Abduction 3: The ExamAbduction 3Escape roomIRLIf you don't care for plot and story in escape rooms, then Abduction 3: The Exam is for you! It's one physical/mental challenge after another in a spare setting. A robotic female voice guides and taunts you, Portal-style. Every puzzle was a winner; we enjoyed it very much. There is some text which is correctly translated; there is not a lot of GM interaction and his English was fine.
Cybercity 2049Escape Barcelona 2 3Escape roomIRLGreat set and GM interaction (our GM played at least 4 different characters). If anything, this game tries to do too much: video game, zombie chase, improv, carnival game. Contains some NSFW elements that aren't really part of the gameplay.
Distrito 111 [District 111]Unreal Room Escape Sant Martí – BarcelonaEscape roomIRLReally enjoyed it. Lots to do (for our team of 2), gritty post-apocalyptic set with memorable interactions, clean puzzles, helpful game master. I wasn't sure how some of our tasks tied in with the overall objective but it was still great fun. (I think this game was newly-available in English, and the GM apologized for his limited English, but we had no language problems with it.) That it's tucked incongruously inside an apartment complex in a residential neighborhood adds to the charm.
Dive To AtlantisThe Escape Artist - West SeattleEscape roomIRLA fun, ambitious game with theme park and video game elements, but doesn't quite have the budget or design skill to pull it off.
DragonBorn: El Hijo del Posadero [DragonBorn: The Innkeeper's Son]DragonBorn Escape RoomEscape roomIRLClearly a must-play: we loved the NPC interaction throughout the game, the storyline was compelling, and the jaw-dropping sets delivered surprise after surprise. Many of the puzzles were wonderfully crafted physical puzzles, some of which required cooperation. Others involved really fun role-playing with the NPCs. And yet it bothered me that there were so many combination locks throughout the game (more than one time the GM would tell us "Right code, wrong lock!"), as well as a standard-issue hotel safe with a piece of paper taped next to it to make the code more interesting; at times it felt like we were playing a gen-1 game.
Evil Dead 2Hourglass EscapesEscape roomIRLA very slick room with great production values and some special effects that I hadn't seen before. Puzzles and gameplay were fine.
EVIL RobotsThe Nemesis ClubEscape roomIRLThe hype is real! Worth a trip from anywhere. Amazing attention to detail that extends into the post- and pre-game experience.
FuturaFutura [prev. Elements Agua]Escape roomIRLFutura is a fine gen-2 room with a nice steampunk Jules-Verne themed set; worth a visit if you're in town anyway to do Tao. (The GM said "we built this in 2017 when expectations were a lot lower. Today it's not enough for a door to just open--it has to explode!")
Haunting at Haruka HighOmescape - SunnyvaleEscape roomIRLA fun room, but not as strong as Chaos or Robotopia. Really strong special effects which gave us a few good frights! But the time controls were frustrating: the room has a 30% success rate, but no visible clock (you had to check the time on the walkie-talkie), many long cut scenes you have to sit through, and some goofy time-consuming player interactions. We escaped with seconds to spare; we would have been really sad to have failed and missed the finale. I think the game would be better if it let everyone "win" (e.g. like the story-based rooms in Spain or Montreal). I usually enjoy narrative in games, but this one felt like a chore: a couple of the "puzzles" felt like they were just testing us on our understanding of some exposition we'd just heard.
![Distrito 111 [District 111]](https://res.cloudinary.com/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/48458f2f-cd1b-4e7a-a4b0-009b920b66c7.jpg)
![DragonBorn: El Hijo del Posadero [DragonBorn: The Innkeeper's Son]](https://res.cloudinary.com/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/92eed052-84e7-4d41-96be-e2e9fc1e4d90.jpeg)
