Royal Oak Visitors Center, Aliens Are Among UsBreakout Escape Rooms - Royal OakEscape roomIRLThis was a somewhat tricky room with an overall fun experience and atmosphere. I’m not one for aliens so the theme didn’t speak to me as much but the effort was clearly there and executed well. The theme also informed some of the puzzles in a very creative way. I’ve done a lot of escape rooms now and this was only my second. It contains what is still my favorite puzzle ever and one that is one of my worst, but my favorite definitely outweighs it. The difficulty of each puzzle vary quite a bit but the quality is overall consistent aside from that one hiccup.
Chamber Of IllusionsBreakout Escape Rooms - Royal OakEscape roomIRLBest Escape Room! I’ve been to about 15 escape rooms and about 10 with the same group, including every one at this location. This is everyone’s favorite. The atmosphere is done excellently, but the real selling point of this room is the puzzles. These are the most creative and on theme puzzles that work together to make the room a masterpiece. For most rooms I have a worst and most liked puzzle, but this had such an incredibly consistent quality that I couldn’t pick one puzzle for either.
High Sea Adventure of the Coconut CrewBreakout Escape Rooms - Royal OakEscape roomIRLThis was my first escape room and while it was very easy, it still was very fun and well done. The theming was excellent with everything working together and nothing feeing out of place. The puzzles were creative and different rather than just ways to put numbers in order again and again. I’ve done a lot of escape rooms now and I can say I was very spoiled to have this be my first. It is definitely my recommendation for anyone’s introduction to this hobby.
Villain Take OverBreakout Escape Rooms - Royal OakEscape roomIRLOverall a great experience with good theming and puzzles, which seems to be consistent with this places escape rooms. The atmosphere was done well, with the second half being a lot stronger in this regard. The puzzles were creative and flowed with the theme and my only complaint is them not telling us this, (Helpful Light Spoiler) at one point a member will have to crawl over something, which is fine, it just was never stated and since that’s against the rules in nearly every other escape room we were left confused at that part until being told in a hint to do so
Saving SantaEscapology - Mt ClemensEscape roomIRLThe score was very limited and there was a strong lack of atmosphere. Not to be too harsh but my living room currently has better Christmas theming. The puzzles were far from creative and there was no clarity. It was all numbers with no indication of what goes with what puzzle and what puzzle with what lock, and adding extra red herrings of numbers made it worse. Every puzzle felt like there was at least 5 ways to solve and they just picked one without giving you any clues as to which solution they picked. So whether you were using the wrong clues, got the wrong solution, or are trying the wrong lock is a total guess.
Elf MyselfBreakout Escape Rooms - Royal OakEscape roomIRLOne of the best escape rooms I’ve been to. The atmosphere is phenomenal and the puzzles are done very well. It is very cluttered as many people have said, but we loved that aesthetic and thought it was pretty clear what was and what wasn’t part of puzzles. Make sure you bring a coat though. I’ve been to all this places escape rooms and they’re all the same comfortable temperature except for this one which is cold. It did help set the atmosphere and sell everything, but the ones of us that didn’t bring coats regretted it.
The Ringmaster's DenBreakout Escape Rooms - Royal OakEscape roomIRLAs per usual with this place, a solid room with consistent theming and creative puzzles. Not as amazing atmosphere as some of their other rooms, but that speaks more to the quality of the other rooms than a lacking in this one. The puzzles were fun and creative while having many play directly into the theme. My only complaint is that they don’t specifically tell you something you probably should know, (Helpful Light Spoiler) in every other room it’s against the rules to use your phone, but they didn’t say that for this one. I assumed the person just forgot or skipped over it because we had been here 4 or 5 times before for other rooms, but turns out you need to use your phones for one puzzle. I wish this was stated directly
