@pastormikewilson's reviews on Morty

The Man From Beyond

Strange Bird Immersive

Escape room
IRL

The actors in this room were by far the best actors we have ever encountered in an escape room. The entertainment value and immersion is off the charts. The room is much more about the story and the experience than it is about puzzles. There were very few puzzles, and they were not difficult.

Mission: Mars - CLOSED

The Escape Game - Berry Hill

Escape room
IRL

Mission Mars is one of TEG's older rooms, and when it was built it was on the cutting edge of escape room design. They used impressive technology in this room long before escape rooms were using so much technology. There's a camera that allows you to see from one of the large rooms to another large room. There's are many large tv screens. Touchscreen keypads and many more generation two locks. Unfortunately, the room's age is evident. There were some glitchy electronics, broken parts, and other general wear and tear. There were also a few doors that required us to complete multiple puzzles in order to open them, but there was nothing telling us that was the case. As a result, we completed multiple puzzles without any feedback or celebration moment. The best thing about the room is that you get to leave the spaceship and walk on Mars! It's an impressively expansive area of the room that makes you feel like you are outside of the spaceship.

Ruins: Forbidden Treasure

The Escape Game - Berry Hill

Escape room
IRL

Ruins is without a doubt the best escape room I've ever played, and every escape room enthusiast should take a trip to Nashville, Tennessee to play it. TEG partnered with Disney to build a room that has everything I love in an escape room with the added bonus of an engaging storyline. It's probably too large and complex to reproduce it in a cost effective way at other locations, but I hope that they will continue to keep it in good repair at their Berry Hill location. Players begin the room in a realistic airplane ride then are transported into a fantasy world of adventurous treasure hunting that could rival any Indiana Jones movie. There are only three generation-one locks in the whole room, and players are given the opportunity to interact with the props in the room in fantastic ways that makes the room as immersive as any room I've ever played. As we traveled from the room's numerous areas, it felt like the ruins went on forever. The puzzles range from exciting physical challenges to complex mental challenges, and the room moves in more exciting and impressive ways than any other room I've every seen. The room has its own lobby of Disney quality that begins the immersion before the players enter the room and provides a great place for post-game fun and pictures.

The Depths

The Escape Game - Irvine

Escape room
IRL

The Depths is The Escape Games newest room, and it is an above average escape room. It's fun, clean, and sturdy, and it has great puzzles. The story is intriguing and immersive, and the design is pretty. The first area is a submarine, but eventually you dock the submarine and explore an underwater world. In that underwater world you meet a large creature, but I was definitely disappointed that the large creature that was supposed to be scary was not scary at all. They put very little effort into making it feel like the creature was a threat to us. When I contrast some of TEG's other rooms to The Depths, I can see that they chose to invest in their resources on video production and large screens rather than impressive set designs. I assume that's because the cost of producing an impressive video is a one-time expense. Building an impressive, multi-level set is an expense at each location, but in my opinion, The Depths is not even in the same quality category as Gold Rush, Special Ops, or The Playground. The room is made up of three boxy rooms with minimal design elements, and the transitions from room to room were not as creative as many of TEG's other rooms.

Special Ops: Mysterious Market

The Escape Game - Opry Mills

Escape room
IRL

𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 �𓅝𓃄 �𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿 𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 𓂨𓅝𓃄 𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿

Sabotage

The Escape Game - Opry Mills

Escape room
IRL

Sabotage is nothing like TEG's other games. It's a competitive race room. Two teams enter two identical rooms and compete to see who can complete the room with the highest number of points. Points are earned by quickly solving puzzles and using the codes that those solves generate to attack the other team. When the first attack happens, a window opens up between the rooms so that the teams can see each other. Teams are also given the option to compete against a computer simulation rather than another team. The centerpiece of the room is a giant screen above a control panel. The room was a lot of fun, and although there weren't multiple areas to explore, many doors opened up to allow the room to continue to evolve.

Frankenstein: The Awakening

60 Minute Escape Game

Escape room
IRL

The rooms at 60 Minute Escape Games are as good as any rooms I've every played. The design is beautiful and immersive. They are intentional about stimulating all five senses including smells. Their generation two locks were clever, and even though a few of them didn't work perfectly on the first try, they were incredibly fun to unlock. The props and design are incredibly impressive, and the multilevel design allows them to make huge rooms without using a lot of square footage. Their hints are clear and helpful, and the game masters obviously love their rooms. When we arrived at 60 Minute Escape Games, I parked in a spot right by the front door that had a sign with their logo on it, but Billy pointed out to me that the sign said the space was reserved for the owner of 60 Minute Escape Games and threatened to tow anyone else who parks there. When we went inside, Billy asked to use the restroom, but they wouldn't allow him to use the restroom until after he signed a waver. We all like to use the restroom before we play a room, so we started walking back toward the restroom, but the host told us they only allow two people in the restroom at a time. When we entered the incredibly impressive rooms, we started looking at the details as the game master gave us instructions, but the game master told us to look at him while he tells us the room. Unfortunately, it felt like the owners of 60 Minute Escape Games care more about their rooms and their rules than their guests. Frankenstein is incredibly well designed. I've never seen a room that uses lights as well as this room. They used LED lights to point us in the right direction, provide light to see props and puzzles when necessary, and make successes more obvious, but when we walked in the room, most of those lights were off. That made the room more immersive, and the lights came on as the story and progress called or them. The final Frankenstein prop was beautiful, huge, and scary. Their use of electricity and sound to make it feel like the monster was coming to life made the moment incredibly immersive. The room was very large, and exploring it was a lot of fun.

The Blind Pig

Murfreesboro Escape Rooms

Escape room
IRL

Murfreesboro Escape Rooms is a great escape room in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Their Blind Pig room is their most popular room, but they do have some other good rooms. Parking is easy. Their facility is clean, and the staff is attentive and friendly. The Blind Pig was beautiful and fun. They found creative ways to make the small room feel more expansive, but the room was too small. I don't usually like reading in an escape room, but I loved that even though The Blind Pig had multiple reading tasks, the reading wasn't too long and didn't feel tedious. There were many clever generation two locks in this room including secret doors, lasers, and physical challenge puzzles. There were many doors to open and almost no boring generation one locked boxes. The hints were clear and helpful, and everything in the room was clued very well. There was good feedback and responsiveness to all the puzzle solves accept for one. That one solve unlocked a door, but we had to find and pull the door open to get it to actually open.

High Noon

Murfreesboro Escape Rooms

Escape room
IRL

High Noon is not like most escape rooms you've played. It's a competitive racing room. It's old western theme, but there's no story at all. The room has two stacks of generation one locks. One stack has red locks, and one has blue locks. The room is full of puzzles that associate to icons next to each lock. Each puzzle has a red version and a blue version. The solutions to the red puzzles and the blue puzzles are slightly different, but the puzzles have the exact some mechanics. Your team can choose to split up and compete against each other, compete against another team, or stay together and only complete one stack of locks. The room is entirely nonlinear, and almost every puzzle has only one step. There's an old rotary phone in the corner, and any player can go to the phone at any time to ask for one of the five allowed hints. We really enjoyed because we like puzzles, and this was purely a puzzle room.

Pharaoh's Chamber

60 Minute Escape Game

Escape room
IRL

Exploring Pharaoh's giant chamber was incredibly fun. The room was meticulously designed, and the puzzles were exciting. The teamwork required to complete the puzzles made them that much more fun and memorable. The physical challenges and generation two locks made me feel like Indiana Jones exploring an Egyptian temple, and the finale was exciting and climactic. The timing of the lighting changes made it feel like rooms transformed as we completed puzzles.

Apt A / Apartment A

Murfreesboro Escape Rooms

Escape room
IRL

Apartment A is a tribute room. It is a memorial to Adam Love, a former employee of Murfreesboro Escape Rooms. The draw of this room is obviously the story, especially for those people who knew Adam Love and his love for board games, movies, and cooking. The room is contained in only one small area, and the room is very linear. It's a great room for beginners who will need help from more experienced players because everyone in the room will be forced to work together on every puzzle. There are great generation two locks with responsive solves that have plenty of feedback.

The Grand Illusion

Extreme Escape Games

Escape room
IRL

Extreme Escape Games in Franklin, Tennessee has the best team-building escape rooms I've ever played. Their rooms require more teamwork than most rooms, and their experience debriefs are by far the best I've ever seen. At most locations, the end of the room is the end of the experience. That is definitely not the case at Extreme Escape Games. They spend 10 or 15 minutes after the way in a debrief theater where they remind the team of funny things that were said in the room, give feedback about strategy and performance, and much more. They even have a party rooms that can be used for corporate gathers or other parties. In addition, their rooms and puzzles are very well designed. The owners of Extreme Escape Games have a tremendous amount of experience in building immersive environments because they build haunted houses. Their rooms have elements that I haven't seen in other rooms, and I assume that's because they brought those elements from the world of haunted houses. The Grand Illusion is a beautiful room with four areas that get increasingly impressive as you discover them. The room requires teams to spread out but continue to work together. It's a bright room with a beautiful design. The laser room is incredibly impressive, unique, and fun. Very few rooms are cool enough to remove me from my competitive, rushing mode long enough to just sit back and enjoy the room's design. The laser room accomplished that. The stage area is beautiful, and the transition from the stage room to the laser room is very fun. The story of the room is not impressive or memorable, but that is because the designers chose to focus on the puzzles and the design. I loved that the game host stayed in the room stayed in the room with us, added surprise immersive elements along the way, gave hints, and took notes about our experience. I highly recommend this room, and I wish we had time to play their Quarantine room while we were there.

The Storykeeper

Locurio

Escape room
IRL

The Storykeeper is one of the best escape rooms I've ever played, and I'm pretty sure it's the most impressively designed room I've seen. It's difficult to explain just how much work went into designing every inch of this room. Nothing is out of place, and everything has a purpose. It was so immersive that I really did feel like we entered an entirely different world. The story, the storytelling, and the acting were unique, clear, and entertaining. I can't write more about that because it's a surprise, but the surprise is worth the intrigue. The engineering of this room is also incredible. Multiple times I found myself thinking "How did they do that? I'm touching this prop that is actually a puzzle, and somehow it's magically interactive." Everything work. Nothing removed us from the immersion and story. We felt excitement, fear, wonder, and joy. The room is huge. The various spaces throughout the room are unique from each other yet they flow together so well. I just kept thinking, "There's no way this room and story can keep going." We just kept discovering new and exciting worlds and challenges. There were no unnecessarily tedious puzzles, and the physical challenge was a lot of fun. There was one puzzle in particular that was incredibly unique. I've never seen anything like it. If it sounds like I'm exaggerating the quality this room, I'm not. Please play this room.

The Cabin (Original) - CLOSED

Escape Hour Gig Harbor

Escape room
IRL

The Cabin Trilogy is without a doubt the scariest room I've ever played, but amazingly, they have a non-scary version. If you call ahead, they can offer you the same room without the scary elements. I even got chills while they were introducing the story. Before you enter the room, you stand in a dark hallway outside the room where they tell you the story. This allows your eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room, and it provides a spooky element before the clock even starts. The room has a lot of generation one locks and simple generation one puzzles, but it's so scary that it's hard to focus on the puzzles. We spent a lot of time running from area to area, but we were scared to go into a new area, because we didn't know what would be in there. I don't want to say much about this room because the element of surprise is so important to its design, but I will say that the room is more linear room than many rooms that I play. That linearity aids the immersiveness and scariness of the room, and it allows players to experience all of the puzzles. That's one of the reasons that I think this room is a great room for a small group. Yes a larger group would have a lot of fun doing this room, but I actually think that a smaller group would have more fun in this room. I love the hint mechanism of this room. You don't have to carry a walkie-talkie or run to a stationary hint requesting device. I won't give a lot of details, but the hints are spooky, easily accessible, and helpful. Because there are some small areas, some dexterity is helpful in this room, and it's important for players to pay close attention to all the details in the room. The scary distractions will cause you to think that details are only there to add to the design, but like the other great rooms at Escape Hour, everything in the room has a purpose. Because the story of this room is the first episode in a trilogy, I was nervous that the room would have a cliffhanger ending, but that did not happen. The ending was exciting, and the game master came into the room to celebrate our success and actually debrief the experience.

Spell Struck

The Escape Artist - West Seattle

Escape room
IRL

Spell Struck is a very good room. The first area is very impressively designed. It looks great. The puzzles are a lot of fun, and the generation two locks are very well engineered. I won't say very much about the second area, because it is a surprise in the storyline, but I will say that it is very immersive. The decorations/props in the room are very well designed, and the puzzles are intuitive and fun. There were also some great generation two locks in the second area that were a lot of fun to complete. There was a perfect mix of logic puzzles, map puzzles, riddle puzzles, etc. The ability to thoroughly search is a very important skill in this room, and it is immersive enough to make the search fun. The hint mechanism was easy to use and clear. The game master gave real hints, not just more puzzles disguised as hints, but I don't think the game master could see us very well. A few of her hints actually led us to solutions that that we had already found. When we completed the room, the game master celebrated with us! I'm not sure why so many game masters sheepishly enter rooms when teams complete them, but and excited game masters can help you leave the experiences with good feelings.

Curse of The Mayan Ruins - CLOSED

Escape Hour Gig Harbor

Escape room
IRL

Escape Hour is one of my favorite escape room companies, and their Gig Harbor location is incredibly impressive. The hospitality, creativity, immersiveness, cleanliness, and excellence are up to Disney World standards. Their storylines are clear and creative. Their puzzles are intuitive and well-connected to the story, and the room designs are meticulously crafted to immerse players in the world they are created to portray. Their spacious lobbies are impressively designed to introduce players to the story before the room begins. In the lobbies, there's a store with a lot of branded merchandise, a clean restroom, and a nice backdrop for post-room photos. The hosts obviously love their jobs. They are proud of their company, and they are excited for people to get the opportunity to experience their rooms. Escape Hour has one of the best escape room websites I've ever seen with beautiful artwork, intuitive navigation, and a lot of information about each room. They are very active on social media, and they do a great job of staying connected to their fans. Their puzzles and supplies work every time, and hint giving is clear and generous. They do use a lot of generation one locks, but their generation two locks are strategically placed to add immersion where the generation one locks remove it. Their rooms are too dark for my taste, but they do provide flashlights/torches. The hosts who tell you the story of the room aren't incredibly dynamic, but the rooms themselves do a good job of telling the story. The rooms have exciting climactic endings, and the host takes time to celebrate with you when you succeed. In fact, they take it one step farther and ask, "what was your favorite puzzle?" I love that! The game master actually takes time to talk through the room with you. They'll even gave us some behind the scenes information when we asked. The Curse of the Mayan Ruins is one of the best rooms I've ever played, largely because I love Indiana Jones! There's no one thing that makes the room so good, but it's just a lot of fun. It's the whole package. They did everything right. The physical challenge was actually a challenge, and the design is excellent. Everything, from the walls to the floor, was meticulously designed and integrated into the story. There is a great overlap between puzzle elements and design elements. The props and design elements are only props and design elements until you realize that they are actually puzzle elements. They hit a perfect balance between puzzle room and immersive experience. The immersive story compliments the puzzles well, but they don't take away from the puzzles. The puzzles and theme are just a lot of fun. I really like doing rooms with only two or three people, and this room is great for a small group. There are multiple nonlinear elements that allow multiple players to simultaneously work on a puzzle, but it creates good bottlenecks that bring players together at transitional moments. I rarely love rooms with this many generation one locks, but they were able to create generation one puzzles that actually fit the theme. The room had one of the most challenging logic puzzles I've done in a room, but it was doable. When you complete it, you have a great feeling of accomplishment and pride.

The Cure

Enigma Escapes WA

Escape room
IRL

Enigma Escapes is in Tacoma, Washington. The Seattle area is absolutely beautiful, but Tacoma is not as pretty as other areas. Parking at Enigma was cheap and easy, and navigation to the location was easy. The lobby is large, and the staff was hospitable and helpful. There are four rooms at Enigma. The experience for each room begins in their lobby where you watched a video. The video was played on a tv that should have been much larger, and it covers rules, instructions, and the story, all in one video. The video actors and set designs were pretty weak and cheaply made, but when the video ends, an actor comes running into the room in full costume. That actor builds excitement that immediately immerses you in the story of the room. The live actor element after the video in the lobby was a very nice touch to add immersion. The Cure is a pretty basic room with a lot of generation one locks, but it is a lot of fun. This is actually the kind of room that made me fall in love with escape rooms. It's all about the puzzles. There were a few very creative puzzles, but for the most part the puzzles were not very unique. Designers in most rooms seem to have a lot of difficulty integrating generation one lock puzzles into the story, but these puzzles fit the theme well. The story itself was not unique, but there were two puzzle tools in this room that I've never seen before. As with most rooms that require you to use a walkie-talkie for hints, communication was easy, but the hints were too vague and not customized to our situation. Everything in the room worked well, and we had a lot of fun running around the room to solve some of the puzzles.

The 13th Floor

The Escape Artist - West Seattle

Escape room
IRL

𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 �𓅝𓃄 �𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿 𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 𓂨𓅝𓃄 𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿