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On a foggy evening, you and your friends set out to your appointment with the mysterious Madame Celestia, a fortune teller known for her eerie predictions and uncanny insight. The moonlight illuminates your path as you navigate the misty streets toward her cryptically charming shop, adorned with strange trinkets and flickering candlelight.
Upon entering, instead of being greeted by her enigmatic presence, an unsettling emptiness falls around you, as you find a note written with a hurried, trembling hand, revealing that she is trapped by a séance gone wrong. A portal she created is set to close in fifty minutes, sealing her fate forever. Her desperate plea ignites urgency within you to answer her call.
Determined, you and your friends realize this is not just a rescue mission but a perilous journey into the unknown. The air thickens with anticipation as shadows dance and whispers echo, hinting at the challenges ahead. With time slipping away, you prepare to confront the realm of spirits, driven by hope to save Madame Celestia and uncover the mysteries lurking beyond the veil…

Mission Escape Rooms

The Fortune Teller.

Escape room

The condensed review: Do not play this room unless it gets reworked. We were looking forward to a hard room but unfortunately the "difficulty" here comes from being obtuse and poorly designed. Hugely disappointing. Play Expedition Yeti instead, which is a fantastic room for newbies and pros alike. The Crab Trap was pretty good too; Once Upon a Crime is fine but shows its age.

Spoiler alert: I tried to keep the spoilers vague, but if you read "the bad and the ugly section" you'll be aware of some of the design sins at work which will 100% result in an easier playthrough than we had. I honestly think that's a good thing in this instance.

The good: 1) I enjoyed the physical space. Tons of set dressing and a great atmosphere. 2) Our game masters were polite and professional.

The neutral: 1) This is a single room game which isn't a problem, but the space is relatively small. We played as a pair so I can't say from personal experience, but I think a group of four would feel crowded. 2) Your game master might be running multiple rooms simultaneously. No shade to the gms, just something to be aware of.

The bad and the ugly: Mission Escape rates this room difficulty 9/10. Unfortunately we found that that difficulty comes from poor puzzle design and flow issues rather than much that's challenging in an interesting way. Tbf they're using more tech and seem to be trying new things (we've done all but 2 of the currently open Mission Escape rooms in Maryland, plus several that have been retired), but while I applaud the effort to innovate I still hated this room. 

Having to play "guess which lock this puzzle goes with" is not a fun game element, it's bad design. If you aren't going to use proximity, there should be some indication (subtle is ok) that the players can use to tie a puzzle to a particular lock.

Having a cool effect that draws the players attention can make for a fun Wow moment! But when it pulls attention in literally the opposite direction of the thing that's actually important (something opening that allows the players to progress), once again, that's bad design.

Having a puzzle rely on someone looking in the right direction at the right moment also feels like a poor design choice, particularly when that direction is, you guessed it, literally behind you if you're looking at the puzzle. At least move the game element higher so there's the added chance of seeing it in the mirror. Or hey, maybe even move the mirror down too. Now you've orchestrated an aha! moment for your players when they're engaging with the puzzle and catch a flicker in the reflection out of the corner of their eye. 

Adding signal noise into the core loop of a puzzle (with zero provisions or clues that would enable observant players to discriminate) is not a clever way to increase the difficulty, it's lazy design that yields a poor player experience. This design tactic was unfortunately not isolated to a single puzzle, and soured our experience with what should have been one of the cooler tech based interactions.

I appreciate that the designer wanted to make a higher difficulty room, and I guess they accomplished that? When our game master jumped in and provided a significant, unsolicited hint early on I was initially annoyed, but I quickly understood where they were coming from. When an experienced gm is proactive with hints with experienced players, I can only assume that those puzzles are consistently causing player issues and should be reworked. (To be clear, I 100% believe the gm acted appropriately. I was never going to have fun in this room, but at least they spared me some frustration for which I am sincerely grateful.) 

For context, my partner and I aren't escape room gurus, but we've played most of our 50+ private games as a duo and have a 90%+ escape rate, typically without using hints. We love challenging rooms, even when we don't make it out. I'm not salty because we weren't "getting" all the puzzles here -- sometimes you have a bad day or just don't click with a design approach -- I'm salty because the ones we weren't getting were just obtuse. Also, the lack of signposting was INFURIATING.

To the designer: an effort and investment were obviously made, and that's fantastic. Unfortunately the puzzle design often missed the mark in an incredibly frustrating way. I think this room could be awesome with thoughtful signposting and maybe a few small tweaks, so I hope you listen to your gms when they relay feedback and player experiences and make changes accordingly.

One of the better rooms here. Quite small. Good interactive features. Wish your time was displayed.

The Fortune Teller.

Mission Escape Rooms - Annapolis

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Susan1430

cwardell

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