Shock & Awe

Rating: 3/5 - Easy, high tech room with cool lighting, but the set felt sparse Pros: -More than one level and room, made use of the height well -Linear gameplay, fairly easy so it's good for 1-2 players or beginners. Single bookings are allowed. -Has some cool tech and LEDs -Friendly and helpful GM Mixed feelings: -Set was a bit plain (mostly black) except for the LED lights, much of the set was unused space -More padlocks than I'd prefer, despite the tech -Dexterity puzzle was fun the first time but got annoying because I had to repeat it multiple times to advance -Darkness was a hindrance, I tripped on the stairs. They do provide a bright flashlight. -There's a jigsaw puzzle that felt out of place in this type of high tech room Cons: -One puzzle was finicky to set up even though I knew exactly what to do, I think the GM just bypassed it when I couldn't get it to work -No writing pad provided, you have to use your phone EDIT: In response to the owner's comment about vandalism, they can easily just provide inexpensive electronic Boogie Boards which many other escape room companies are doing now. I played this solo and still finished with plenty of time. I would recommend 1-3 enthusiasts. March 2025 Update: My ranking of the rooms here I've played starting with my favorite: 1. Ghost Town - Rating: 4.5/5 2. Murder Mansion - Rating: 4/5 3. The Pirate Ship - Rating: 4/5 4. Prison Break - Rating: 3.5/5 5. Time Machine - Rating: 3.5/5 6. The Scary One - Rating: 3.5/5 7. Abduction - Rating: 3.5/5 8. Shock & Awe - Rating: 3/5

Love this room. One of our favorites. It was a neat concept with high tech puzzles. Not overly difficult.

Definitely our LEAST favorite game at Countdown. The room was really dark and there was a large eye hand coordination component that we struggled with. It wasn’t what I would call a traditional escape room. Very large and empty.

I enjoyed this room! It was a bit simpler than most of the other rooms at countdown games but it was still enjoyable. This is one of the easiest games we have done at Countdown.

A very interestingly themed room! Note that the entire room is mostly pitch black, so if you hate that, don’t do this because it stays dark throughout with minimal lighting, mostly for light-based puzzles. You get a flashlight and that’s it. There are also stairs, which I feel isn’t super safe in the dark. Anyway, a humorous thing happened where we sequence broke the room by accidentally correctly figuring out a different password while trying to solve an earlier code. The room went bonkers and broke down for us, and the GM had to come several times to fix things. There is a big dexterity puzzle that isn’t so fun that you have to do multiple times. Doing them ended up breaking our room because the room’s technology was confused what point of the game we were on? An entire puzzle refused to turn on. I’m not upset, especially since we got a $5 off coupon each for a future game. I’m just amused. Also, we ended up escaping fast because we skipped puzzles and broke everything. TeChnOLogY cAn’T hANdLe Us. WE HAVE BROKEN TESLA!

This was a cool room, pretty linear in puzzles and not too challenging. The “big” puzzle was a lot of fun. It’s a good thing we had a coordinated person to help. This is a room we recommend playing, it’s just fun. Another good one from Countdown.

Really enjoyed this room even though it is definitely on the easier/beginner side of things. Fun puzzles and theme was good throughout.

Not a lot to do and very linear game play but it was enjoyable with some unique puzzles I’ve never seen before. We played as a group of 3 and my 11 year old loved it.

We played 7 games at Countdown and really liked this one. I normally don’t like games in the dark, but this one worked. Had a few interesting puzzles.

Shock & Awe was a fun game that looked very cool. The main puzzle was a ton of fun. The puzzles are not that difficult but most were fun and on theme. We really enjoyed it.