13th BasementExit Game OC - AnaheimEscape roomIRLIt’s fun, it’s funny, it’s self-aware in the best way. Highly recommended.
40 ThievesMindTrap Escape Room - TemeculaEscape roomIRLThis is an unexpectedly challenging room (relative to everything else we played at MindTrap). As always the set design and audiovisual effects are top-notch. A couple of puzzles are fiddly to a degree that the available controls don’t support as well as I would have liked, but we eventually got everything done. The theme is well executed from the very first moment to the very last moment. Bring some friends, you will want the help. Recommended.
AdriftPostCuriousEscape roomTabletopThis is a unique take on a puzzle-driven narrative. There are four “chapters,” playable in any order, each of which contains three poems, a piece of artwork, and a physical artifact. Poem one hides a message giving you a hint for how to interpret poem 2, which gives a hint for poem 3, which is combined with the artwork and the artifact to yield a final phrase “solving” that chapter. The four phrases together lead to the brief finale. Although the components are beautifully illustrated, there are some issues with the assembly (and disassembly) of the artifacts, particularly the ones involving cardboard. If you want to pass this on after playing you’ll have to be careful, although nothing in the game has to be written on or cut/folded, so that helps. We found the puzzles to be mostly solvable without hints, but one of the four chapters felt really underclued, and it is the one with the artifact that is the hardest to reconfigure, which is unfortunate. Anyway, if you like PostCurious games, you’ll almost certainly like this: despite the hiccups we felt it was a couple of hours well spent.
A Knight to EscapeThe Escape EffectEscape roomIRLOne of the more interesting “split the team” rooms that I have seen. They are fully committed to the bit: you will stay separated for the vast majority of the game, and virtually all of the puzzles require communication and collaboration. I enjoyed this but it is definitely something to be aware of. I felt that some of the puzzles were a bit underclued in terms of knowing you were on the right track, whereas others had clear feedback. But there is generally only one thing that the group can make progress on at a time and it does a nice job of shifting the focus back and forth between the two teams. The finale puzzle is impressively elaborate. Recommended.
Alien TerrorEscape The NetherworldEscape roomIRLYou can count on the quality of the sets, props, and atmosphere to be top-notch at Escape the Netherworld, and the Alien Terror room is no exception. There are a couple of clunky puzzles in the beginning section, but once you get into the main part of the room everything flows really well and the integration of the puzzles and the environment is very good. The experience is on the intense side for an escape room -- there is extensive use of smoke/fog, strobe lighting, loud noises, total darkness (briefly), some moderate body horror / gore, and a few jump scares -- so really pay attention to the warnings on their website, because pretty much everything they describe on their website happens in the room. But as long as you're okay with all of that stuff, the room does not disappoint. Recommended.
Area 51The Escape Ventures - Winter Garden [prev. Escape Goat]Escape roomIRLThis was a very entertaining room. I personally got more “Men in Black” than “Area 51” type vibes from it but that’s not a complaint. There is a sense of humor throughout the set, props, story, and audiovisual effects. My only real suggestion is that a few of the puzzles require you to make some assumptions that aren’t really clued for how to translate data into numbers, and these are only confirmed by a lock opening (or not opening). But the puzzles themselves are good and we had a couple of laugh-out-loud moments. What more could one ask for? Recommended.
Area 51MindTrap Escape Room - MurrietaEscape roomIRLI mean, look. It is advertised as a 30-minute escape room, and they want you to have a good time, so of course there are only 10-15 minutes worth of actual puzzles in there. We finished in 9 minutes flat. The set is very well done and the puzzles are good; there just aren’t many of them. Play solo or with two people tops and do everything together. If you split up then it will be over before you know it. I can recommend this for folks who like set design and good use of tech. I have a hard time recommending a room that we paid money for and finished in 9 minutes.
Area 53Bust Out Escape Room - PaseoEscape roomIRLOther than the very first puzzle, which is underclued for absolutely no reason (and they know that — we asked about it) this is a fun room with solid puzzle design. It has a nice mix of puzzle types and good use of props. They could have leaned a lot more into the “alien tearing up the space station” plot in terms of set design, but there’s enough provided to get the point across and still keep it family-friendly. Recommended.
AtlantisEscape Room LAEscape roomIRLThis is a good room, but it is at most the second-best Atlantis-themed room in LA. I recommend you go to the venue to play the Black Dragon room and then if you have time to play more than one room you would not be unhappy if you added this one on. There are a couple of really nice puzzles and the set is well designed, but there are also some clunky puzzles and the ending was a bit anticlimactic. IMO, overall this room does not flow as well as the other two rooms at Escape Room LA. We still had a good time though and our game master was very friendly.
Atlantis: The Forgotten CityHypnotic Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLThis is a must-play. Everything is top notch from the sheer size of the space to the quality of the set design to the lighting and special effects and, yes, the puzzles. The intro section leading into the main story doesn’t quite make sense and feels very “escape roomy” but once you get into the main part of the game… wow!
