The Dig

So… this is a room that, if I could put a middle ground between thumbs down and thumbs up I’d do it. There were a lot of questionable things, but ultimately, I left with this - if you are expecting a big budget, knock-your-socks-off, wholly unique room… wrong place. BUT if you are looking for somewhere where yes the puzzles are a bit… simple and or questionable (see my main issues in more detail below) but you know that and still want to have fun, this is a good option. Linear, simple concept, but puzzles were fine enough and made sense to where I was fine with it. Noiz and Tati, our lovely game master / check in, were literally stars and I want to model how I talk with guests after them. If anything, come for them.

TLDR: Awful, avoid. Hoooo boy… this was a rooough one. Arrived on time to no one there, no one answering the phone. Gamemasters shows up 15 minutes after our start time surprised to see anyone because they didn’t check the bookings. Given the brief spiel before being led to the room, wherein the timer was already going with 5 minutes down. At no point did we have any idea what we were supposed to be doing. Every puzzle was either poorly or just not clued. The first obvious puzzle you solve is not used until the end of the room. If the room wasn’t already terrible, the game master was openly antagonistic. She at point said “I’m looking at the puzzle you need to solve right now, it’s definitely in the room.” That was a hint on what to work on next. We had 3 rooms open to us… Absolutely no flow to puzzles, no rhyme or reason to the things you do. Just abysmal puzzle design. Very hostile feeling, designer vs player architecture. Strongly do not recommend for anyone but the most masochistic puzzlers. If you want to feel like and be treated like a dummy dumb dumb for not knowing the designers intent, have at it.

Bottom of the barrel. Truly a nightmare of a room. Set design was probably rad in 2015, but time has not been kind and you are walking into a worn out, messy wreck of an experience. Mind boggling puzzle “design.” A very intense game of guess what’s in my pocket. Terrible signposting, obscure pathways between puzzles, constant bottlenecking, zero feedback upon completion of a puzzle. You name an escape design principle and I guarantee you will be disappointed by the way it’s executed here. The coup de grace is the antagonistic relationship between you and the GM. This is not a game where you are going to get hinted your way to victory. Their expectation is clearly that a large percentage of teams will simply fail; and I want to say if you experienced this room and you didn’t escape, absolve yourself. It truly was not your fault. Needs an immediate overhaul; go across the street and sit in the park for an hour instead.

Not a fan. The room felt like it was falling apart and without clues it was next to impossible to figure out what to do. Was also told going in that we'd get hints every 10 minutes if we were stuck but only ever received 2 hints even though we obviously didn't know what to do. Do not recommend.

This room was very tough! It was me & one other person. You definitely need a big group for this room. We didn’t complete it but we had an amazing time! The room was very immersive & the atmosphere felt very true to theme! One of the best rooms of its theme! I would definitely recommend for larger groups.