Heresy: 1897

The puzzles and atmosphere were awesome. My only reservation is the warehouse space. As someone with “neurospice” it did make it challenging to focus on the audio in the room and there was a struggle to focus. The actors were amazing and everyone was welcoming. Overall amazing experience.

Room was great but needs to be seasoned. Looking forward to continuing the story. Props are amazing and actors are great. Everyone needs training in the operations of the room.

I am sure this room will be fantastic once seasoned, but would not recommend going anytime close to this review date; there were a number of issues with our experience that really ruined our time here, including a technical glitch that prevented something from opening. We toggled the correct switch immediately at the start of the game, and yet the GMs let us get frustrated for 10 minutes before they finally came in and wrenched the thing open (with force we were warned not to use). It took them several minutes to get it working again, too. There was also a puzzle you could solve out of order, so it made the completion noises, but nothing else happened because it was too early. That confused us and we wasted too much time trying to figure it out. Another two puzzles didn’t work because the rfid chips didn’t take, and we had to redo them. Also, one of the doors was not locked and we ended up in an area of the experience we weren’t supposed to enter yet, plus the GM door was open so we ended up behind the scenes as well. The sound on the videos and VOs were difficult to hear due to the warehouse environment, and the choose your own adventure aspect of the game was mostly relegated to chance rather than informed choice. This resulted in part of the room having clues you weren’t supposed to use, resulting in feeling like we had paid double to play half of an escape room. On the plus side, the puzzles, environment, actors, and concept are all excellent. We expect this will be a phenomenal experience once everything is functioning correctly.

The theming was great, never ran into anything that took you “out of world”, but can see where having another group running at the same time might change that. Having live actors was phenomenal- having the bartender stay 100% in character right up until the end made the whole experience what it was. Puzzles are adequately challenging- repeatability is high!

This has so much potential. I love the idea of the branching story lines, but it is a bit confusing. The price for the experience is why I am giving it a like it. The price is very expensive after taxes and nearly a $20 service fee for a group of 4. I also docked a bit off because of the warehouse kinda vibe, you can hear other groups in other areas of the facility playing which kinda takes away from your experience. Flow was good overall and the actors where great.

Excellent overall. I loved the theme and the atmosphere. Having an actor and branching story paths is a really novel idea. They also have side quests. I didn’t feel a tremendous sense of agency about my choices / it wasn’t clear what the results would be, very “choose your own adventure” vibes where you don’t know what will happen until you make the choice. I never got a chance to replay before they closed, but apparently there’s two fully distinct paths of puzzles depending on your story choices! 5/5

Amazing escape experience! I really hope they can revive this business someday!

What an experience! The reviews don’t lie, Heresy 1897 is the definition of what an escape room should be! This room, along with their other room (these MUST both be played, they go together), took our top two spots on our favorite escape rooms (we have played hundreds). Immersion is top notch, from the moment you enter the bar to the second you leave the building. Clues were unique and puzzles well thought out. Truly an experience not to be missed. Not much else to say other than DO IT or you’ll regret it.

Everything good you’ve read or heard about the Doors of Divergence is true. This is a world-class interactive theater experience, but the escape room components are also 100% legit (there are plenty of puzzles and they’re well integrated with the story). Unfortunately we played it at the very end of the current run but hopefully they find a new venue soon because I really want to know how the story turns out.

Definitely one of the most unique escape rooms I’ve done! I’ve since described it as an Escape Room meets Sleep No More. If you detest experiences with live actors, I wouldn’t recommend this. But if you can open your mind to it, the result is really intriguing and fun, and perhaps the densest backstory and plot I’ve seen go into an escape room There are currently Two Parts at Doors of Divergence: Heresy 1897, and Madness 1917 This review is about Heresy: You’ll start off in a bar where you’re given a drink and conversation by some of the characters in “The Rift.” They help you get acclimated to the world and the live actor interaction. Between this pre-area and the beginning of the escape room itself, Heresy is A LOT of exposition. And then it becomes evident the way you answer and interact with the actor in the room upfront can completely overhaul the puzzles you end up doing. I love that! If it weren’t for the steep (but warranted) price tag here, I’d do it again just got replay value and to see what alternative answers would lead to The set and puzzles are both extremely high quality. Not a single lock and key in the entire room, which was impressive given it’s quite sprawling. Without spoiling anything, the choices you make in this Heresy, 1896 then do effect Madness, 1917 if you choose to do both. They also have a website you can link to upon completion where you can get more details about the plot and its many branching paths It’s hard to give a “time estimate” here. At one point we overheard we had “30 minutes remaining,” but had definitely been in the room much longer than half an hour. It seems clear that the timer pauses whenever you’re in the middle of a theatrical scene. Also “escaping” the room isn’t the last thing you do. There’s more plot to be had with more choices to be made before you are given one of several endings. Our whole experience took about 2 hours from the time we entered the bar. As I said, I can’t say I’ve ever done a room like this before! Go in with an open mind ready to absorb a lot of plot and backstory and live actor conversations, and you’ll have a great time. If you simply cannot with that, I’d skip haha