Cosmic CrisisThe Escape Game - MilpitasEscape roomIRLI would say this is one of the harder rooms at The Escape Game. There are a lot of puzzles and there is a good variation in all the different puzzle types. Would definitely not recommend this room for 2 people. 4 is the would be the sweet spot. Construction/ environment/ immersion felt similar to The Depths
Krampus - Bloody Christmas - CLOSEDExit Strategy GamesEscape roomIRLThe room was alright, I wouldn't say it's the best room offered at Exit Strategy. This is their Torture Chamber reimagined into Krampus, a scarier Xmas theme. The game starts with you separated from your group. And honestly, it stays that way for 80% of the game. Once you're reunited with your team the puzzles the last few puzzles are quick and short. It's a decent game, I do really enjoyed the Xmas theme they had last year converting the Pet Snatchers room. That was more fun and more immersive.
Moriarty's ManorMindFox EscapeEscape roomIRLAnother great room by the lovely folks at MindFox! My wife and I had such a great time at Black & White Cafe, we decided to come back the very nice day to do Moriarty! The room design was great. Both their rooms are still in great condition. Nothing felt too dirty or broken. This room is initially suppose to be for 3+, but they adjusted one element so it's playable for 2 people. (You'll know if when you see it). I'm still amazed by the fact that the owners build and maintain their rooms. There's one contraption in Moriarty where I look at it and I think to myself. You guys actually built this from the ground up?!?! Simply amazing! I lean more towards the Black & White Cafe because I'm not really a Sherlock fan. But I do definitely recommend this room for more variety of puzzles and plenty of room. I can't wait til they open the next room!!
The NeighborSteal and EscapeEscape roomIRLVery fun room. My wife and I were really impressed by the technology of it all. You're stuck in a smart house for a hour. Love the fact that you actually had to talk to the house in order to progress!! I'd say it's a pretty immersive experience. We came on a sunny day and we got into the room. We instantly felt transported to a different darker environment. It felt a little spooky to us, not really scary. Just a darker environment. Overall, very fun and highly recommended!!
Black and White CafeMindFox EscapeEscape roomIRLMindFox was an absolute blast! I was down here for a mini moon with my wife. I was calling around each escape room in the area, and MindFox was highly recommended by another room. The owners are fantastic!! Really great honest people who shares the joy of escape rooms. Black and White Cafe couldn't have been better. It's a theme I haven't seen anywhere except for in Asia for an actual cafe. Now I don't have to go to Asia to explore the fine details of a black and white room! The game flowed well. Visually, it's beautiful. The puzzles were just the right amount of difficulty for us. Perfect for 2 people for a date night! Oh yeah, we had a very nice personalized welcome right when we walked in. And I love the pictures at the end were photo both style. That's another thing I have yet to discovered. Highly recommended!
EVIL RobotsThe Nemesis ClubEscape roomIRLAfter finishing Mogollon, my wife and I immediately asked for the next availability for EVIL robot. EVIL robots does not fail. The production is very high, it’s very interactive, it has this great cartoon, love-able, the Jetsons/ Dexter kinda feel to it. Like with Mogollon room, the GM was great as well. The introduction was very interactive, not like your typical play video on a TV outside the room kind of intros. The GM’s are great actors over at Nemesis Club!! I’ll try not to spoil much, but the ending puzzle was super fun. The last puzzle is incredibly entertaining, fun, and different. Evil Robots and Mogollon both have very different feels and themes. So it’s not easy to say one is better than the other. They are both great rooms, and both highly recommended! Can’t wait for more rooms to open at Nemesis Club!!
Mogollon Monster: Scouting for Arizona's BigfootThe Nemesis ClubEscape roomIRLMy wife and I picked the Mogollon room to do because it listed high on the Terpeca list I was first very confused trying to find Nemesis Club, but to my surprised it was in the back of the Soda Jerk milkshake bar. That was an amazing concept to me! The Soda Jerk is a real milkshake bar, with very delicious creations by the way. Once, we walked through the actual door to Nemesis Club, the whole atmosphere changed. You really feel like you're part of some secret society. It's the Illuminati of escape rooms I tell you!! The start of Mogollon was very immersive. One of the most immersive, entertaining, thrilling intros I've ever been apart of. The game master delivered a very good performance. Her reaction, facial expression, and timing with the cues were perfect. Sometimes it really makes a difference in the escape room experienced based on the tone set out by the game masters. The room itself was wonderful. Beautiful set design, you really feel like you're part of the camp grounds. You're constantly reminded of the theme and story line. Which is nice, because sometimes you just got into the escape room and forget the whole premise. You just want to escape. The puzzles were good, they weren't incredibly challenging and its pretty linear. I love the whole theme, concept, immersion, puzzle variety and difficultly. This is truly one of those rare escape rooms where all people of all ages and of all experience can participle in and have fun! Best of all, after completing the Mogollon room, we have the ability to order their special campfire drink. Feels like a special unlock from beating the boss level of a video game.
Fair GameRed Door Escape Room - San MateoEscape roomIRLFair Game was fun. I just wished the puzzles weren't broken. When I played the room, one puzzle was broken and another puzzle wasn't working correctly and we got time back. I loved the carnival element for sure. The parts that work were fun. The stuff didn't, not so much. The last puzzle felt anticlimactic to me though... still a good room
Room 2217 - CLOSEDCubic EscapeEscape roomIRLI will have to say this, don't be be fooled by the exterior of this place. The room was surprisingly good. It's funny because, sometimes the more sketch the place looks, the better the room it is LOL. Hole in the wall escape rooms right? Anyways Room 2217 definitely has a creep factor. There's no jump scares, but as time goes on, it does start to feel a little eerie inside. It most definitely didn't help that it was just the two of us doing the room at 10pm. If you're the type of person who likes scary movies and stuff, then try out Cubic at night. If you're a little weak of heart like I am, then doing the day time will be slightly better. There's no traditional lock and keys in the room. There's a lot of technology and triggers with the rooms. Which is nice, it helps make the room more immersive. Room 2217 is very story driven, and with that it means the puzzles are really linear. You can't progress to the next puzzle until you complete the puzzle you're on. Unlike other escape rooms where larger parties are able to spread out to search and solve puzzles. The usual divide and conquer strategy for escape rooms don't apply here. That being said, I suggest a good party size would be 2-3 players. 6 would be too much, because you'll have everyone doing the same puzzle at the same time. It might limit involvement from your party members. That's just my thought. Our game master, Bailey was good. He really paid attention to our game and nudged us at just the right points. There are definitely points through the game were some instructions were no clear or confusing. You just gotta ask clues, no shame in it.
Midnight In Hong Kong - Team Vs TeamOmescape - SunnyvaleEscape roomIRLVery fun and competitive room! I really like the Omescape Sunnyvale location. It's one of their newest location and has a great amount of space for their rooms. Each room I've played here so far has great production design and area size. I loved the team vs team concept. There have been other escape rooms where head to head means starting two identical room at the same time. That may be fun, but this is definitely where it's at. I love loved that you can "sabotage" the other team in various ways. And the GM is in and out of the game too. It helps add another layer of immersion to the game. Really fun, really competitive, great space & design. If you don't go over the game with the other group you go against. You can play again as the other group. So, you can potentially play this room twice to do a whole different set of puzzles. I highly recommend it.
Rugrats: Search For The Losted Toys - CLOSEDThe Escape Game - Las Vegas Forum ShopsEscape roomIRLWe did Playground at the San Francisco location and that was huge. Rugrats is a sort of modification to Playground. The Rugrats room here was a little smaller than expected, but nonetheless the still fun and very nostalgic. We had 4 in our group and passed. I'd say 4-6 would be a good number for the Rugrats room. Zoey, our game master was super nice too! She hand drawn us a card to congratulate us on our escape! Again, JD and Zoey were really awesome hosts, and the room was fun. 5 Star experience!
The Edison Escape RoomPalace GamesEscape roomIRLImagine my surprise to hear Palace Games hosts 2 of the top 50 escape rooms in the world!! Say whattttt???! Yep, so we did The Edison Room. It's longer than a typical escape room. You have 100 mins to escape. You’ll be paying a premium for this experience btw. With all that said, this is a very unique experience. I don't want to spoil much, so I'll just say this: the level of tech involved in the rooms is absolutely amazing! There were puzzles with tech that I've never seen before. There was probably 2 locks the whole game. Everything else are triggers to get to the next step. This room in particular is extremely cooperative. Your team's communication skills better be up there or you'll have a hard time. It's more physical than other rooms I've played. If you can pass 6th grade PE then ya got this. There were two thing that I wasn't particularly fond. First is the repetitiveness of some of the puzzles. There are a few very smilier puzzle types. The second is that there were several times which felt like the room was over or coulda ended at that point but only to find out there were more puzzles. I'm not saying there's too many puzzle, I'm just saying at the completion of certain puzzles there's a false sense of celebration. Overall, highly recommend this room. Very cool technology, the wow factor is there. Just know, a lot of physical movement is involved with this game!
Narco - CLOSEDEscapology - Fisherman's WharfEscape roomIRLI would rate Narco better than Antidote in puzzles and game design. But only ever so slightly better in game design. The room still felt like there coulda been better use of certain spaces. The artifacts seem to be all over the place. The puzzle were hard. Definitely one of the more challenging rooms that I've been to. Barely escaped with 8 seconds left!
Antidote - CLOSEDEscapology - Fisherman's WharfEscape roomIRLAntidote is a pretty simple, straight forward room. It was definitely on the easy/ medium difficulty. My negative is that there could have been a better use of the space. The design was pretty bare, especially in one room. That just felt totally slap together with no F's given.
Woodbury's Wizarding SchoolExit Strategy GamesEscape roomIRLThe Wizarding School was very fun. This is one of their newer rooms jammed packed with a lot of tech. It's a premium room, which cost more and has more production value for sure. I enjoyed it a lot, it's was very interactive. It really plays into the theme very well. I love the tech, I don't wanna spoil too much. But it's different for sure. I'm still not sure if it's worth the price tag. But if you're able to get a discount on this room, i definitely recommend it. This is the best room offered at Exit Strategy for sure, hands down.
The SocietyEscape OaklandEscape roomIRLI probably have to rank this room the lowest for all the games at Escape Oakland. The room kinda reminds me of their Spy Game rule, but felt like the theme fell short quick. The puzzles were a little less engaging as well. If you want to clear all the rooms at Escape Oakland. I'd say do this near the beginning to get it over with.
The BunkerEscape OaklandEscape roomIRLImagine my surprise to find an escape room based in Oakland?! It's really not bad, the place is pretty decent. Bunker was recommended by one of the game master for ease and best immersion to the feel of better in a bunker. You definitely to feel like you're in a shelter or bunker. That wasn't bad. The puzzle were decent. We finished in a good time, puzzle weren't insanely hard. Very good mid level game. 2.5/5 difficulty
Trapped In The 80’sQuantum Escapes - DanvilleEscape roomIRLIt's a decent room. I really wanted to do it for the theme. Much like their Major League room, the puzzles were pretty difficult by my standards. I do feel that the room could be decorated even better. I like the look already established, but I feel there could be more added to really immerse you in a 80's space. But unfortunately, it's not one of my higher rated rooms. There is a lot of real estate, so I hope their future rooms have more immersion and more tech
Major League - CLOSEDQuantum Escapes - DanvilleEscape roomIRLIt's hard for me to give a negative review for a small business, but I gotta be honest. The website and intro video made the room looked cool. But once inside the room, it just felt really meh. I do give them props for really utilizing the space and jamming puzzles anywhere they could. But with that, I feel that there really wasn't a flow to the room. I like the concept, and novelty of the room. But it just lacks the execution. Be prepared, it's a pretty hard room too. I feel the difficulty of the puzzles is pretty high. I would recommend this place, if you're looking for a challenge.
Ghost PatrolTrivium GamesEscape roomIRLOh. My. Gosh!! Ghost Patrol is one of best escape rooms I've ever played! The whole vibe from the intro video to the room was just amazing. It has this very cute, throwback cartoon, whimsical feel to it. So hard to describe it into words, you just gotta go there. The room design was awesome. The tech was incredible, there was a tool we had to use for the game that I've never encountered. The music and sounds was just perfect as well. Had an amazing time. Was very impressed with everything. And we are now eagerly waiting their next room to open!
