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Break into a warehouse and steal a relic with your crackerjack team… who just happen to be puppets.
All ratings (1052)
Very positive
Gameplay
Very positive
Atmosphere
Overwhelmingly positive
Customer service
Overwhelmingly positive
4 escape rooms
𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 �𓅝𓃄 �𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿 𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 𓂨𓅝𓃄 𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿
12 escape rooms
This room was incredibly fun and unlike any room I have played before!!
Somewhat
51 escape rooms
This one is interesting, the theme is unique and cute however there's a bit of an issue with the order of gameplay which can be frustrating and sometimes it felt like we either knew what we were doing or kinda stalled not knowing what to do next. The story felt jumbled and was confusing at parts and as a common theme with this company it felt like there weren't a ton of puzzles in the room. That being said the whole Melvin aspect of things was something I hadn't seen before, and they did a pretty good job with that. Overall, it was a fun room. Worth doing if you can get a discount.
65 escape rooms
Geez, this one’s rough. On paper it sounds like a really unique, inspired and entertaining escape room, but it very quickly devolves into a frustrating, unintuitive and poorly conceived gimmick. So much potential is completely unrealized, so much talent and work is squandered, and it’s really overdue for some TLC. There are some fun moments, but they are so few and far in-between all the frustration and poor design choices. We were left scratching our heads in disbelief by the time we escaped. Let’s briefly get through the good, and then deal with everything else. There are some funny moments and inspired design choices involving the set design, and the atmosphere is better than most escape rooms. It’s an ambitious concept that struggles to reign in a lot of creative decisions to make everything work, but what does work is quite good and funny. This all accounts for maybe 30% of the room. However, looking back on it, there’s actually very little to do in the way of puzzles for the entirety of the 60 minutes, and I wouldn’t really even call them puzzles. They’re more like fetch quests. And yet nothing really made sense as to why you’d do them to progress. So logically, you wouldn’t think to do most of these actions in the first place. The gameplay is just really uneven, weird (not in a good way) and feels like an experiment from another time that hasn’t been refined since. Other experiences I’ve had with “The Bureau” have been smooth, designed with puzzles that are thoughtful and well integrated into the theme. Puppet Heist seems to have gotten the short end of the stick. There’s one task in particular in the very beginning which actually breaks two golden rules that are pretty universal in escape rooms (throwing something, and throwing said object to/behind an unreachable area). While it is played for laughs, we found it baffling as a design choice, because it’s LITERALLY one of the first things you do, and then that logic never comes back into play again. But from the get go, it encourages destructive behavior, which brings me to my next point. The state of the room, namely the puppet. The room has many areas of clear abuse, with the previously discussed logic having been applied in many different manners across the room. A lot of things have been noticeably dinged, beaten up or treated poorly. Then there’s the puppet…my goodness has this thing seen better days. It clearly has not been maintained or serviced since this experience opened. You’re expected to carry this thing around, but it’s so filthy, grimy and is really gross to handle. It is disgusting, caked in who knows what. I only held it with my fingertips and away from my body when I was required to move it. Something that’s so integral and important to the experience shouldn’t be in such a state of disrepair that you’re inclined not to connect with it, especially because it’s a character in the story. Look, I really don’t like tearing rooms a new one, and I don’t go into any escape room with the intention of having a bad time, but sometimes there’s just too much wrong with an experience that it’s hard to overlook. At $42 a person, this should be a premium experience from top to bottom. I appreciate what The Bureau tries to do with their entire business theme, and world building that comes with it. They take a lot of risks, and that’s an admirable thing in a creative field, especially when most creative industries are risk averse these days. There’s some charm and inspired choices here, but it needs a major overhaul, refurbishment and a gameplay refresh that addresses all of the issues above. Puppet Heist is a mostly frustrating and unintuitive time that feels more like a slog instead of breezy fun.
This one’s rough. Very little to do and yet nothing really made sense
The high point of the experience
Medium
3
Not scary
10
No
Not broken, but the puppet has seen better days and is really gross to handle. Only held it with my fingertips and away from my body.
No
Not at all
Color related puzzles, some others requiring crouching to manipulate.
Yes
Easy
147 escape rooms
I found this game hard to rate. The strongest part was the puppet gimmick, which was memorable and allowed them to hit story beats that might not otherwise have been possible. However, I thought some of their puzzle design choices were questionable (mostly needing better reinforcement that yes, you really do want to do ____). I'm a little put off that although the room had been open for a while, the owners apparently didn't think this was worth fixing, even though doing so would have been pretty simple and would have made our experience a lot better.
Puppet gimmick was very novel, as was a particular large prop in the second room.
Yes
Easy
3
Not scary
12 escape rooms
𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 �𓅝𓃄 �𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿 𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 𓂨𓅝𓃄 𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿
68 escape rooms
Great and unique game. Two technical issues detracted a bit (one door was left open/unlocked that should not have been, and one piece of the game wasn’t functioning correctly and took a while for game master to notice/ask about it — we requested a clue in order for them to notice), but overall it was very well done and enjoyable.
138 escape rooms
This was a very unique game. It challenged our group to think outside of the box in the possibility or escape rooms. This isn’t your “typical” escape room, but we thoroughly enjoyed the experience!
Yes
659 escape rooms
Several tech did not work. The big scanner is one of the flagship pieces and it broke almost immediately. The game host did not pick up on this - ultimately they gave us the answer as we could not move on. Shame. There were some wonderful innovations that with everything operable would have made for a fantastic time.
Big problem with tech failures.
High tech
Yes
Several tech pieces did not work including the big scanner which broke almost immediately - they really should have shut the game down if this couldn’t have been fixed immediately. Also the phone was not operating as intended.
108 escape rooms
This is one of my favorite escape rooms (we have done over 100), it is fun funny, family friendly but also challenging. Couldn’t have been better!
One of the most imaginative rooms, we loved it start to finish
“The sheer uniqueness of the room and its obstacles/style more than made up for the few bumps [...]“
“Some of the puzzles were not intuitive so going into this game and knowing this would help a lot.“