Patient 57

We did two other rooms that we really loved, so much that we did a third. We actually set time records on both of the other rooms and we were looking forward to this one, but sadly this room was boring, tedious, and nearly completely incoherent. The room generally suffered some of the same issues as the other rooms in this location, but dialed up severalfold. There are SO MANY four-digit locks and keypads, all of which have no discerning features or ways to identify them, so if you do this room, get ready to enter each and every code you solve five to ten times into different keypads and locks. The only indicator to if you have the correct code in the right lock is whether or not it clicks open. This room suffered TWO things that are old escape room tropes, each of which can singlehandedly ruin a room: (1) reliance on a large book, and (2) tedious translation tasks. This room requires page flipping over and over to solve basic puzzles. And the other puzzles require going to Russian translation charts (which don't make any sense, by the way), tediously converting letters from one "language" to another. Any room that requires multiple long tedious "solves" by looking at charts and flipping pages is an instant thumbs down in my book. And this room had translation and page-flipping galore. All in all, this game felt less like a fun paid puzzle-solving experience, and more like a minimum wage data-entry job. The bad room cliche of offering tasks instead of puzzles is the defining feature of this room. 3/10, would strongly recommend against playing this one.

An asylum (sorta) themed room that is super packed with puzzles, maybe even too packed. Our small group of 2 escaped down to the wire with just 1 second to spare. There were some clever puzzles and some good teamwork challenges. However, not all the puzzles were clear nor satisfying. Some long stinkers towards the end left a bad taste in our mouths. There are some audio cutscenes throughout the room that were interesting, though distracting and hard to hear. It made the story stand out a little more, which is a plus. I like the premise and it’s overall a fine room, but it’s nothing to get too crazy over.

Room had good detail. Interesting puzzles. Too much to do in the amount of time given. We still had quite a lot not done when time was up. We did enjoy the puzzles and atmosphere in this room.

Didn’t escape by a minute, but it was incredibly fun! Definitely had a lot of locks, but it had so many other fun puzzle components that the locks didn’t seem overwhelming. Lots of cooperation required, which was nice to feel like you’re actively working together to solve.