Room 303 - Chapter 1

Set is great, story does a great of not taking itself too seriously while not being overly silly, puzzles are smooth. I want to take a minute to rave about the lighting - it's fantastic, and some of the best I've seen. Too many horror escape rooms use dim lighting for atmosphere but don't take into account actually needing to be able to see puzzles, and I've complained about this in many other rooms. Not here - anything we needed to pay attention to was either adequately lit or easily moved to someplace visible, all while being appropriately spooky. The unique thing that really sets them apart is having optional light switches that players can choose to use to turn on more lighting (at the expense of ruining the mood) - we never felt anywhere close to needing it, but tried them after the game and they were *bright*. Seriously, great job; owners, please steal this idea.

This is the best escape room I have ever played. From the immersion, to the creative puzzles, to the game master, I was blown away. The game flowed so well. As someone who has played a lot of escape rooms, I typically think harder games would require me to ask for more clues due to weird leaps in logic. This game however, made perfect sense. One puzzle was frustrating but had us jumping for joy once we figured it out. I am blown away! I am in awe of how well put together it is and how much the staff likes working there. Can’t wait to come back for the next one!

Really enjoyed this one! It was pretty much the perfect difficulty for my group and we found it fun and engaging! Themed in a scary way but not jump-scary, which I would hate.

Fun creepy room! To puzzles made sense, the pacing was well done. With that said, there were not too many puzzles overall but it was still fun.

Loved the spooky theme. Very bloody and creepy. Not too hard to not be enjoyable, made it out with 3 people

This was my first ever escape room and now I fear nothing will live up to this room. The atmosphere and immersion starts in the lobby with perfect decor to set the tone. The "Clerk" was so nice and wanted to make sure we understood the story before we started and built up the excitement. 303 Escape truly cares about being an authentic escape room.

This was my first escape room and I was blown away. Would definitely recommend for a group of 2-4.

Overall this was a great room. The atmosphere was wonderful, the puzzles were fun, and our GM was nice. The only thing that put a damper on the experience was that there was a broken tech element towards the end which was essential to the game. We spent so much time trying to get it to work, and it wouldn’t even with our GM asking if we had done everything. It should have been manually triggered long before it was because it obviously wasn’t working. It was a disappointing end in an otherwise fantastic room.

Rating: 4/5 - Fully thematic, appropriately creepy set with a detailed storyline Pros: ➕The set looked great and was immersive with the theming starting in the lobby. ➕It looked like it could be an actual hotel room, puzzles were completely hidden until you needed them. ➕Real hotel items were used in puzzles, no object in the room felt out of place in the setting. ➕Great use of lighting, you can also turn on the house lights if it is too creepy or you need to see better ➕Very tech heavy, no padlocks, only 1 key but it fit the theme ➕A couple interesting tech interactions I've yet to see before ➕Stronger narrative than most generic serial killer rooms ➕Integrated hint system ➕More than one room to discover ➕GM was friendly and helpful when needed Room for improvement: ➖Missed opportunity for the GM to be in character at the intro and for hints (Starlight Motel at Escape Artist Greenville is amazing example of this) ➖Too many number and letter puzzles for my tastes, I'd like more variety and tactile/physical interactions ➖Too many paper notes that are used for directions/clueing. If the puzzles were a bit more intuitive then directions wouldn't be needed. ➖Would like a stronger ending, but it leads into Chapter 2 which I didn't have time to play. Room is creepy, but there are no intentional jump scares. You may get startled by a panel opening loudly. I recommend 2-3 enthusiasts, though I played this solo (paid for 2 tickets) and completed it with 8 min left with 3 hints. I wouldn't say it's an easy room, there are some tricky puzzles. Some spaces are smaller, so I would not want more than 4 players.