Who Stole Mona?

The game was a little hard for two people but we had fun once we got passed two parts.

This is probably not one of my favorites since it’s only in one room. At least it’s a pretty decent sized room for bigger groups. Like some of their rooms, there were some big leaps. They did give a lot of free nudges, which helped validate we were on the right track. I’m not a fan of math and of course there was a math puzzle, but it wasn’t too bad. We had to double triple check our work. The lazers at the end were pretty cool but the puzzle was very underwhelming.

I think this might be the last escape room in a national franchise that I go to. There are so many great escape rooms in Los Angeles which are works of passion and show it. The city doesn’t need some franchise out of Florida moving in with licensed themes and a cookie-cutter franchise feel. I had high hopes that the rooms would have impressive production values and truly immersive design. Instead we found a basic series of puzzles. This one is literally a room with white walls. There was no character or personality to the experience. We checked in with one person, were walked to the room by another person, shown into the room by a third person and then had two different GMs watching and giving clues during the actual game. It was clear from the way we were handed off from one staff member to another that we weren’t getting any individual attention. I can’t blame the individuals working there, because that seems to be the intended design of the experience. The kid we did this with enjoyed some of the elements, but all-in-all I felt as though I had just been pushed through the gears of their franchise.

I think escapology is kind of like the fast food of escape rooms. It isn’t very nourishing but it can hit the spot in a pinch. The technology was cool and most of the puzzles were fairly straightforward. There was a little more puzzling, but that what makes it fun

I’ll admit - I went to “Who Stole Mona?” with pretty low expectations but I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The room itself is not as impressive as the other rooms, but the puzzles were smarter than I anticipated, with a few that made my group stop and think! There was a good balance between getting to do puzzles separately for our group, and then together, and it felt satisfying to piece things together as the mystery unfolded. Our game masters were Andre and Owen. They were friendly and attentive, and they were responsive when we shared that we would like no nudge. I’ve only been to three of their rooms so far in Escapology and I rank this room a little higher just because of the mental stimulation. The space is also just one giant room so we did not feel as cramped as the other rooms with narrow build with our group of 8.

The room is filled with puzzles, some of which are nonsensical. The design is purely executed, and it’s only one room. Some of the puzzles are difficult to comprehend. One puzzle involves math, but it’s incorrect and doesn’t follow the actual mathematical logic. For instance, when there’s an X in the equation, you’re supposed to perform the X calculation first, but this puzzle doesn’t do that. It’s a waste of money to pay $50 each for that room. I genuinely hope the other rooms are better and more well-designed because this one is truly disappointing.