Space Mission: GuardianThink Tank Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLWe’re on an escape room road trip from Calgary, Alberta, and Space Mission: Guardian at Think Tank Escape Rooms in Spokane made my nerd heart happier than it has been in ages. I’m a huge Star Trek fan, so this room was basically designed to make me happy. I would legitimately pay good money to be able to replay even the first ten minutes of this room on a loop. I could do that over and over again and never get tired of it. If you’re a fellow space nerd, you’re going to understand exactly what I mean. But even beyond that, this room is great. Like Think Tank’s other rooms, the attention to detail is exceptional. The story and gameplay are solid and the props are used to make the experience even better. The environment does a fantastic job of making you feel like you’re actually part of the story. The gameplay and story are strong enough to make this a great escape room even if science fiction isn’t normally your thing. This was one of the highlights of an already fantastic escape room road trip, and Think Tank has officially set the bar ridiculously high for whatever rooms we do next.
MutinyEscape City - CalgaryEscape roomIRLThis was our first time at Escape City, and we will definitely be back. The room was wonderfully decorated in the theme of the room, with great use of tech and decor. The story was easy to immerse yourself in and stay immersed in, thanks to the props and the way the story progressed. The puzzles were logical and appropriately challenging for the level of difficulty of the room. We could hear a phone ringing in our room almost the whole time coming from another themed room, which was kind annoying, but eventually we tuned it out. Would definitely recommend.
Mayan DoomsdayThink Tank Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLMayan Doomsday was our first room at Think Tank Escape Rooms in Spokane, and what a way to start. We’re doing an escape room road trip from Calgary, Alberta, and Think Tank as a whole was the highlight of the trip. The story was immersive, and the set was beautifully done. You really feel like you’re stepping into a different world. The puzzles worked really well with the story and environment, and the whole experience felt well put together. The staff were also fantastic. As we discovered after doing the other Think Tank rooms on this trip, they somehow manage to get even better from here. Mayan Doomsday was an excellent introduction to Think Tank and definitely made us excited to see what else they had to offer.
The Haunting of Room 13Escape - DivisionEscape roomIRLWe’re on an escape room road trip from Calgary, Alberta, and The Haunting of Room 13 at Escape: Division in Spokane was one of our stops. This was a fun spooky room, although I wouldn’t describe it as particularly scary. It’s more spooky than frightening, which worked well for our group. I also really appreciated that they can customize the scare factor if someone in your team isn’t comfortable with being scared (our 12 year old requested no jump scares). The room is very mechanical and relies more on traditional escape room mechanisms than newer technology. The room itself is showing some age and is a little worn compared with some of the newer rooms we’ve done, but the story was good and the gameplay was enjoyable. They also do a fun job of getting into character and setting the scene before bringing you into the room, which helped set the atmosphere. Overall, this was a fun, spooky escape room with a good story and some classic escape room mechanics.
Prison Break: Warden Strikes Back!Escape - DivisionEscape roomIRLOur second room at Escape: Division in Spokane was Prison Break: Warden Strikes Back. This was a really enjoyable room and a great addition to our escape room road trip from Calgary, Alberta. Right from the beginning, you’re separated, so this is a room where communication and teamwork are especially important. If your group works well together, that can be fun. If everyone tends to do their own thing, it can really block your progress. There’s more technology in this room than in The Haunting of Room 13, although it’s still not what I would consider a high-tech escape room. What it does have is a good variety of puzzles, which kept things interesting. We needed several hints, and we came very close to running out of time. It was a good room!
AsylumLocked In Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLAsylum at Locked In Escape Rooms in Coeur d’Alene was the final room we did on our escape room road trip from Calgary, Alberta. This is a 75-minute room, and at least at the beginning, it was one of the spookiest escape rooms we’ve ever done. Our 12-year-old lasted about five minutes before deciding that this particular adventure was absolutely not happening and noping right out. A huge thank you to Oliver, who was fantastic about it. He made them feel completely welcome and spent some time sharing behind-the-scenes tidbits while my husband and I continued working our way through the Asylum. Once we got further into the room, the intensity mellowed out somewhat. The puzzles were excellent. There were several unique puzzles we hadn’t encountered in other escape rooms, and I especially loved how the set decoration itself became part of the game. The room really makes good use of the props. There is a physical element to this room, but they were able to work around it for us (I had recently popped a rib and my mobility was limited), so don’t automatically rule this room out if that applies to you. It’s worth talking to the staff about your needs. Overall, this was a really memorable room. Great atmosphere, creative puzzles, fantastic use of the environment, and wonderful staff. Highly recommended, especially if you’re looking for something on the spooky side.
ApothecaryThink Tank Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLI honestly don’t know how to write this review without sounding completely ridiculous, because Apothecary at Think Tank Escape Rooms is hands down, no questions asked, the most incredible escape room we have ever done (and we’ve done a decent amount). We (Mom, Dad and 12-year-old) are on an escape room road trip from Calgary, Alberta, and this room alone would have made the trip worthwhile. We were incredibly lucky to be among the first groups to experience Apothecary. It had only been open for a few days when we played it, and you could tell that an enormous amount of planning, expertise, and care had gone into creating it. The immersion is absolute. The flow of the room is fantastic. The technology is top notch. The puzzles fit beautifully into the environment and story. And the finishing touches are just *chef’s kiss.* Afterward, we had the chance to chat with Jeff, the owner, for a bit. Hearing even a little about the thought and work that went into creating the room made us appreciate the experience even more. There is clearly a tremendous amount of expertise and, more importantly, heart behind this room. If you only ever do one escape room, do this one. Seriously. Apothecary is the new benchmark against which I’m going to be judging every escape room we do from now on.
Ark RaiderLocked In Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLThis room was on the must-do list for my husband for our Escape Room road trip. They were able to squeeze us in immediately after we did another room, which we appreciated (with a multi-room discount!). Very friendly GM/staff. The set was well done and very immersive. One element in particular was really cool and fun to experience. We did enjoy that the rooms let you know with an audible signal when you’ve solved something. I would say that in this room there were a couple of puzzles that we weren’t actually sure how we solved them or if the result was just delayed. There was also another that was just plain frustrating and felt like a bit of a stretch to figure out. Overall a fun room though.
Nightmare HotelGame Over Escape Rooms - Calgary South EastEscape roomIRLThe production values at this new Game Over location are absolutely incredible. This was our second visit here and we were excited to experience another new room. It was a bit of a stretch to convince our 12 year old to join us for a “scary” room, but they did and they did end up enjoying it. It really does come through on the scare factor while also telling a fun story and incorporating lots of unique and new puzzles. We really enjoyed it and look forward to trying another room here in the future. As always the GM was awesome as well.
The Professor's Curious ContraptionRetro Oasis Escape Rooms and ArcadeEscape roomIRLThis was our first time exploring outside of Calgary for a locked room. Retro Oasis is a charming little space full of locked rooms and arcade machines. We found the Professor’s Curious Contraption to be a fun, linear room with an abundance of mechanical locks, a neat story and some fun tech that really added to the storyline. We did need a couple of hints, and the GM was very helpful. There was a lot of ambient noise from the arcade which did pull us out of the immersion a bit. We can’t wait to come back and do more rooms.
