Escape The Colosseum: The Underworld Maze

There are four independent rooms that you must complete, with 2 hours overall to complete it. I wish that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts, but it really did feel like a sequence of "just-ok" rooms.

Four rooms with quite a few puzzles! We were able to fill up the time reasonably with a group of 6 and finish with half an hour to spare. We did not run into the problem that other reviewers have noted of being pushed forward through rooms, though we did have to negotiate with our GM to replay audio clues that were hard to hear the first time when we didn’t know they were coming. Play was fun and props were very good - while there was nothing mind blowing this is a really solid room for a group who wants to chew on more content for longer!

There are a couple of gripes that I have for this room / run / location. The switched communication methods with the GM literally as we were walking into our room (walkie-talkies instead of monitors or intercom?) who was not familiar with how to use them effectively and had to swap out ours repeatedly because the signal was clearly poor. There were some issues I had with a broken lock that popped apart, some misleading don't touch stickers masking the solution to a puzzle, "parallel" puzzles that were not obvious (you solve something and nothing happens because you didn't solve it in the expected order), and an inability of the GM to explain how some of the puzzles are solved asking if we really want to know how the specific parts were supposed to come together and was pressed looking through notes. I had asked if they had an escape rate percentage or a best time and I was told they don't track that anymore. All the pieces together gave me the sense that there wasn't as much attention to detail that I am accustomed to.

Had a great time exploring the dank depths of the Roman Colosseum! There were some really good puzzles in here. The set design was fun and immersed me in the world in various ways, though it wasn’t as groundbreaking as I would have hoped for a 2 hour room. Speaking of the length, this is indeed 2 hours, but you only get 30 minutes per individual room. There are 4 rooms and they push you along if you don’t finish a room within the allotted 30 min. So you end up seeing all 4 rooms no matter what, but you might not complete them all, I guess? Not sure how it works for the last room, but as our group of 2 was able to get through each room well under the time limit, we finished in less than 90 min. I’m not a big fan of how the timer is set up for those rooms (not that there is an visible timer in the rooms anyway), but since it didn’t affect us, I will still say that I really enjoyed my time here. GM was helpful when we needed assistance. Auditory clues were sometimes hard to remember and hear, but they were also good clues, otherwise. Again, really enjoyed the puzzles, particularly the big one that encompassed the 2nd room. Props, especially in the last room, were cool. Transitions between 2 of the rooms was fun too! Probably one of the better rooms from this chain. Calling it a 2 hour room is a bit of a stretch, but, when in Rome…

Multiple tech errors which ruined the flow. Glitches certainly happen, but this was obnoxious. I don’t think we have ever left a room early, but we did leave this one.

I liked some of the puzzles and the theme was fun. Unfortunately some of the puzzles did not function appropriately in game and took away from the experience.

Despite being 2 hours long, this room flies by. It is actually 4 rooms, each with 30 minutes. If you don't solve a room in 30 minutes, then you end up going to the next one regardless. I didn't love that aspect because I felt like we needed more time in some rooms compared to others. Each room has an interesting theme, some of which I really liked. Unfortunately, they were having a few technical difficulties which impacted a few of the puzzles. The hint system is also somewhat automated, meaning you get natural hints at specific time markers. This led to initial confusion as we were unaware what was happening for the first 2 rooms.

loved the 4 games in one

Great game and solid puzzles once we got the hang of it. Moving through each room felt like “starting over” each time, and I wish we could have moved along at our own pace instead of advancing after 30 minutes regardless of if we were finished or not. It was good overall but felt like the price outweighed the experience

The room didn’t seem like it was 2 hours long and we escaped with about 10 min remaining. Several unique puzzles we haven’t seen before.