497 escape rooms
I’ve enjoyed games at this venue in years past, but hadn’t been here since before the pandemic. Unfortunately the design and execution of this room is firmly stuck in the past. I would have given it an “okay, nothing special” in 2015, but in 2023 it’s a “don’t bother unless you are really desperate to play an escape room” kind of situation. The plot is minimal, the design is linear, most of the puzzles yield four-digit combinations or keys to padlocks, and the scenery is in somewhat shabby condition. The few non-lock (put the objects in the right place) puzzles are fiddly, requiring precise placement. It’s a decidedly non-horrifying horror theme. All in all, I didn’t *hate* it, but I can’t think of any reason to recommend it, either.
Basically a series of linear puzzles, each of which either gives you a code or a key to unlock the next one. A couple of non-lock puzzles. More use of blacklight / UV ink than I would like to see in an escape room in 2023. This might have been a passably decent room in 2015, but it doesn’t do anything that you haven’t seen in a dozen other rooms.
Overall the set does enough to convey the theme and that’s about it. Several pieces of scenery are in poor repair. If there was an intro video or any other explanation for why we were in this location, we didn’t receive that story briefing: the game just started. You do find some story as you go along in the form of newspaper articles, police reports, a diary, and so forth, and those at least add something. But overall this could have been any random room full of arbitrarily locked objects.
No
A few of the puzzles are integrated into the story. Most aren’t. Several are nonsensical (as in, they have no plausible reason to exist within the game world except that four-digit locks need four-digit combinations).
Medium
There is a lot to do; though the game is linear and the puzzles are mostly not great, there are a lot of puzzles. This is sort of like the old “the food was bad and the portions were too small” complaint, but I genuinely don’t think the designers set out to make a simple or easy room: there is legitimately a lot of content to plow through in an hour.
Mechanical
3
Not scary
It’s a horror theme but unless a few plastic “severed body parts” scare you, you’ll find little to be afraid of.
13
Yes
One “put the objects in the right place” puzzle was exceptionally fiddly, to the point where the game master told us to just keep repeating the same action until the thing finally opened. Several of the locks are in rough shape. Some of the scenery is falling apart.
No
Not at all
About a third of the game (including the ending) is in a smaller area that isn’t accessible (it’s not a full hands-and-knees crawl, more of a “stoop and shuffle” situation, but low and narrow nonetheless). They do disclose this on the website, to their credit. About a third of the game takes place in a dark (not pitch black) area. You’re given a lamp but it didn’t do much for us.
Yes
Easy
Sep 27, 2023 | Experienced Sep 27, 2023