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Reviews

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express

Escapology - Orland Park

  • Escape room
  • IRL
This is probably one of the most difficult escape rooms I have ever done and overall did not enjoy this room. My enjoyment is directly tied to Escapology employees seemingly not paying attention to what we were doing. Our gamemaster asked us if we wanted free clues, we said "No, but if we are getting behind just let us know" so that we know to ask for one if we want to. She agreed to this and well they just never did this, so we thought we were doing fine, then all of a sudden they started sending us multiple clues back to back to back (over the course of 5 minutes). As someone who works at an escape room this is a clear sign that we were REAALLLLYYY far behind and they were just trying to get us to a certain point, which felt frustrating because for some puzzles we didn't even get to attempt them before being rushed to the next part. A few puzzles we were on the right track, doing it right, but a clue was sent to seemingly get us moving. We definitely were supposed to be at a certain point 20 minutes ago and they weren't paying attention to get us on the right track earlier. A lot of puzzles involve at least 3 elements and it was overwhelming at points. The final puzzle did not work when we did the correct order. I give the employees credit that they did give us extra time and even paused our time so we could complete (once again it seemed like they knew that we struggled for far too long and were trying to make sure we at least had a good experience). We probably spent 5 minutes on the final puzzle before it eventually worked. We mentioned it to the worker and she said "yeah it's finnicky", not her fault, but shows it's a known issue. Very frustrating especially for the final puzzle of the room!
Arcade Challenge [prev. Retro Replay]

Arcade Challenge [prev. Retro Replay]

The Great Escape Room - Chicago

  • Escape room
  • IRL
I normally have a good time at The Great Escape Room but my partner and I had a rough experience due to our game master. About halfway through the room we asked for a clue and was given the clue to the wrong step. We tried communicating to the game master multiple times that we did not have what they were giving a clue for but it didn't seem like they were listening. We would hit the button and hoped they would start listening to us but they would just send a more in depth clue for something we STILL did not have. After about 5 minutes of wasted time eventually the game master just gave us the answer. On top of this, in the room there is a 3 digit lock and this lock straight up requires brute force to open. It is a circular mechanical lock that requires you to twist it to open. We had gotten the right code and twisted in both directions with a reasonable amount of force, but it did not work. After about 5 minutes of struggling and trying new things we eventually asked for help. They send a clue for what we had done 5 minutes prior and eventually they send in someone to help. The game master walks in the room forcefully twists the lock and says "You just had to twist it to the left" as if we were the problem. No, that lock just requires BRUTE FORCE which we were told was not necessary in the room. Feel like we got punished for not being aggressive with the lock. Me and my partner may return to this location but for now I am extremely disappointed in the experience we had in this room because of the quality of game masters running said room. Just beware.