The Scary One

To be honest, this was my least favorite game at Countdown. Countdown has always impressed us with their immersive set designs and originality, as well as flow through their huge spaces. However, this one is *mostly* just a room with a bunch of different locks. There is one surprise that we imagine some players never even get to see, so we felt like the pacing was off a bit. There was a lot of tedium and math involved, which also broke the immersion a little for me. Maybe Countdown set the bar too high, because I was honestly a little let-down... With that said, I'm sure I'll still be back someday! P. S. If you're inexperienced with escape rooms, or if you don't have a big group, I wouldn't recommend this. There was a massive amount of puzzles that my husband and I really couldn't have realistically have solved much faster on our own! P. P. S. Just saw the owners' response! Just wanted to clarify that we weren't complaining at all about the difficulty or the amount of puzzles. We would just recommend it more for larger groups. We really appreciated you letting us play even though we understood that it was meant to be experienced by more than 2 people at a time! One thing that keeps us coming back to Countdown (hours from home!) is the deeply imaginative and narrative flow throughout their rooms. This room just wasn't our favorite because we have *really* enjoyed our experiences in other rooms there!

The amount of reading in this room is absolutely bonkers. There are some VERY cool surprises, and the set is absolutely delightful. But there were also some VERY frustrating logic jumps and time-sinks (and that pretty much ruined the experience for our group). And one hint our GM gave because “it isn’t actually in the room.”

This game is a great game to play with a larger group of people because there is more than one puzzle that can be worked on at a time. It is count downs hardest game! This game could be considered scary for smaller kids due to some of the special effects but nothing gory. Game does have a "darker" story line.

Fantastic escape room! The game is packed with a variety of puzzles, making it ideal for groups of 4-6 people to stay engaged the entire time. The creepy plot line includes a few jump scares, but nothing too intense. I recommend it for ages 12 and up. After reading other reviews we thought it would be incredibly hard, but most puzzles were self explanatory. The room features a great mix of traditional puzzles and innovative high-tech effects that we had never encountered before, even after completing over 50 escape rooms.

This room was very unique and I loved the story/atmosphere! As far as difficulty goes, The Scary One (the hardest game at countdown) is a really big jump from Prison Break (2nd hardest at Countdown). My group of 3 got out of prison break without any hints but asked for at least 6 hints in the scary one. I really enjoyed the tech in this room but I think some of the puzzles may have been a little bit overly ambitious.

The Scary One, as the name implies, is Countdown Games’ scariest room. That said, for most people, I wouldn’t worry too much about the jumpscares, and there is no gore so it’s technically ok for kids. Older kids, mind you, because there is a legit creepy plot as the room literally unravels. The big reveals are mind blowing in this room, and it’s worth seeing them here! However, do be warned that this is a super hard room with densely packed puzzles that essentially requires at least 4 experienced escape artists to be able to divide and conquer at a fast pace. The surprises towards the end made my mind implode, and the creepy cabin setting is totally my vibe. I hate scary rooms, but yet I am a fan of The Scary One. Try it out, if you can bear it!

Overall rating - 9.7/10 Puzzles - 9 Gameplay - 10 Atmosphere - 10 Experience - 10 For a breakdown of my weighted rating system you can refer to my bio. This is my favorite room here. It's hard but in a really fair way. We were very close to finishing, we were on the final puzzle when we failed. We had three experienced players I think one more would have been perfect. It's one of those rooms that makes you look back and go "gah if we had just gotten that one puzzle sooner." Only one puzzle felt like a stretch, 95% of it was fair and fun.

This was one of the, if not the most immersive rooms I have ever done. Great room - highly recommended.

This was a HARD one. We probably could have escaped if we had not gotten stuck on a two of the puzzles, but that’s the game! I recommend at least 4 intelligent adults. We had our two kids, one of which just likes rooms for their set and doesn’t love the puzzles. Two more logical adults and we would have gotten out. We were close. Once you get through the first part, not linear, so you can split up and work with a partner while others work on completely different puzzles. I really really like this one. Wish we had gotten out, but would still recommend!

There’s a bear. There’s so many odd and fun surprises in this room. The story unraveled well.