The Campground13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLReady to leave for Summer camp that you probably would not want to sleep away at? Well, welcome to Whispering State Forest! To nobody’s shock - 13th Hour hit it out of the park yet again. We’ve done so many escape rooms (including every room at 13th Hour) and genuinely were out of our minds with excitement when The Campground room was announced. Nobody - and I mean nobody - does an escape room at the level as these guys. The rooms are creative, fun, challenging, and so incredibly thoughtful and intentional to ensure you have a great time while really working your brain. The staff and team here are so fun and helpful, and the incorporation of a more “live actor” type experience in this one was so silly and different - we’re obsessed. We did this room with 3 of us, not pros by any means, but we love a good escape room and have done plenty. Be prepared to WORK - there are so many puzzles and the 90 minutes absolutely flies by. We used almost our full 90 minutes and were so excited that we escaped with a little over a minute to spare. I would keep going on and on but I don’t want to spoil anything so take this review as your sign to go experience it for yourself!
Vegas HangoverEscapology - HolmdelEscape roomIRLThis room was okay, but honestly a bit of a letdown for an Escapology room. The beginning portion is fun since someone gets handcuffed to a briefcase so that was different and original - but past that the room was just “eh”. The room design was not on par with other Escapology rooms, it felt bare and lackluster - also a lot of the puzzles were worn down and broken. A bit of a disappointment.
Saving Santa - CLOSEDEscapology - GarwoodEscape roomIRLThis was my least favorite of the rooms we did at this location. The holiday theme was cute but the room was much shabbier compared to the others (makes sense since it’s only around for a short time). But we had a couple issues with some of the puzzles being broken, even though the staff was nice and helped get us on track. The funniest part was that at the very end when you “escape” - “Santa” pops in to say good job and Merry Christmas and I actually SCREAMED in fright because I wasn’t expecting that :)
Jurassic EscapeEscape The Room - ManhattanEscape roomIRLThis room was fun but not the most memorable. Given the theme it could have been way better and crazier but it was decent overall. Some of the special effects and design elements were really cool, and I appreciated that - but unfortunately a lot of stuff was broken which took away from our overall experience.
King Arthur's Castle - CLOSEDEscape Room NJ MadisonEscape roomIRLThis was the first room I did at this location and one of the first rooms I had ever done in general. It was fun, gameplay was good, everything was in good condition and it was definitely a solid room. Again my biggest complaint is that it shouldn’t be $60/person when you can do other rooms that are just as good or better for $40.
The King's RansomEscape QuestEscape roomIRLThis was a fun room, super straightforward and a solid escape room. We had a good time and got out very quickly - I would say this is a perfect room for a beginner escape-room-er!
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRL“There’s no place like 🏡 13th Hour!” This is by far the coolest escape room experience that we have ever had. At this point we have done all of the 13th Hour rooms so we were so excited when they launched this room and boy we weren’t disappointed. This room is HUGE and the amount of love and thought they put into the design and mechanics of this project is simply unmatched and insane. From the moment you walk in, you’re fully immersed into the Wizard of Oz world - there are so many amazing props, audio clips, video clips, etc. I actually felt like we were in there for hours even though it was only about 45 min! We did this in a group of 3, and managed totally fine but honestly it would have been super fun in a big group too bc there was so much to see and do. My one complaint was that a couple of the props/puzzles needed to be fixed and updated, and because of that one puzzle kept having tech issues and there was no easy way for the gamemaster to let us bypass it due to the nature of that puzzle so all he could do is tell us we had it right but to keep trying lol. After a few minutes it finally worked but that was a little frustrating. The whole team there is so helpful and kind though!! All that being said, everyone needs to experience this room, it’s so worth the trip!!!!!
The Grand Parlor13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRL13th Hour slays yet again - This room was so much fun!!! This was one of those rooms that was so thoughtfully designed and actually had really cool, well thought out puzzles - vs just having random puzzles strewn about with no real purpose. We love the “John Hayden” series and this room 1000% lived up to the hype. Honestly it was super immersive and there’s simply so much to do that it goes by so fast - we were stressed the entire time (in a good way🤣)
PlaygroundThe Escape Game - New JerseyEscape roomIRLThis room was super cute and a good original theme. I loved the classroom and recess vibe! I feel like that’s not a theme you see very often. We had a fun time, but it was actually deceptively difficult! I will say it was pretty physically involved which is fun and different. We did need some hints to get us through but we finally made it lol.
The Dungeon13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLDo you like to be blindfolded and shackled into a very small jail cell? If so, I have great news for you!!!! 😀 All jokes aside, this room was a wild experience and so much fun. We did it as a group of 4, and had a fun time getting out of our individual jail cells. For whatever reason this room or just on that day the spooky music was quite loud which added to the ambiance 😅 This room was not that easy - we found ourselves a little all over the place and not sure what puzzle to go with at what time so we ended up solving puzzles way ahead of when we needed them rather than doing them in the probably much more logical order. We ended up getting stumped at the very end on the last puzzle which was such a shame but we still had such a fun time!
Prison BreakThe Escape Game - New JerseyEscape roomIRLThis room was SO much fun. We had such a good time because it was so immersive. As Stephie mentioned you definitely want at least 4 people because it would have been much more (logistically) difficult without the extra bodies. You start in two separate jail cells which is fun because you have to work together to break free. I kind of felt like I was in the prison portion of the pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney lol. The puzzles were fun, linear, and we ended up escaping but it was challenging! We were busy the whole time and honestly had a lot of fun. Escape Game always kills it.
Gold RushThe Escape Game - New JerseyEscape roomIRLI looooooooooved this room!!! This was genuinely the epitome of what a good escape room should be in my opinion! Stephie and I were paired with an adorable couple on this, and they had not really done escape rooms before. I really just want to emphasize that the quality of games and puzzles and technology and atmosphere and so on at The Escape Game is ALMOST unmatched. I always say that Escapology is the standard for a good solid escape room, but Escape Game takes it to a higher level and really nails it on being above average in all those categories. Because we have obviously done a ton of escape rooms (and rooms with this franchise) Stephie and I kind of knew what to expect in terms of how the puzzles go and the linear nature of them. We got the room kickstarted and the couple we were with had so much fun after they got the gist of what to look for/what to do. This room just really hit the marks on everything, I know this is me rambling and saying the same thing over and over again but genuinely it was so fun and interactive. I love it when puzzles are creative and use technology that actually works well. The gamemaster and staff here were also wonderful!!!! Do this room, it would be fun as 2, as 4, even 6 or 8 because there's a lot going on and it's fun for all age levels. You can go into it knowing you really will have a great time.
The Trophy Room13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLThirteenth Hour actually deserves a trophy for the trophy room 🏆 This room was INCREDIBLE. I feel like this is the epitome of how fun and silly Thirteenth Hour is. This room is immersive and the design is kind of unmatched. The props, mechanics, effects were so fun and crazy and kooky. We still talk about this room all the time - it was so fun and not too difficult either!!
The DepthsThe Escape Game - New JerseyEscape roomIRLThis was a fun room, but pretty basic and easy. We ended up doing this with a family we didn’t know and we all had done plenty of escape rooms before which made it fun. We moved through very quickly and we all kind of took ownership of puzzles and got them done quickly and efficiently. I’m glad we did it and I think it’s perfect for a beginner escape room!
The Great Room13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLAs Stephie always says, the sketchier the building the better the escape room will be!!!! Pull upyo this warehouse that’s kind of in the middle of nothing and walk into their haunted lobby and enjoy :) No seriously - This was our first ever escape room at 13th Hour and clearly it sucked us in because now we’ve done them all and are HUGE FANS. We love their “John Hayden” series, and are actually happy we started with this room. Having the theme with the characters makes it so much more fun and helps it be a more immersive experience. It was challenging, a little spooky, and we loved how consistent the theme was! Our gamemaster was awesome (as is the entire team here) and we think doing this as a group of 4 was perf. Nothing beats 13th Hours little personal touches at the end too!
The Cookhouse13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLFor whatever reason we saved this room for second to last in the John Hayden series even though I’m pretty sure it’s one of the easier ones! This room theme was super fun and an awesome addition to the “John Hayden House”. I actually thought this was super fun and the tech in this room was great. I wouldn’t say it was my fav out of them all but it was still so good and I highly recommend!
Special Ops: Mysterious MarketThe Escape Game - New JerseyEscape roomIRLThis escape room is my Roman Empire. No genuinely, I think about this room ALL. THE. TIME. It was honestly one of the best escape rooms I have ever done. First of all, all the rooms at The Escape Game are high quality, but this to me was by far the best one. It was so immersive, and the storyline was excellent. It was one of the only rooms we have done where the story was so clear and it even had characters for us to follow. The rooms were amazingly designed; the props and puzzles were excellent quality. I wouldn’t say it was a difficult room but we always had puzzles to work through and it went by so fast. It also had some technology elements that were so cool and that I’ve never seen before. The best part of the whole experience though is a literal PLOT TWIST that no one saw coming - it left us excited and frantic and just added that extra element to the room that made it so memorable.
Murder Of 89Captured LV Escape Room - AllentownEscape roomIRLThis was an amazing room! We were in the area just having fun and exploring and decided to try this place - first of all the owners were so beyond kind and we had so much fun chatting with them before the game. Now onto the room - it’s amazing how great this room is for the fact that it’s just one room. The room design was incredible and we literally felt like we were in a teenage girls bedroom from the 80’s. The puzzles were also really well thought out, fun, and immersive. Nothing was broken, and there were enough puzzles for us to keep busy and not feel like we had not enough to do. Lastly, the storytelling was truly great. Everything made sense and stuck to the theme, and the puzzles really did help you feel like you were leading yourself to solve the murder. This is probably the best storytelling I’ve ever had in an escape room.
John Hayden's Room13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLI would say this was probably my least favorite of the “John Hayden” series rooms but that’s not saying a lot because I still thoroughly enjoyed it! I agree with the other reviewers that the set design was awesome but the puzzles felt a little lackluster and “lock heavy”. It’s still a great room and definitely would recommend everyone to do the whole series.
Scooby-Doo™ and the Spooky Castle AdventureEscapology - GarwoodEscape roomIRLI’m going to second what Stephie said on this one - we went in thinking we were going to absolutely love it (because hello, Escaplology AND Scooby-Doo?! Seems like a great combo). Anyways, we were let down, and unfortunately it took us forever to get started because the only things we could do made us think we would be breaking something or doing something we shouldn’t be doing (I actually yelled at my little brother for messing around with something and told him to stop and turns out he had the right idea - ugh!) Would be nice to have a disclaimer going in that it’s much more touch and mess around oriented since the other Escapology rooms aren’t.
