The Asylum: Playtime

Not coming here again. The GM really just wanted to go home and it was not fun. Plus they waste about 10-15 min of your time sitting in a "lobby" of the asylum trying to build the atmosphere. What they don't tell you is all that time waiting actually counts against you. We probably had about 35 min all together. So not worth it. Plus the puzzles were ridiculous in that there wasn't a logical way to answer them. It was so unique and random it didn't make sense.

This and the other Asylum room at Lost Games need maintenance BADLY. Did this room (part 2 of a set) immediately after a bad experience in its predecessor (where a mechanical failure and late start meant we “failed” to escape). To my surprise, this room ALSO had mechanical failures that broke the game, but in a different direction. Early exposure of a critical key in the first half, and later on, a nonfunctional water feature, meant we escaped with ~15 minutes to spare (and missed out on two of the coolest elements of the room which featured heavily in the promotional materials). The host, Ari, did a swell job handling our disappointment and refunded us.

Super fun room with good variety of puzzles. One lock needs to be changed out for sure as you can’t see the numbers well enough to get the code right. The end is super fun.

Good - not great. The room needs some maintenance as there were more than a few puzzles that we had solved but the trigger didn’t work because of some microscopic misalignment or malfunction. In a non linear puzzle, that’s a nail in the coffin.

Waiting an hour after our booking time before starting the escape room with no apology or discount really kills the mood of starting an escape room. Some props were broken, including a speaker so we could barely hear the hints and often had to ask to repeat it. The room was so dim staff told us to bring our phones in to use our flashlights. Story and puzzles were decent, but the waiting to the point we thought the place was closed really ruined the mood for me.

Walk in and get blown away, and then it slowly gets downhill from there. The vibes were great but the room needed a lot of love. Broken props that led to a frustrating experience, knobs that are too fiddly (my pet peeve), and immersion at the expense of gameplay. Had about three clues where broken gameplay slowed the momentum, and I’d say two or so clues where I thought it was a hugggee stretch. People were super nice though. Loved interacting with the staff.

The game master, Lance, did an excellent job as the actor and as the character. He made this game so fun. The game itself was great. The puzzles were challenging for sure, but with some clues, we got by just fine!

My group really enjoyed this room! Its puzzles were a nice challenge and we enjoyed the continuity of the room when playing in conjunction to the other asylum room. Shouts out to our game master Addison for being the perfect amount of helpful and immersive.

I was here with my regular good. And loved the continuous story line from the previous room. It added to the fun of escaping both of the asylum rooms I would totally recommend doing the room after you’ve done the other one first. The puzzles were a fun challenge that had us thinking a little extra hard. Extra shout out to our Game Master Addison for really immersing us in the room.

I don’t know why I struggled with this room as much as I did. Overall I did not enjoy the puzzles. There wasn’t one puzzle that we completed without a struggle. I felt like I never knew what I was trying to accomplish or do next. I can’t say enough how amazing the game master and staff are. The game itself just completely fell short for me. The interaction from the staff was great.