to jump the gun at one part by accident, but that does not hold the room back from receiving perfect scores.
Captain Spoopy Bones and the Magnificent Quest For Some Other Pirate's Treasure!Doldrick's Escape RoomEscape roomIRLThis room involves a very lengthy split start. In fact, I loved this room so much that I played it twice to do the other side as well. The theming is fantastic and again, Spoopy is just an absolute delight of a character. Communication is absolutely key here. The second "rooms" are competely blind from each other and involve some complex puzzles. I absolutely would not recommend this room for beginners because of this. That being said, the puzzles in this room are top tier and some of the most brain stimulating ones I've done overall. The puzzle density here is amazing, and I really enjoyed how well these were incorporated into the theme. If I had to complain about something, I would say that the projector system could be improved as it definitely looked like something from the 90s in terms of visual quality.
The CryptEscape Hour AustinEscape roomIRLTo this day, this is the best utilisation of space I've ever seen in an escape room. The actual square footage wasn't that big, but the room kept going and going. Usually, I like to be involved with every puzzle, but there was no way that was going to be possible with how much there was to do here. Atmosphere and theming were awesome though it was actually pretty cramped a lot of the time. Even if you attempted to do this with only 2 people, there are several sections that cannot accomodate multiple people at a time. The game master interaction system was quite fun. If I had to ding this room on anything, it would be that I didn't feel super engaged with the story/there wasn't really much of a storyline in general.
Ghost LightMyssTic RoomsEscape roomIRLThis room had a lot of charm that I didn't expect for a vaudeville ghost themed room. Excellent theming overall with extremely solid puzzles. Didn't love this as much as Montauk Project, but would still highly recommend it. The ghost interactions were delightful.
The Grand Parlor13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLI don't know how they did it, but somehow 13th Hour managed to outdo themselves on an already extremely impressive repertoire. You can tell they took concepts from all the previous rooms and then built upon them to create an extremely fleshed out game that will challenge even the most seasoned escape room player. This game is HARD. The puzzles are extremely fair, but there is just so much of them that even a group of 4 enthusiasts can struggle. There is no time to play around which is a little unfortunate since this leaves little opportunity to appreciate some of the details put into this room. If you thought The Dungeon was high paced and physically active, this is perhaps doubly so. In true 13th Hour fashion, there was an impressive reveal I was not expecting. Definitely the most challenging room I've played (in a good way as a bad room can be challenging for all the wrong reasons) in almost 200 games. I feel like people will often overstate how crucial communication is in other escape rooms, but that cannot be understated here. What a memorable experience. My only knock would be that there isn't a strong narrative experience, but that has never been the case with the John Hayden series.
Cheesie's Pizza Party60 to Escape - SchaumburgEscape roomIRLI really gotta give it to the creators for coming up with such a clever theme. Not only that, they executed on the theme flawlessly from a thematic standpoint. 60 to Escape really spared no expense here. It was nice having multiple endings, and I did have to wrestle with my decision. To this day, I'm not sure what was the right choice here. There were a couple of things that fell short for me in an otherwise stellar game. There was a dexterity puzzle that took us an annoyingly long time. There was a LOT of searching required in this game. I don't hate searching as much as my fellow enthusiasts, but I can see that getting old for many. In fact, I felt like what little difficulty we encountered in this room was entirely predicated on our ability to search. I also felt like there were much more opportunities for world building based off t he amount of random details spread about in the room that never led up to anything. The memento you get to keep from the game is so nostalgic 👌
