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.
Neighborhood WatcherThe Escape Ventures - OrlandoEscape roomIRLThis was a really great story and a well executed room. Loved the concept and had fun playing it through. Our GM did a great job playing the character for this room too. Would recommend! 👍🏼
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!
Operation Arctic Storm: The Final MeltdownThe Escape Ventures - OrlandoEscape roomIRLThis room was a blast! It was my favorite of all their rooms at this location. I loved the theme, which was a very unique one amongst escape rooms. The puzzles were fun and challenging and plentiful. And the set design and size of the room was above and beyond. I really enjoyed it all from start to finish. Definitely a must do if you’re in the area! I’m a little surprised this isn’t an hour room. We finished in under an hour and we weren’t trying to rush and also spun our wheels for a considerable amount of time on one puzzle that we didn’t want help on. I’d call it Medium difficulty, not the Hard Morty lists it as, especially if you have 90 minutes to solve it.
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!
Mogollon Monster: Scouting for Arizona's BigfootThe Nemesis ClubEscape roomIRLFantastic! Everything that an escape room experience should be. Why this room rocks: - The atmosphere from the moment you enter the room is truly immersive. - The GM was fantastic and did a great job of getting you into the spirit of the room. - The puzzles blended so well into the atmosphere of the room that they didn’t feel as contrived as puzzles normally do in an escape room. They felt pretty natural for the environment. - The nudges we received were so subtle, which I appreciated. I’m sure if we’d needed more help a direct clue would have been given, but our GM was awesome at subtlety drawing your attention to something you may have missed without using any words. This felt like a place where others should learn how to be a GM, haha. - The theme is unique amongst escape rooms and incorporates the local Arizona folklore as a theme, which I really appreciated. - Several humorous moments sprinkled throughout. I don’t know how you could do this room and not leave with a smile. - The entire vibe of the Nemesis Club was amazing, including a super unique lounge to discover more surprises in afterwards if you choose to enjoy some of the Soda Jerk ice cream. This wasn’t there the last time I did a room here and I loved it! In case the TERPECA awards weren’t enough to convince you that you need to go do all the rooms here, I’ll add to the voices urging you to go enjoy the experiences here.
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. ☹️
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!
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!
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!
