Echoes at Murder HeightsThe Escape Ventures - Orlando I-DriveEscape roomIRLFirst off, I want to thank Angelina for being a great host! This was my first room at the new location on I-drive and it was an amazing introduction. VIBE: The experience here is very high quality and clearly designed to keep you immersed while you’re in the room. From the moment you start, there are aromas of old, dusty wood being pumped in!? It genuinely helps convince you that you’re inside an abandoned, spooky building. Even the temperature is cooler and the whole place smells antique. Wow! Then I started noticing the build quality. The rooms themselves are really well done, and afterward I could tell how intentional the setup and flow of the experience were. It’s very intelligently put together to guarantee some scares. This is a room designed around the experience, which deserves a lot of praise. It makes everything feel much more fulfilling, especially if you can make it out. I also really appreciated all the old horror references. PUZZELS: Of course, one of the most important aspects of an escape room is the puzzles. I was delighted to see that they’re very logical. Nothing will throw you through a loop here as everything is very well put together. There are some super cool/clever puzzles! This is a proper escape room through and through. Everything makes sense, and the room works great with a small group. SIZE: Now, I will say… just because of the first room, I cannot recommend doing this with more than 4–5 people. It’s tight, and there’s only so much everyone will be able to do. SCARE-ACTOR: The room intentionally creates some incredible moments for the scare actor, and they will absolutely get you! I actually wish there were a few more moments with the actor because the room is so good. Just know that it’s not going to absolutely terrify you by any means. I’d say the scare actor has a fantastic influence on the overall experience. OVERALL: This would be amazing for a beginner looking to have a 10/10 first escape room experience to see how good one can be. If they already love spooky vibes or scare actors, then this will be an absolute knockout. Our host was fantastic, and this location keeps the outstanding actor presence I’ve come to expect from the original location. I’ll Absolutely recommend this room without hesitation. The Escape Ventures makes some of the best rooms I’ve ever done in Florida.
Bigfoot: Secrets of The SwampThe Escape Ventures - Orlando I-DriveEscape roomIRLFirst off, I want to thank Isa for being an incredible host! This is easily one of the best escape rooms I’ve ever done and is right up there with Cornstalkers as one of my absolute favorites. VIBE: The immersion here is immediate. You start off in a swamp, and once again they’re pumping in an aromatic smell that can only be described as swamp, trees, and the outdoors!? Even the temperature helps make you feel like you’re actually in this environment. The sound design is also fantastic. From birds and radio transmissions to all the different mechanical sounds and effects happening around you, there is constantly something adding to the atmosphere. It genuinely feels like you’re out in the swamp and something went wrong. What really surprised me though is the scale. You might start in the swamp, but this opens up into one of the biggest escape rooms I’ve ever been in. The build quality is incredible and, just like some of their other rooms, everything feels extremely intentional. PUZZLES: This might be one of the things Bigfoot does better than almost any escape room I’ve done. The puzzles are extremely interactive and there is constantly something for everyone to do. One of my biggest problems with doing escape rooms in large groups is having five people standing around watching one person work on a puzzle. This room is intentionally designed to prevent that. People can split up and work on completely different things, but what makes it so good is how those puzzles eventually start coming together into the same moments. Everyone feels like they’re actually contributing to the experience instead of just following the person solving everything. All of the puzzles themselves are also incredibly logical. Nothing feels random or confusing but there are a few tough clues that are easy to miss. However, I say this in the best way because the difficulty level feels just right. It’s accomplished something really tough to do where an experienced and beginner group can both easily enjoy the escape room. Also, The entire room flows incredibly well from one thing into the next, and you can really tell how deeply intentional the design is… I genuinely struggled to find a flaw during my writing of this review. (My group Made leader boards with a top 2 finish time, which was just under and hour) SIZE: This is one of the VERY few escape rooms where I could actually recommend bringing a large group. Normally I would never recommend doing a room with 8 people, but this is the exception. There is so much space and so many things happening simultaneously that a big group actually works here. HOST: Isa was absolutely fantastic! At one point someone in our group did something they weren’t supposed to do while trying to solve a puzzle, and Isa immediately responded with a legitimately 10/10 joke while still staying completely in character as Lou. That was one of the best host moments I’ve ever had in an escape room. This wasn’t just someone monitoring the game it felt like the character was actually part of the world. I also really appreciated how Isa handled hints. If you don’t want nudges or clues, they actually respect that. Personally, getting unnecessary nudges can take me out of the experience, so the way Isa handled our situation without separating us from the experience was incredible. BIGFOOT: And obviously… we have to talk about Bigfoot. The Bigfoot interaction absolutely makes the group experience. This is a very modern room, and they use the lighting, sound, timing and effects incredibly well to create these moments where suddenly everything changes. Bigfoot is not just something in the story. Bigfoot is after you!! You get chased by Bigfoot, and it is AMAZING. Those moments are such a great payoff after the room spends all this time making you feel like you’re actually stuck in this swamp and you’re being hunted by the BigFoot. OVERALL: This is easily a 10/10 escape room and one of the best rooms I have ever done. CORNSTALKERS is still my personal #1, but Bigfoot is right there behind it. They’re both incredible for the same reasons. The scale, atmosphere, puzzle design, character interaction and Bigfoot encounters all work together unbelievably well. There isn’t one specific gimmick carrying the room the entire experience is just incredibly well designed from beginning to end. Isa was an outstanding host and made an already amazing room even better. I absolutely recommend Bigfoot without hesitation. The Escape Ventures continues to make some of the best escape rooms I’ve ever done in Florida.
Bros for Life: Fraternity HeistThe Escape Ventures - Orlando Waterford LakesEscape roomIRLFirst off, I want to thank CAM for being a great Chapter Prez. haha really got us in the vibe for the room! This was my final room at this location and it was a solid send off !! Honestly the vibe and theme of this room is great for the college Frat theme with some great interactive elements. I think only two puzzles really stumped me and I needed a hint. My only advice is to do this with a group because there are alotttttt of puzzles in this room ( or some tricky ones ) for the 60min and it probably was the only room here I felt I didn’t have enough time for… I did complete but just barely as the intro puzzles really got me !
Area 51The Escape Ventures - Winter Garden [prev. Escape Goat]Escape roomIRLPaige was a great / fun host and it’s nice to know that this location has the same great staff as the Alafaya location! This is a solid Escape room! It’s not gonna blow your mind but you’ll be glad you did it because it on the nose with the puzzles for the most part and fun to do if you don’t have a large group. The sound effects and props are cool and I think this would be a great room to introduce someone who has never done Escape Rooms before but would still be enjoyed by intermediate players.
Cornstalkers: Lost in the MaizeThe Escape Ventures - Orlando Waterford LakesEscape roomIRLThis is going to be one of the best escape room experiences you can ever have hands down! The time and effort put into this room is undeniable! The Escape Adventures knocks everything out of the park imo but this was absolutely a whole step above the rest! Michael is an amazing host and actor making the experience 100% more immersive and even gave us a tour of how much goes into the room, it was super great to hear and see ! All the rooms had great puzzles that were awesome for groups with team work. You can work on this over here while your other friends works on stuff over there. The pacing is fantastic puzzles are not super hard but perfect difficulty level to still make veterans think 8/10 The music, sounds, video, and atmosphere are super high quality and just ups the immersion to the highest level possible. It’s absolutely scary but can also be funny at times it’s fantastic.
