Storm Surge

We loved so much about this game and their high quality production. I hope to be able to play more of their games, but as a group of only two who has to travel 3+ hours to this location, I know I will be missing many of their most popular games, which say they require 4 people. Onboarding is all via a dossier file that players read on their own, then you are led to your room and given a few more instructions, including how their radio/walkie hint system works. We appreciated that our GM (Zach?) was in touch with us to offer help/nudges/hints, but I would have LOVED it if it was all themed/styled towards immersion. Just add a little ship lingo/flavor text into the messaging to keep me inside the story, rather than reminding me that this is just a game? Would make a world of difference!

The set for this room is lovely. It has a cool atmosphere with some solid puzzles.

I really liked this room, there was a good variety of puzzles and a lot of tech. only 1 combo lock in the whole thing in a thematically fitting spot so that was fine. The weakest part was the story or lack there of. Our GM told us what our tasks were going in and that was the last we really heard about it haha. Didn't detract too much from the experience as we could tell when each task was completed, just seemed like an easy change that would make it more interactive.

My husband and I did this as a team of 2 (we usually also have our 19 and 16yo sons with us). We enjoyed this room very much. Theme-ing was awesome. The room flowed really smoothly, nice reveals. I can see why some other reviews complained it was dark, but my middle-aged eyes did just fine. There were no small locks to see numbers on or anything like that. The reason we rated this a like and not a love is because none of the puzzles really blew us away. Nothing that was particularly novel. Though they did all fit with the theme very well. I would definitely recommend this room.

The set design here was out of this world, especially the water feature! These puzzles are unique, and scratched an itch I had been sitting on from a disappointing game at a different company.

Rating: 3.5/5 - Pretty good room, with a nice looking set Pros: ➕Set looked great, very detailed and appropriately weathered and made it feel like a real ship ➕Lots of tech, minimal padlocks ➕Nice variety of puzzles that I liked ➕Flow and difficulty level worked well for us ➕Everything seemed to work ➕Very tactile ➕Multiple areas to explore ➕GM was friendly and helpful Room for improvement: ➖Way too dark, hard to see things, no flashlights allowed ➖Basically no narrative/story in the game beyond what's in the initial description ➖No intro video or audio, the game just starts awkwardly ➖No audio/sound effects, this hurt the immersion, especially since you can hear distracting sounds from the other rooms ➖Radios required to communicate with the GM We succeeded as a team of 3 enthusiasts, I would recommend 2-4 players. UPDATE: My ranking of the rooms I've played here, starting with my favorite: 1. Jurassic Escape 2. Mafia Heist 3. Vampires 4. Storm Surge 5. Locked-Up Supermax

Nice theming and fun puzzles, but the dim lighting makes it a struggle for middle-aged eyes to see things like the numbers on combination locks. After having that difficulty with another puzzle at this location, we brought a small flashlight to this one, but when we used it, the game master threatened to kick us out of the room, telling us that were electronics were prohibited. We enjoyed the activities, but won't likely return to this location because the darkness makes it too hard for us to work the puzzles. Go for it if you have young eyes, though. :)

This is my second MindTrap experience. The Terpeca recognition is well deserved! The games are well themed and well built! It is definitely a gem in the Chicago suburbs. Storm Surge is a challenging room with lots of varieties of puzzles. It is a great room for emerging enthusiast! Be prepared for the dim atmosphere as it is important to the immersion of the room but also a great part of the challenge. You may be frustrated if you don’t escape but you will not be disappointed in the quality. Soundscape and design are outstanding!

This room has the same high production values as other rooms at Mind Trap. But it might be my least favorite of the ones I've done. I found a lot of the puzzles to be unintuitive, and I definitely feel like they should give you something to write on to prevent wasting time going back and forth. Also, while the theme and production is interesting, it never really felt like we were on a sinking ship because our tasks felt very random, part of it feeling a bit unintuitive