The Surgery

My friends and I did Surgery at The Puzzle Parlour at 4:45pm on a Saturday. One of my friends had done the Vampire room previously, but it was my other friend's and my first time here. Parking is metered around the area, so either bring quarters or have the app. Also, someone had told us that the Surgery room was scary, but when we called, the representative told us that the rooms can be scary, but you have to ask for it. As someone who is easily scared, I would recommend also requesting non-scary just to make sure. All of us have done a lot of escape rooms, so Surgery was on the easier side. I liked the decor and the commitment to the puzzles aligning with the theme of the room. Another thing I liked was that for a majority of the puzzles, it was clear what unlocked what. If you do this room and you think you solved the puzzle correctly, make sure you really look around to see if anything happened. My one critique of the room was for the puzzle that you solve to exit. I wish that puzzle was more interconnected with the room (like hinted at in some way) and not just a random annoying challenge. There is also not a lot of stuff to do for a large group and the room is linear, but I feel like it aligns with the difficulty level they marketed it at. Allie was our clue master, and she was wonderful! It was very clear she was paying attention to what we were doing and saying. In addition, she and the other staff members seemed like they were excited to be there, which always makes the experience fun. We will definitely be back to try their more challenging rooms!

Clever room with some decent puzzles throughout. We had a tougher time with this room for some reason, but managed to make it out with a few hints. Overall another quality room here that’s worth the go.

The props and everything here made sense thematically, but somehow the room still felt cheap in a way I can't explain. The best way I can put it is that the scenery lacked refinement. The puzzles were all relevant to the theme, but we felt that it was lacking in density. There was a big lack of tension and no real stand out moments or big finish. Aside from a creepy setting in one the rooms, I never really felt connected to the story of a serial killing surgeon. Overall, the room was extremely easy for us and there were multiple parts that left us wanting more. To sum it all up, Puzzle Parlour did everything necessary for a solid room, but failed to implement anything impressive or memorable with this one.

I believe this was my first escape room I ever did! Still very memorable and fun. Quite the scary premise and you really do want to ESCAPE. I did this room as a duo with my friend and we barely managed to escape. I think having more than two people would have been beneficial because there were a couple tough logic jumps to make and we did need some hints. But nothing egregious, just a medium challenge.

Overall this was a great find on a trip up north. The theming was really fine tuned and looked amazing. Waiting room was so dingy you felt like you were in some creepy doctors surgical lair. Puzzles were interesting and not altogether difficult. There were one or two that were a bit confusing and made us say well how would we have gotten there? Two people makes this more difficult for some of the visual props, doable, but definitely need communication skills. Great use of a device that we had never seen before!