40 ThievesMindTrap Escape Room - TemeculaEscape roomIRLLoved this room. One of my favorites I’ve done so far. Lots of unique puzzles I haven’t seen elsewhere that involved some cool tech. No combo locks. Great for a group of 4—you can be working on different puzzles at the same and it’s mostly non-linear. Also requires some teamwork at times, which I always like. Would highly recommend this room to others.
UndercookedOmescape - SunnyvaleEscape roomIRLThis is one of my favorite rooms I’ve ever played! I love playing the Overcooked video game as well, so I was already excited for this idea for an escape room—and Undercooked did not disappoint! It brings the frenetic pace of the game into an escape room by giving you puzzles upon puzzles to solve in pretty much any order. This is one of the few rooms where I would recommend playing with 4 or more people. There is plenty to do and honestly you will not be able to complete it all with just 2 people, (which is how I normally like to play). Why I loved it: - Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles! So many puzzles all over the place that it’s hard to even decide where to start. I enjoyed the mechanism for entering your solutions to the puzzles too. - The theming is spot on for matching the video game. I loved that it’s not just the typical horror/creepy type of theme that the majority of escape rooms are. I always prefer a fun theme that isn’t depressing. This made for a great experience where you can just go have FUN solving puzzles! - Getting a high score in this room is genuinely a challenge. I have no critiques—this room was absolutely awesome!
Chapter 1: Occam's ApartmentOff The Couch GamesEscape roomIRLThis room was great! We played as 2 people and took up the entire time with only 20 seconds left, haha. We actually played all 3 chapters this week and this was my favorite of the 3. One of the funner rooms I have experienced. Great storytelling, great puzzles, and fun surprises. I also thought that it was pretty novel how they save your decisions and progress and use those to influence the storytelling in the future chapters if you come back and play. It definitely makes me more interested in the story than I normally am in a room where you don’t really impact or influence it. I will definitely come back to continue the story and see how it all plays out!
Treasure IslandBrain Games Escape RoomEscape roomIRLLoved this puzzle heavy room for 2 people. The theming was very well done and loved that most of the puzzles weren’t ones I had seen before. Almost no combo locks, which was nice. Not the most difficult room, but enjoyable nonetheless. Would recommend to others. Did not love that it’s $60/person for 2 people, but drops down to $45/person for 3. ☹️
Chapter 3: The MorgueOff The Couch GamesEscape roomIRLWe played all 3 chapters here this week and this one was my 2nd favorite. We played as a team of 2 and managed to escape this one with 10 minutes remaining, so it is very doable with any size group. 2 - 4 players would be a good amount for this room. It did seem inexplicably (possibly unnecessarily?) creepy, given what was going on in the story at this point… but hard for me to say since I don’t know where the eventual planned chapters 4 - 12 are going to go. I really loved the time pressure created by the game in this room. The bonus puzzles were the best part, enhancing the game by giving you some choices for who you will have experience certain puzzles. Overall, it was quite novel, challenging, and fun and I just loved the experience. One thing I can say for sure is that I will be very impatiently awaiting the release of the future chapters because I very much want to learn where this is all going!
Sal's CyberneticsThe Immersive MachineEscape roomIRLWe loved the cyberpunk theming of this room! It was one of the more unique themes for an escape room that I’ve done so far too. Just a very cool experience with a really well made set design. You could really feel the enthusiasm that went into making this room. Would definitely recommend! We definitely plan on coming back to do any other experience these folks create in the future too!
Irvine School of Wizardry and the Goblin's SecretsHidden DonkeyEscape roomIRLI really enjoyed how they guided you through this room. Lots of fun details and different types of puzzles. We did both rooms here and liked both, but this one is newer and a little bit more challenging. That being said, we still got out in 41 minutes and they told us they even added in an extra puzzle for us because we were going through the room so quickly. So my only wish would be for even more puzzles and more challenges so that we could spend more of the hour in this room. We loved how they added an extra puzzle for us that was even more difficult than the rest had been. If they could have added a couple more challenging puzzles in this same manner for groups like us that blow through the room, that would make it fantastic!
The CryptEscape Hour AustinEscape roomIRLThis was my 24th escape room and I think my favorite that I have done so far! I lived the high volume of puzzles and that there was a lot to do. It felt like a great room for 4 people, keeping all of us busy the whole time.
Stash HouseStash HouseEscape roomIRLThis escape room was everything you want in an escape room! The set was immersive and believable. The puzzles were challenging and there was a good amount of them. And the story was unique. This is the only room with this story that I have seen so far, so big props for that too. Definitely make a point of doing this room!
Lab RatHatch EscapesEscape roomIRLOverall I loved the set design and story for this room, which is why it earned a ❤️. My only disappointment in this room was that it wasn’t more challenging. I wish it had more puzzles in it and more challenging puzzles. Also, our group easily tripped something that caused us to have to exit the room while the GM reset a bunch of things, so I wish they better protected that thing from unintentionally being triggered too early. But I would certainly recommend this room to anyone for the novelty of the story and the great set design.
