What Happened At Hawthorne?

This room was definitely VERY fun. This was our first room at Ingenious. Definitely a memorable experience, some of that is because we're two goofy men that work well with each other, but most of that is the well though out room. It's got a nice spooky atmosphere that is tense but not scary. I don't think I'd recommend it for kids younger than 12, but there's nothing graphic, violent, or unsafe. Some interesting puzzle mechanics that worked well. As others have noted, there's a particular one that is a little tricky but fun. Our experience was smooth and enjoyable. Crawling and a very small amount of climbing is required. I wouldn't recommend if you don't like strobing lights, tight spaces, or pitch black spaces.

I rate this escape a 2.5/5 (ck out my profile page for rating system). I would give the set design and theme one point. These types of creepy rooms with themes such as asylum, serial killers, etc., all start to look similar to me. There's just not much variability in design so just an average set design and theme. Also, ugh the strobe light and darkness in these types of rooms makes it so hard to see!! The puzzles get one point as well. There were maybe a couple that were slightly novel but pretty lock heavy and one kinda difficult to interpret as it could be a bit subjective (sometimes guessing does the trick!). Unfortunately, one of the puzzles was not set up correctly and, what should have taken just a minute to solve, ended up taking close to 15-20, wasting a lot of time and we didn't escape. The GM ended up just giving us the combo we needed but I wish she would've investigated further and sooner since it was a pretty simple puzzle and we weren't solving it. Just a shame that we couldn't complete the room through no fault of our own. 🤷‍♀️ Needless to say, this effected my enjoyment of the room therefore getting only half a point. We just kept having to go back to that incorrectly set up puzzle which made it a very frustrating experience. The room probably would've been a 3/5 had it not been for that error. Luckily we tried the Secrets of the Siren at this location which was a much more enjoyable experience and left me wanting to try the other 2 rooms.

This room was very creatively done- I don't like rooms that are all blood and gore, but this room had the right amount of spooky without being too much. I enjoyed figuring out the clues. We did three rooms back to back, and this one was my favorite. The gamemaster, and the others at the venue, were very personable and kind. You can't go wrong checking out the different Escape rooms at Ingenious. ☺️

We really enjoyed it! We escaped with just our party of two, but it was very immersive and had lots of things to keep you guessing. The clues were not particularly hard from an individual standpoint but within the game, they felt difficult. We had lots of fun exploring the room and enjoyed our Game Master Kloe who gave helpful hints and helped us with a tricky lock that wouldn’t open.

I can't say enough about this room. My whole group loved it! I would say this is by far the best room in Bakersfield. Its suspenseful and spooky but not terrifying. They have a strobe effect warning, it makes it difficult to read but adds a level of suspense. The imersion of the room is amazing! The staff is great and know the perfect amount of nudges to keep my group moving. Super polite and professional.