Heresy: 1897

This room puts you in a Lovecraftian storyline with alchemists playing with life and death. Your life outside your waiting room in limbo melts away within minutes after solving the first puzzle: how to get inside. My family of 4 works really well as a team but this room would be very difficult for a couple to attack alone. Non-linear thinking is a must, as is good pattern recognition. We averted disaster at a very steep price. Hopefully you choose well.

Wow, what a great storyline and unique experience. I was hoping for more agency in the story, but it didn’t seem to present itself. It was still a lot of fun and I highly recommend it for someone that really likes immersive theater.

I very much like the meta world for the chapters as they unfold with a journey across time and how you meet the live actors before and after the games. If we return, I'd also be curious to see how much replayability the divergent paths add. Only notes would be that sometimes the lighting limited reading and that some of the story found through notes and details in the room felt less important to the game and progression than just puzzle solving/"button mashing"

We had to debrief in the car after this one. We wanted to love love this so much. Sets were amazing. Actors were phenomenal. We felt a bit down about struggling so much with things that seemed like it was mechanical issue or just fell short in execution. We had a break down in communication amongst us because we were getting frustrated. I think if we had had a few things go differently we would have loved it.

COOL concept, but there's a disconnect in the execution. Several things were not working correctly, and the puzzles varied from simple to awesome to "...Oops?" We were told after solving a unique puzzle that "oh, sorry that's not supposed to be on now" (Seems it was broken or was meant for the path we didn't take!) Two doors opened when they weren't supposed to, which created some confusion in an already difficult-to-follow storyline. I love the collectibles, but the triggers to receive them do indeed feel too random which left me with a bit of FOMO... "If I only I had said [Random Thing X] I could've gotten another one!" ... Is there a GameFAQ for this?! All this said, the acting and the best puzzle will stick with me. This is the one of the two I would replay because you actually see separate rooms. (1917 takes place in the same rooms so the replay appeal is lower.. despite having more possible endings!) The actress was excellent!

The concept for this escape room company is interesting however I’m not sure it all translated. Our group was a little unsure which of our decisions could alter the gameplay and it seemed to us like it was just one decision at the beginning and end. The beginning is so narrative heavy that we were confused and overwhelmed over who we were and what our goals were. I do like the way they explain the game rules and love how integrated into the storyline that felt. We ran into several technical issues and had at least 3 puzzles available to us that weren’t a part of our story line but were only told that after spending 10 minutes+ on solving each one. We questioned if the GM was even watching us. I’m being kind in rating it a thumbs up and that’s mostly for concept and acting because the puzzles were nothing unique or too challenging. After we finished it, my group was relieved that we hadn’t also booked the second part like we originally considered…which is never a good sign…

We played Heresy: 1897 and Madness: 1917 back-to-back over two days, and the replayability is mind-blowing. It was amazing to see how the choices we made in Heresy completely altered the storyline, puzzles, and characters we interacted with in Madness. And then were different again the next day for our second playthrough. The actors are incredibly talented and truly bring the world to life. Watching Annmarie shift from innocent to intense, and Kat completely transform right before our eyes was spectacular. We enjoyed every interaction with all the characters at Doors, they're such a friendly bunch of people trapped in time. I absolutely cannot wait to return to explore the other storylines and see where our choices lead next! See y'all again a week ago, in nine months, and in 1917.