Escape room

The Escape Revolution

Escobar

I hate this is an "up or down" thing because this is probably a 3 out of 5.  Maybe we have been spoiled with some AMAZING rooms before now, but I had a few issues with this one.  I'm marking as having spoilers, but I'll try to keep them light and general.

1) The red herrings are real.  Now, you need some to add to the atmosphere/decor, we get that.  But the number you find when you are first getting going are insane.  When you find a lot of loose objects, you generally expect they will be used at SOME point.  When you see a lot of decor with numbers and stuff that could be used for code deciphering, you expect to use them at SOME point.  Nope, and nope.  When all of these are in the room immediately around you when you start, you are just left with way more questions than answers.   

2) Initial puzzles were either extremely confusing or required some kinda specific knowledge.  I'm mostly referring to one of the first ones.  Information that was provided in one of the clues was incredibly unclear.  If you're going to highlight the solution in the clue, and it's designed to be highlighted, it needs to be just that.  Highlighting a massive areas around it made it completely chaotic and led to a vast amount of frustration as we were trying to figure it all out.  In retrospect, possibly they were trying to highlight the solution to the problem, and the next step after that, but it was such a jumbled mess.   My wife and I have done plenty of escape rooms and we have escaped from some pretty rough ones.  It took us nearly 30 minutes to get past the very first puzzle.   Now, once we did, we were off and running.   In fairness, we did say at the beginning, "don't give us a clue unless we are REALLY falling behind - like, we're probably screwed anyway but want to help you get closer at least" and to her credit Kirsty (who FYI was AMAZING) did not until we were.   Fix that first puzzle and it's much better.

2) If TRUE precision isn't required, let the players know there is a margin of error.  Again, trying not to spoil, but there was something that called very something to be very precise, so we spent considerable extra time (probably at least 2+ minutes) making sure it was PRECISE, only to find out later you had a +/- 5 margin of error.  

3) The following disclaimer need to be made at the beginning:  "I know you're not supposed to break things in an escape room, and that's mostly true here.  But, there will be some puzzles where it will call for a little destruction.  It should be fairly clear when it's called for, but it does exist".  FIrst time I came across one I did something and audibly said out loud "God I hope this is right and not something I'm going to get charged for."  We learned later there was at least one other thing that would have made me say that a lot louder.  Being concerned you're going to get an extra charge on your card should not be a part of a room.

4)  Clarity is essential.  If you have something that is hand written or etched, it needs to be done in a way where players will see it without question and not have to consistently struggle.  One puzzle involved something handwritten where it was difficult to decipher part of what was written, leading to errors.  Another part there was something where the material had become scratched up enough that it was incredibly hard to see the writing on it, even in good light.  How good or bad my vision or ability to figure out what was written down due to poor handwriting should not be something that greatly holds you back.

5)  There is nothing under the trays, you don't need to lift them.  This isn't a spoiler as much as a PSA to help the employees there.  Really they should be secured down to prevent the issue that becomes apparent when you see it.  

6) "Waiting" shouldn't be a thing.  There is something that basically requires 2 minutes of toe tapping.  It's cool, but chillin' for 2 minutes during an escape room feels like an eternity.  Kirsty to her credit, since we were so far behind, offered to give us the info we would have gotten after the 2 minutes as soon as we solved the puzzle starting it.  Maybe pause the clock, or be specific up front that you get 62 minutes to solve it.  "It's really 60, but there is something that will require 2 minutes of waiting, so we're gonna build that time in so you don't have to freak out.  Honestly pausing the clock would be better.  Maybe even add in something where the players have to stand still while it happens for a "true" pause.

I feel like I'm being a Negative Nancy, I guess because I am.  But I don't want to make it sound like it was an utterly bad room.  There were some amazing parts to the room and a lot of it flowed well and was very fun and challenging.  It's just some of those quirks that really made us feel like this was the first time we failed something where it really wasn't completely our fault.  (We've failed before and own it generally).

Reviews

thegamersdome

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The Escape Revolution

Escobar