Pandemic Zero

Going in I had low expectations due to some of the comments/ratings here as well as seeing the escape rate being 50% (or so they claim). However it surprised me because the puzzles were not bad and the room flowed nicely. We did it within 45 min while wasting some time making sure everyone understood how to solve every puzzle instead of just breezing through.

This… is an escape room. There’s some nice puzzles, a couple kinda vague ones, a couple that throw a little too much reading and/or math at you, a couple that are very easy to overthink. Other than one pretty fun looking room in the middle, there’s not much special. Just some decent science-themed puzzles and a decently large square footage.

2 of the puzzles took multiples tries to get it to click even though we got the solution, so that wasted a lot of time. The last puzzles instructions were incomplete and misleading, or just not clear at all.

Having played more of Omescape's other, newer rooms, it feels a little dated, but we had a good time. There was at least one puzzle that we accidentally figured out more than really solved and a few other puzzles that were a little hard to put together from their phrasing.

Room is harder than expected tbh! Some of the puzzles were more difficult than I thought it would be but overall this is a well put together room.

This was a really neat room! We were in San Jose for the weekend and thought we’d give it a try - we loved how unique the puzzles were and how nice staff were! The room was super immersive and well themed too. The puzzles definitely took some thinking - it often took us a try or two to find the right approach.

Kingdom of Cats: Trapped in a kingdom of felines, we were compelled to compete in a tournament to crown the wisest cat in the kingdom. The only way to escape perpetual imprisonment was to compete alongside our feline friends. Dark Altar: We found ourselves trapped inside the Copenheimer Museum where an archaeology obsessed collector had initiated a dark ritual. Our goal was to work our way through the museum to discover and stop the ritual. Joker's Asylum: A maniacal Joker was locked away in an asylum after a tragic incident at the circus. The Joker had escaped. We were tasked with discovering the Joker's secrets and escaping the asylum. Pandemic Zero: A super virus has sickened the city. We must break into the lab and finish work on the cure. Pros: The physical layout of Omescape from the waiting area to the game-play areas is clean, orderly and visually appealing. The puzzles are mostly linear, less about searching and more about thinking critically. Set-design is appealing and clearly tied to the overarching storyline. The games are scaled at different difficulty levels and geared toward different group sizes. Game moderators can be helpful and willing to provide assistance if asked. Cons: The puzzles in their rooms tend to be geometrical or symbol-based. We found the puzzles quite complex in all three games and extremely difficult to solve without assistance from the game masters. Scaling of the puzzles within each individual game could have helped us with the puzzle-solving process. Overall, we find their games overly complex. The friendliness of the game masters and their willingness to offer relevant clues helped prevent frustration and a complete mental melt-down of players.

we beat the time of the year! it’s an older room so the puzzles are on the simpler side, but nothing rly of bad design. they tend to err on the math-y or follow instructions side. I think it’s a nice room for beginner escape roomists!

Overall, this is a very creative and well-themed escape room. However, going with a group of 6 people was too many. This is a perfect escape room for 2-4 people.

This is a great room because of the set decoration--as are all of OMEscape's rooms. You are immersed in the experience from the moment you step through the doorway. There were a couple of times we wished we had paper and pencil to keep our thoughts in order, and one of the puzzles was either finicky or slightly malfunctioning (or we didn't puzzle it out correctly), but other than that it was a pretty smooth ride. It was my cousin's first escape room, and I think it was a pretty good starter room.