Cinema 7Will To Escape - OrlandoEscape roomIRLA very solid, atmospheric, beautifully designed, and mostly enjoyable room that is only brought down from total greatness by how unintuitive a few too many puzzles are later in the game. On the surface this is one of the best looking and most uniquely designed layouts we’ve EVER seen for a room, and it’s full of neat surprises. Without spoiling anything, there are many awesome moments of awe and “wow” factors that you and your team will enjoy once things really get rolling. It’s absolutely the high point of the room. As far as puzzles and flow go, it has a pretty strong start, and as you progress, it keeps that momentum pretty consistent and the pacing also stays pretty uniform for the first half or so. The puzzles start out challenging without being frustrating, and they’re all really nicely in theme and build a sense of ominous dread. Great visuals, great sound design, all delightfully spooky and very creative. Unfortunately, it feels like somewhere along the way while designing the room, it got kind of messy and a bit disjointed. About halfway through, the pacing starts to hit what feels like a screeching halt, with puzzles going from inspired and intuitive, to a sudden difficulty ramp that is out of left field. Puzzles suddenly begin to have many details that are easily missed because they require items and progression lost in literal, total darkness (where there shouldn’t be any otherwise). We started needing one too many hints to keep the flow going. We’ve played a lot of rooms at this point and we were honestly surprised at just how many parts toward the end began to resemble a Gen 1 escape room’s logic. It felt like it became weirdly disjointed. We weren’t having an off day either as we had just played another room beforehand. And it didn’t help that this is a VERY physically active room, and the day we played, their air conditioning wasn’t working. This room got HOT. We were drenched in sweat by the end. I really wish I could give this a heart, but it’s still a very solid room that’s extremely unique and enjoyable, with much to appreciate and gawk at the sheer awesomeness of its design. Just make sure you absolutely bring your A game and are ready for a pretty physically active experience if you’re not prepared for it. With a few fine tweaks this would be an all time great. It’s instead just really good.
Fallout: Bunker Busters [prev. Doomsday Disaster!]The Escape Ventures - Orlando I-DriveEscape roomIRLThis one was a rare miss for us. What is otherwise a pretty solid buildout is marred by a ton of other issues, most importantly gameplay that isn’t streamlined, and puzzles that are just sometimes really obtuse and not as engaging or fun as they should be. It has all the makings of a great room, hampered by the issues of a Gen 1 bad room. Having not been able to play the original in Ocala, we were excited to see it had moved to Orlando and get a chance to try it out. Unfortunately, I’ve read this experience pales in comparison to the original, and well…..I guess it kind of shows? The actual build of the room was fine enough, riffing on the popular vault theming tropes ala Fallout, and some neat little mechanical surprises, but I couldn’t help but feel the whole thing just felt a little…underwhelming. None of the puzzles were really fun to complete. Way too many old school locks and lockboxes for a supposedly modern room. Things that should have “made sense” felt like they were made several extra steps too complicated to waste extra unnecessary time. I didn’t really feel like I was having any actual fun solving a single puzzle, and that’s usually the biggest indicator it isn’t a good room. I think a major factor that didn’t help was I wasn’t entirely thrilled with how our GM handled the game. The game started about 15 minutes late, so we were left standing around at the entrance for way too long before any came to greet us. Before our game, there was no explanation about locks (which is pretty standard for every business to explain them even if you’ve seen them a million times). The GM took WAY too long to give clues when we asked for them (minutes at a time). And there was no indicator at any point to know how much time remained so we abruptly had our game end, and were then rushed through the end game explanation of what we missed. There was no real effort made to make this an enjoyable experience and it felt very much like a “get in get out” revolving door business. Based on this overall experience I don’t know if I can really recommend playing this particular room. It’s a shame because I do want to try other escape rooms here, but this one entire visit has me questioning if I should
Cornstalkers: Lost in the MaizeThe Escape Ventures - Orlando Waterford LakesEscape roomIRLA landmark achievement. This is industry level redefining. Cornstalkers is exactly what one hopes for with an escape room in the modern era. Beautifully designed, thoughtfully planned and engineered, clever and very unique in-theme puzzles, next level immersion, fantastic acting and writing, and a perfect balance of fun and scary. Not since Neighborhood Watch have I played something so genuinely creative and frightening. THIS IS HOW YOU DO AN ESCAPE ROOM!!! From the moment you check in, the Game Masters brilliantly immerse you into the story (which I won’t spoil), that leads to a series of events that unfold with ominous and entertaining implications, descending into one of the most awesomely intense and fear inducing escape rooms you’ll ever have the joy of experiencing. I personally didn’t find it “too” scary as many others have, but it cannot be understated how effective and genuinely frightening the scenarios are in the game. But if you’re a super fraidy cat, you might have a heart attack. Cornstalkers creates a level of growing urgency as the game progresses, yet you never see a timer. This is handled brilliantly by clever nudges if you take too long in certain areas. It must be experienced to be truly understood and appreciated. Among everything else, the gameplay is truly a work of genius. It’s a brilliant culmination of everything learned by artists that genuinely understand the industry, and who want to do nothing more than entertain and create the best interactive experience possible. I don’t really know how to compare this to any other rooms other than ones The Escape Venture have made. The level of detail in the production design is awe inspiring and sets a new standard. The puzzles flow so seamlessly and progress so logically you forget you’re playing a game. The interactivity and storytelling is unlike anything I’ve ever played before. This is the real deal. I don’t want to spoil a thing in this review. The hype is 100% legit. Experience it for yourself. Go with good friends, have a great time. You’ll only get to experience this for the first time once. Make sure it’s a good one. Me? I CAN’T WAIT TO PLAY IT AGAIN!
At The Hop Ice Cream ShoppeDare 2 EscapeEscape roomIRLWhile not one of my favorites and could probably use some fine tuning, this is a mostly good room that should be considered by enthusiasts only. Probably one of the more surprisingly difficult games we’ve played that really pushes your skills to their limits. Many leaps in logic and multiple confusing or obtuse puzzles that require suspension of disbelief and creative problem solving for unrealistic (and unreasonable) game logic. Starting off with the good: the production design and art direction is actually REALLY good and does a nice job of capturing a sense of time and place. It’s even cold inside (like an ice cream parlor would be) and in its freezer. Kind of crazy when you experience it for yourself. Plenty of details to absorb and see. Then the not so good: many puzzles requiring too much arduous reading and exposition. Lots of puzzle logic that are superficially difficult, time wasting hoops to jump through. There’s ALMOST too much to do, and one of the least favorite things you could ever include in escape rooms (and one I consider a cardinal sin): MATH. Oh my god how is this still a thing? Nobody should be including this anymore in an escape room. It’s so Gen 1 and needs to be retroactively removed entirely. This brings me back to my original point about fine tuning. A room like this could really benefit from an overhaul with its puzzles. Cut the fat, trim the extraneous and you’ve got a great, streamlined escape room ready for the modern era. It feels too stuck in high end Gen 1 puzzle design and it hurts the room greatly because it’s actually a pretty creative and good time otherwise. Even though it’s billed as a family friendly experience, I think families will leave this one frustrated and annoyed. This is not for newcomers. Experienced escape room players need only apply.
Outage: No VacancyThe Escape Ventures - Orlando Waterford LakesEscape roomIRLThis is a solid, unique room that does the pitch black experience better than any room we’ve ever seen. It’s tricky trying to convey how this goes without spoiling anything, and how to gauge your interest. Your enjoyment will depend entirely on how open you are to playing what is essentially 70% a (near) pitch black experience. Your initial introduction and the buildout is very detailed, setting the stage for everything really well, and the pitch black portion is also thoughtfully constructed, avoiding almost any head bumps or injuries that anyone could sustain. The footprint of the room actually isn’t that big, but it works to the room’s advantage because there’s just enough for your senses and brain to contend with in the darkness for the duration. Your enjoyment will also depend entirely on how good your communication is with teammates. As close friends we had a great time and a lot of laughs when accidentally bumping into each other and discovering/describing weird items we came across in the darkness, trying to hand off things to one another. Consider playing with people who are maybe a bit experienced with escape rooms. I wouldn’t say the room is really “difficult” because there’s is a lot of basic logic, especially if you’re very experienced with escape rooms. It’s just made harder due to the lack of light and reliance on your other senses. You can opt to use a flashlight but it would make the experience last probably 5 minutes at most. The enjoyment is using your senses and piecing all the mystery together, and it’s done really really well. The Escape Ventures has been probably the most consistent company we’ve ever played, with some of the most high quality, thoughtful, creative and well made experiences. While this isn’t quite as awe inspiring as their other offerings, it’s still an extremely fun, novel, well designed and very entertaining escape room that’s perfect with a small group of good friends.
The ArchiveDare 2 EscapeEscape roomIRL“The Archive” is double edged sword, that features some really quite great set design, but is marred with atrociously designed, out of date, unengaging puzzles that are needlessly complicated and verbose for the sake of wasting time, with pacing so poor that it almost bored us to tears at certain points. This one is really teetering dangerously close (literally by a hair) to being a thumbs down. There’s just a lot of really cool stuff visually to see that keep it from being a total wash. But that thumbs up is not a recommendation by any stretch. Let’s get the good out of the way first. The set design is truly great. There’s a lot of attention to detail, a surprisingly massive footprint with a great deal to see and absorb, and an awesome sense of place and progression from room to room. They are such inventive, cleverly designed spaces. Which is a shame because, while “The Archive” has all the right visual elements that make it an all time great escape room, it just doesn’t have the right puzzles to match. Every new puzzle didn’t invoke a sense of excitement or discovery when starting it. After a certain point, it just felt like another ordeal that was more like work and less like fun. Look, we get that these are designed with enthusiasts in mind who want a challenge. That’s why we’re here. But it’s not a challenge to force people to sit, dissect and analyze your poorly concocted lore for the sake of solving a simple lock combination, only to have to do the same thing all over again, four layers more involved and irritating this time around, MULTIPLE TIMES. Dare 2 Escape’s consistent biggest weakness seems to be there is TOO MUCH READING and ridiculous amounts of exposition for what amounts to completing a mostly unrewarding puzzle. And there are too many distracting red herrings in each college thesis that just keeps piling up, only to leave a really bad taste in your mouth, making you question what exactly you should even care about. We want a challenge. We don’t want to feel like we’re being taken for a ride and have our time artificially wasted. “The Archive” rides a fine line to being the latter. The entire puzzle structure and flow of this experience is in desperate need of an overhaul. In its current state it’s unacceptable. The only reason this is a 90 minute experience is because you are going to spend most of your time reading. It’s that poorly paced. These rooms may be tailored for enthusiasts, but even hardcore players might find themselves disappointed in its disjointedness. This is a missed opportunity that should have knocked it out of the park.
DraculaGame Over Escape Rooms - BrandonEscape roomIRLWonderfully realized set design, a very large room footprint and some very clever puzzles make this a good experience. Though there are some frustrating snags on this adventure, it’s a solid experience and worth checking out. I always love highlighting production design and art direction for rooms that deserve it, and this one definitely deserves it. Every square inch is detailed and set dressed lovingly. It’s really cleverly designed, beautifully executed and feels extremely high end for what you’re spending. An escape room should give you a sense of place the moment you enter and this does so with flying colors. Now for the puzzles, which are relatively good and engaging, there are a few little snags that some may consider frustrating (especially for the final one which is just really obtuse and overlong). There’s a lot of cleverly rethemed puzzles you may have seen in other rooms, and quite a few that are unique. They flow well, and aside from a few logical hiccups, they’re solid and engaging. A safe bet and a fun way to spend an hour.
Horror CircusGame Over Escape Rooms - BrandonEscape roomIRLA surprisingly fun time. Relatively well balanced, brisk and tight pacing, and just the right amount of scares and creative puzzles to keep just about everyone engaged. It’s fun, accessible, and a great way to spend an hour with friends. Starting off, it has one of the largest footprints we’ve ever seen for an hour long escape room, which lends itself immensely to allowing for decent sized groups. Set decor and lighting is great, with everything well maintained and spooky enough to retain just enough atmosphere to set the mood. Gameplay has a similar flow to a lot of Game Over’s other offerings, which personally I think is good, as it’s accessible and not intimidating to newcomers and casual players. There are some really great jumpscares and frights to be had, but nothing really crazy. Puzzles are relatively logical and require observant keen eyes. There are a handful of pretty unique puzzles in this one we haven’t seen before, even after playing dozens of rooms by this point. Enthusiasts may find this one on the easier side, but it’s still worth checking out.
DeliveranceIntense Escape - Tampa LocationEscape roomIRLA complete and utter failure at immersion, gameplay, and scares. After hearing for years how Intense Escape has “must play” rooms like this one, it’s nothing short of a terrible disappointment. Did everyone else play the same room? I’m still in disbelief while writing this. Buckle up, this is a doozy of a review. Don’t want to read the entire review? Here’s the short version: The story is non-sensical and nothing made any logical sense for why you’re doing anything (save for the main attraction at the end). The puzzles are frustrating, illogical, poorly conceived and not the least bit fun (except for the end, again). The art direction and set design is appallingly cheap and offensively bad, and the interactive “intense” parts are just plain stupid and add nothing to the experience (except for the end, once again). Want to know more? Read on 💀 Let me quickly get out of the way the good. The ending. Its most entertaining part, and was fun, pretty creative, had clever use of effects and was very enjoyable. Unfortunately, you have to endure the rest of the bad experience to get to it. If the rest of the experience had featured this level of creativity and ingenuity, it would be a must play. However, that’s about all the good I can say about this one. You know you’re in for a bad time the moment you walk into an escape room to see unfinished drop ceiling tiles, plain white walls with poor set design, beat up/poorly maintained props, horrible (and cheap) lighting that doesn’t enhance the mood, along with countless objects with glue stains, endless “DO NOT TOUCH” labels and a stained low pile office carpet that hasn’t been replaced since the previous tenants moved out. It would even be fair call this an insult for the cost. These days I have a very low tolerance level for a business charging high prices for gimmicky, lack luster experiences and subpar cheap set decor. It isn’t 2014 anymore, I don’t care what your budget is, escape room companies have zero excuse to allow paying customers to walk into a room as poorly furnished and decorated as one like this, while paying roughly $40-$45 PER PERSON for the privilege. It’s egregious. A group of three will pay close to $150 to be left in a crummy small office room filled with discounted finds from a thrift store, while being bathed in a dim red Halloween light that makes it near impossible to see any detail or tell colors apart for puzzles. I understand that this room is technically “new” at this spot, having recently migrated from their other location and previously receiving rave reviews. I can only surmise the reviews were for one of the following three reasons: 1. It was a novel gimmick at a time nobody had seen anything like this because expectations for escape rooms were still very low OR 2. The novel gimmick completely clouded any participants objective judgement about the completely lacking and illogical escape room experience as a whole OR 3. The previous version may genuinely have been better executed and great. And if it was option 3, then why was this allowed to exist in its current form having such a good reputation at its old location? I cannot for the life of me understand that if THIS was the experience everyone was raving about, how could it possibly have gotten this screwed up during its transition to another location? If that’s the case, that kind of mishandling really needs a deep dive to correct everything. But I still somehow highly doubt that scenario is what happened here. The feeling we got is that Intense Escape’s whole shtick is that it’s “intense” because there’s actors that enter the room to “mess” with you, and the thinking here is that’s somehow supposed to make it okay that the rest of the actual “escape room” experience is extremely amateurish, lacking and dull. This isn’t a spoiler. They warn you multiple times before you enter about exactly what’s going to happen. The booking website even says it and you know going in or before entering the building. However, what happens isn’t even remotely intense, it’s really off-putting and thematically weird (again, save for the ending). It’s actually more frustrating and stupid as it needlessly eats into your time, forcing you to wait until they leave. We’ve played a lot of escape rooms at this point. This isn’t our first rodeo. There is a very fine line between clever and frustrating when it comes to puzzles and flow. They both were obtuse and ridiculous, with glacial flow and nonsensical logic, whose pacing only gets underscored by needless interruptions from an actor, that add nothing to the experience (not even genuine scares), further wasting time toward your end goal. This is not immersive. This is genuinely bad game design, and is entirely unfair for experienced players trying to be actually immersed (with what little we have to work with). I say this often in bad reviews, and I’ll keep saying it. I hate writing reviews like this. I hate savaging an experience created by people who I assume do work hard to create these games. But hey, it takes a lot to work to write something like this review too. It is not fair for paying customers to endure something like this. It is not enough to just make a game and think that it is acceptable for it to be anything less than a quality experience, when you’re charging premium prices (much higher than far better experiences out there) for what amounts to a budget level game. I write reviews like this in the hopes an owner will read it and improve upon the experience so others get to have fun in the future. As of right now, I cannot recommend this escape room at all unless you want to see the ending, which alone is not worth the entry fee.
Downfall of the DonWill To Escape - OrlandoEscape roomIRLNothing terrible but nothing great either. This feels more like a lower end escape room for the caliber and quality this company is known for (Disappearance and Cinema 7 respectively). Still, it’s not a bad time, but seasoned vets may find it pedestrian while beginners may find it frustrating. The rooms feel strangely scarce when it comes to detail compared to their other rooms, which I found a little surprising upon entry. It’s serviceable and gets the job done, but I wouldn’t say it’s terribly immersive, which is a shame because a little bit more detail, set decor and production design would have gone a long way. We have played a few similarly themed rooms around Florida, and this felt like a quickly put together escape room with a larger than usual budget for something on the lower end. Not awful, but you’d expect more for the price. You may find the music getting on your nerves after a while too 😵💫 Gameplay is pretty standard, with puzzles ranging from extremely easy to rather obtuse, ridiculous puzzle logic/pattern recognition. Pretty standard stuff for entry level escape rooms. There’s some fun little brain twisters but again, the room is also a bit too difficult and frustrating for newcomers. The Italian theme feels played out and tired and mostly phoned in here. Still, if you’ve got the time, there are worse ways to spend an hour in Orlando.
Cryptic CayNexus Escape RoomEscape roomIRLThe selection of quality escape rooms games in south Florida are very few and far inbetween. So we were pretty surprised to find this little hidden gem that had real homegrown charm and some really cool ingenuity and engineering baked in the mix. Upon entry, seasoned escape room vets might think it’s a bit tacky and looks a bit like a colorful playpen. But it becomes clear pretty quickly this is a really unique and challenging space. It’s somewhere between linear and non linear, with enough puzzles to keep everyone busy while you can break off and do your own thing. Even with the amount of rooms we’ve played by now, we still utilized a fair amount of clues to beat it. The clues were also not too obvious or too vague, still making you “earn” the solution Then there’s some fun twists on tried and true puzzles, with a handful of ones we haven’t seen as of this writing, and some really awesome, smile inducing tech and surprises that play out in the story as you progress. The only thing I’d wish for is maybe more atmospheric vibes (like a painted ceiling), no house lights/overhead fluorescents as the main and only source of light, and also some more foliage to sell that it’s an island. Overall, it’s a solid room and probably one of the best ones the area has to offer.
Mansion MurderEscapology - OrlandoEscape roomIRLA bit perplexed by the overwhelming positive scores, as this is anything but a fun experience. Even if this is one of your first escape rooms, it’s not the kind of experience that would have you clamoring for more. Disjointed, obtuse leaps in puzzle “logic”, and a story that doesn’t quite reach its full potential. It wants to be Sherlock Holmes but leaves you feeling like Inspector Clouseau. Right out the gate, it’s engaging for about the first five minutes after the setup, before you realize nothing really connects in a logical fashion. And while it is very “linear” in how the puzzles progress, just how they progress doesn’t make a lot of sense (or is any fun). It’s a great theme, but it just feels needlessly obtuse and complex for the sake of it. One solution leads to another insanely drawn out puzzle. Not to mention the room needs a bit of a renovation. Everything feels worn, beat up, a bit old (but not in a way that’s on theme). Marks, knicks, dirt, damage, props that have seen better days, abuse of all kinds. This doesn’t feel like how it probably did many moons ago, and it shows. Between the frustrating and drawn out puzzles, and the lack of maintenance of the room, I can only really recommend this for hardcore enthusiasts and completionists.
7 Deadly SinsEscapology - OrlandoEscape roomIRLA unique story and setup that we haven’t seen before, which is why we played it. This was our first game with Escapology after years of “almost” visiting one of their locations, and it was pretty good save for a few obtuse hiccups in logic. The gameplay is pretty standard for any seasoned vets of escape rooms. Most of the puzzles made sense, and were kept relatively in theme, with a few we actually hadn’t seen before. However several seemed to suffer from a logical flow and progression from one to another, which, like a lot of other escape room companies, still seems to be a major issue after all these years. It may make sense to the people designing everything, but to someone seeing a creation for the first time, the “logic” just isn’t there. The decor was actually pretty good given the budget and other spacial limitations. This particular location has something like 10 escape room scenarios and it’s impressive that this one managed to fit as much as it did in the space it was allocated. Save for a few frustrating illogical puzzles, it’s pretty fun and I’d recommend it for intermediate skill level players and newcomers only if they have someone experienced with them.
Zombie Apocalypse - CLOSEDHudson Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLLike their other experience, this one is ugly and braindead. Things that sound good given the theme of this room. The problem is, it’s also poorly planned, terribly maintained, illogical, and not fun in the slightest. We’ve played many escape rooms by this point, and immediately know what we’re in for (and have a good idea about a creator’s intentions) immediately upon entering a room. This was either a sincere, misguided misfire that really believes it’s something more than it really is…..or it was made by a charlatan, whose decisions to cut corners by furnishing a space with the cheapest second hand materials and Spirit Halloween decor they could find, would somehow fool most people into a having a good time. It felt like the kind of thing someone’s dad would build in an afternoon or two for the neighborhood kids on Halloween night. Good god am I getting tired of sub par escape rooms experiences charging regular escape room prices. I really don’t like writing scathing reviews, in fact I never do, but this flat out deserves it. Not a single puzzle flowed. NOT ONE. The room is grimy and poorly maintained (and no, this was not set dressing). The story is completely nonsensical and nothing correlates to anything in a logical way. Endless reading, explanations and time waster puzzles that don’t add anything meaningful to the experience. Many “DON’T TOUCH!” labels on things that should be inaccessible (including an emergency escape door? Why make this even accessible if it’s not part of the experience?!) Everything was tired, and worn out. There were multiple busted props scattered about, and presumably all the “scares” were broken. You couldn’t even laugh at how stupid it was. Most notably one “pop up” thing was literally destroyed and the instructions pertaining to it (presumably to “wait in this spot to get scared”) were still in the room despite the fact NOTHING happened, as it was clearly in disrepair, non functioning and inoperable. Do anything else with your $32. Light it on fire for all I care. It would honestly be more entertaining.
US Highway 19 Motel - CLOSEDHudson Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLYikes. This is a great example of a room that breaks every golden rule of escape rooms imaginable. Poor construction , an unfocused, confused (and confusing) story, and multiple puzzles that are not only NOT in theme, but just plain don’t work or logically don’t make sense at all. Flow. It’s a word you see used a lot in reviews, but it cannot be stressed enough. Flow, flow, flow is the single most important thing an escape room must have in order to succeed. I can forgive bad set decor and limited budgets if the game is at least well thought out and makes the most of what they have to work with. This did none of that, and just left us scratching our heads for the majority of its duration. I hate giving bad reviews, because I don’t like hurting small businesses, but occasionally it’s unavoidable. With the ever changing and growing expectations of today’s escape room landscape, and the fact this costs $32 PER PERSON for a below sub par experience, it’s actually offensive. It’s not fun. It’s not clever. It’s cheap, worn out, nonsensical, braindead and ugly. And you should absolutely avoid it, at all costs.
Pins & Needles Tattoo ParlorThe Escape Ventures - Clearwater [prev. The Exit Games]Escape roomIRLWe finally got around to playing Pins and Needles and while I would personally say it’s a “tad”overhyped, it is not without merit that this is probably one of the most well realized, detailed, atmospheric and creative rooms we have ever played. “Servants of Sleight” was the second room we ever played. For us, it really set a high bar for escape room experiences that became truly, very hard to surpass and has only been equaled a handful of times. It’s clear beyond any doubt “Pins and Needles” has the same level of care, love and enthusiasm poured into its creation as the former. We just wish we had played it sooner, as it’s clear many other companies have copied The Exit Game’s creativity and winning formula poorly (especially for this room’s twists), which if you’ve played many experiences, you’ll immediately notice the twist’s similarities. As for gameplay, while we had a very good time, it didn’t feel as smooth an experience solving puzzles as “Servants of Sleight”. Maybe we had slightly an off-day, but we each agreed wasn’t as “tight” an adventure as their other offering. Make no mistake however, Pins and Needles is definitely one of the best you will EVER play. Aside from a couple puzzles being a tad frustrating, most puzzles are EXTREMELY creative, original and in theme. We can’t say we’ve seen anything like most of what was on display. If you call yourself an enthusiast, you owe it to yourself to play Pins and Needles and Servants of Sleight, perhaps both in the same day (like we did). We enjoyed “Servants” so much we’ve played it 3 times at this point. These experiences complement each other really well and we can’t wait to see their newest offering coming sometime in 2025.
Mission Save Santa - CLOSEDTime TrapEscape roomIRLI’ll cut ‘em some slack, it is a limited time room and the business does really care about making fun experiences even with their limited budget. It’s serviceable enough, but nothing I would say to really go out of your way for unless you’re in the area. Gameplay is a bit obtuse like their other rooms, but if you’ve played enough of their previous works by now you’ve got a feeling for how the flow goes. This is a seasonal room so it’s not terribly well designed for a long term engagement but it’s charming enough for Christmas. Overall, if you’ve played enough rooms here, you should know exactly what you’re in for by now.
Grammy Tammy's Secret Recipe - CLOSEDMind Trapped Escape RoomEscape roomIRLSuper cute, fun, and great for young ones and families. Mind Trapped has always done a great job of making polished, home grown escape rooms and this one is no different. The main things to note is this one is on the easier side, being only 45 minutes long, and puzzles that seasoned vets will blow through very fast. It is great for those who are escape room beginners, and for parents that want to get their kids into escape rooms. Everything at this business is solid, and this is no different. Perfect for some holiday fun that’s just around the corner 🎄
Horror High School: A School for Bad Boys and Girls - CLOSEDTime TrapEscape roomIRLA silly, and somewhat rushed room, with not a whole lot of thought put into it, but I’ll give it to them: it’s marginally better than their other rooms. Nothing terribly wrong but very underwhelming, and kind of to be expected from this business at this point. Not the worst room you’ll play but not one I’d recommend to rush out and play either.
Operation Treehouse: Capture the FlagThe Escape Ventures - Winter Garden [prev. Escape Goat]Escape roomIRLA colorful, fun, inspired, yet deceptively challenging room. There is a genuine “wow” factor as soon as you step in, and it quickly becomes apparent there’s a LOT to do and you don’t have time to waste. While the theme may seem geared toward kids, this is definitely not a room for kids. Part of the wow factor is the buildout, which features probably one of the largest footprints for a “single room” we’ve ever experienced. You and your team will run into the space and will instantly want to start looking at everything like a kid in a candy store. It’s very inviting and definitely invigorates some childlike wonder. You can’t help but smile when you walk through the door. As soon as you begin though, it becomes apparent very quickly that this is not a room for beginners, and it is definitely not something kids will be able to beat without immense guidance and assistance. This room has A LOT of puzzles to tackle, and they’re all quite challenging. Given the size and sheer amount of things to do, it’s great for groups, but as a team of three we didn’t find it too overwhelming. However, I’d recommend you have a fair bit of experience with escape rooms before tackling this if you plan on playing with a smaller team. There were a lot of unique puzzles we hadn’t seen before, and save for one or two frustrating ones who’s tech needed a bit of maintenance, it all flowed pretty well once you got the hang of the room’s flow. Overall, it’s wholesome, clever, light hearted, very original and manages to keep a smile on your face the whole time. It’s an inspired labor of love with a lot of polish and a surprising amount of depth to its gameplay. Unfortunately, we know Escape Goat closes later this month, as will this room along with their others. So if you’re interested and in the area, go sooner than later. It’s worth checking out.
![Fallout: Bunker Busters [prev. Doomsday Disaster!]](https://images.morty.app/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/2009cf57-d0ea-493a-9051-eed7be93eb9b.webp)
