Murder In LondonMystique Escape RoomEscape roomIRLI'm a big lover of Sherlock Holmes, and this room did a great job of whisking me away into a murder mystery in London. The atmosphere was very Victorian era, and the plot was well integrated into the puzzles and set. There were lots of delightful interactions with the set pieces and some clever use of space. There was a bit of whiplash at the sudden difficulty increase in the last room, but that didn't mar the great experience I had. It's possible that I like this room more than the average person given the theme just speaks to me so much, but if a murder mystery set in the Victorian era appeals to you, then I implore you to give this room a shot.
No VacancyIntense Escape - BradentonEscape roomIRLThe atmosphere was great, and the puzzles were quite solid. There was one puzzle in particular that really tied in well with the theme while flying under the radar. I thought the room did a great job of building up suspense. This ended up being a double edge sword though because the build up ended up leading nowhere in my opinion which kind of left the room ending in a whimper rather than a bang. The setting helped established the story line well, but there just needed to be more development throughout to sell it.
The Naughty ListIntense Escape - BradentonEscape roomIRLHonestly, it's a bit hard to remember how this game was except that I thought it was solid if not memorable. It's hard to execute a truly great Christmas themed room in my opinion, and this was no exception. I wasn't disappointed with the game at all though. It definitely felt a little dated though by the time I played it in 2024. It was pretty dang small as well, and probably the 2nd smallest room I've ever played.
Buried AliveIntense Escape - Tampa LocationEscape roomIRLFor anyone scared about the being locked in a coffin aspect of this game, I would say there's nothing to be worried about unless you're claustrophobic. They put a mat in there that really helps with the comfort of the game. I was a bit worried about air flow as well, but it ended up not being a problem. Gameplay was surprisingly solid for it being literally confined to 2 coffins. I wouldn't say it was anything worth going out of your way though. While I'm not disappointed that I did it, it didn't feel like it needed THAT strong of communication, and I just didn't find the experience that intense overall since I wasn't getting the scare factor here (but that may be me). I also felt the game was extremely easy which was a detriment to the experience, but I'm not sure they could do much more given the size of the game. The story doesn't really develop at all aside from the introduction unfortunately as well.
Jungle FeverIntense Escape - Tampa LocationEscape roomIRLNot gonna lie. I really hated this game, and this game is a bad representation of what Intense Escape can offer so far in my opinion (I haven't played their most hyped rooms, but nothing came to this level of disappointing). The theme felt like a complete afterthought, and not once did I feel engaged in the story in the entire experience. The puzzles were kinda fine in the first room, but then it broke down into tedium in the second room, and the ending was extremely abrupt. Seriously felt like a room straight out of 2015 or something and has no business being available in this day and age much less multiple locations. I have no problems with how we were treated though, and I thought the overall customer experience was great.
Save the Magic SchoolEdge EscapeEscape roomIRLThis was a charming room for Harry Potter fans that was moderately marred by the confusing puzzle flow. There were points where we weren't sure what to do or whether something was supposed to happen or not. I also kind of felt that the space was underutilised and was overall sparsely detailed. That being said, there were some very delightful elements in this room that saved the experience.
The Society of Adventurers: Jingle Through the JungleEdge EscapeEscape roomIRLThe exploration theme isn't very high on my list of favourite themes to play, but this was still pretty enjoyable. There were a lot of puzzles to solve, and all were reasonable to solve and relevant to the theme. I wasn't a fan of the bridge puzzle, but I generally find this type of puzzle (figure out the order through word puzzles) to be very uninteresting and tedious.
Jewel ThiefEdge EscapeEscape roomIRLI know the heist theme is overdone, but I enjoy them, and this was no exception. This was my favourite room at Edge Escape with a large part of it being that it had the best flow and things worked correctly. The set design was very nice for the budget though the second room was a little sparse. I did love the little easter eggs scattered throughout the room. I love that this room has a perfect spot for a team photo - something I wish more rooms thought about in general.
WonderlandEdge EscapeEscape roomIRLAdmittedly, I have never been that into Alice in Wonderland, but Edge Escape did a solid job here. There were a couple of things I had never seen before, though unfortunately, I found one of them had overstayed it's welcome for me after a while. Solid room overall especially on what seems to be a low budget, but this was my least favourite room at this location.
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.
