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The archeology fanatic wants to perform a dark altar to get him eternal at the museum! Can you face the dark power and stop the ritual in time?
- 4-6
- 60 mins
- Hard
- Spooky
Book experience
Reviews
playnasc
9 escape rooms
This room was just "okay." Atmosphere was a bit eerie, but nothing too spooky. The room felt a little small and could use some TLC though. Puzzles flowed well, but the last one was quite ridiculous.
Gameplay
Atmosphere
Customer service
Easy to find location
No
rachelraee
11 escape rooms
Dark Altar was a passably fun room with interesting puzzle mechanisms but pales in the immersion and well-engineered flow of other Omescape rooms. It feels as though the atmosphere is a bit dulled down from the potential level of fright and scares implied by its plot. If you have played other, higher-rated Omescape rooms, then you may not be as impressed with Dark Altar.
Gameplay
This room has a very linear puzzle and plot progression, which acts to its benefit and detriment. I enjoyed the linear aspect so that it felt more cooperative, but there was a small issue in determining the intended game flow. A significant amount of time was spent on a puzzle that was not ready in the context of the plot progression but had quite a few clues available and seemed ready. So, it seemed that there were some aspects where the physical limitations of the space affected the puzzle flow and design somewhat negatively. However, the room had several novel puzzle mechanisms that utilized various skill sets and few traditional locks.
Atmosphere
The initial room was intriguing but some aspects of the escape room (outside of the puzzle pieces) seemed a bit underdesigned for the story setting. In fact, I still don't recall exactly what the setting was for the room because it wasn't very distinctive or immersive. I am biased toward horror, so more occult decorations and props would have been appreciated.
Customer service
The GM was quite nice and was attentive to our game. She provided a hint albeit not requested when we focused on a puzzle meant for later. Some may not appreciate the interjection, but it saved much potential frustration.
Particularly interesting or different
No
Story
The story was passable but seemed a bit uninspired as "an occult researcher goes too far." This is in comparison to Omescape's (San Jose and Sunnyvale) other rooms that have more unique themes and stories. For a room themed around the occult, demons, and death, I think a darker story or one that takes advantage of the mythology used more would be nice.
Difficulty
Medium
The initial puzzle was challenging, but the difficulty appeared to drop off over time, at least for our party. Unlike other reviewers here, I understood the final puzzle quite quickly but the rest of my party was quite confused and expressed that it was not very thematic or intuitive. The room's challenge may be somewhat inflated from time spent on puzzles that did not seem as clear in the plot progression as ideal.
Game tech
Mechanical
The game was mostly mechanical. For some of the puzzles, the mechanism was a bit clear in a way that was not immersive due to the set design or lack thereof.
Ideal number of players
4
Scary
Scary
Jumpscare warning. Otherwise, spooky vibes through the set design and props. If you are not compatible with chthonic or demonic imagery, the visuals may be somewhat off-putting.
Minimum age
12
Was anything broken?
No
Live actors
No
Physically active
Not at all
Easy to find location
Yes
Parking
Easy
Omescape San Jose has a dedicated parking lot. I did accidentally drive into the adjacent lot, but there is an Omescape sign for the correct lot entrance.
brianmerman
53 escape rooms
I’ve done other Omescape rooms and have enjoyed them, but there was almost nothing enjoyable about this room unfortunately. In fact, this is probably one of our least favorite rooms we’ve ever done out of 50+ rooms. Some of the tech didn’t work well, the puzzles nearly all required leaps of logic, and the final puzzle was so frustrating that we had pretty much just stopped having fun. We are experienced escapers – we have never needed as many hints or nudges as we did in this room. The props and set looked fairly old and not in great shape. Laminated cards with info on it take you out of the immersive experience. Overall, a really disappointing experience and not worth what we paid.
Gameplay
Atmosphere
Customer service
sonty
52 escape rooms
I have a soft spot for this room because my bf and I did it with random strangers on a weekday— it’s was one of my earliest rooms and we did really well, and was overall a really special experience— so the negative review make me kinda sad. That being said, in hindsight, I feel like there were some janky puzzles in here and Omescape has many better rooms now. In particular, I think one of the puzzles we spent a while on because it seemed ready to be solved but it extremely was not ready to be solved. I did it so long ago though I don’t really have context or know if they’ve improved it since then.
Escapeologists
449 escape rooms
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.
Gameplay
Atmosphere
Customer service
Ideal number of players
4
Alejandrinal
24 escape rooms
Least favorite escape room so far. The atmosphere of the room made no clear sense. Some the puzzles were interesting but the last puzzle was ridiculous. It got to the point where our game master had to physically come into the room to help BUT even she couldn't clearly explain how to complete the task. This ate up so much of our time that we barely escaped and took us out of the experience.
Gameplay
Atmosphere
Barely any effort was put into the overall design.
Customer service
Particularly interesting or different
No
Story
Difficulty
Hard
Only because the last puzzle required so much unnecessary effort
Scary
Not scary
Live actors
No
Physically active
Not at all
Easy to find location
Yes
Parking
Easy
Bubble8Life
34 escape rooms
A lot of technical issues rose along with being on the right path but not hitting the actual idea for a lot of the puzzles in there. It was pretty frustrating since many of the puzzles didn’t make sense and our game master kept repeating clues that we already knew but reworded it.
jenish
253 escape rooms
My least favorite of the Omescape rooms. I still enjoyed it. Some of the puzzles didn’t make that much sense.
weeanns
49 escape rooms
Despite the name of the room, this is not a scary room. I completed with room with a group of 4 and it felt like the right amount of people. Out of the other rooms I’ve completed at Omescape, this one would have to be my least favorite, it is not a bad room at all but wasn’t as memorable for me. The final puzzle was very confusing and at the end we asked the GM to explain it to us. We were still a bit confused at the end but overall had a good time regardless.
Gameplay
Atmosphere
Customer service
jmarie90
79 escape rooms
Loved the concept. Was not a fan of the final puzzle
