The Reel

The lower end of what I’d give a “thumbs up”. Very linear and the puzzles felt disjointed. Was generally fun and a very cute concept. Most of the puzzles felt on the easier side and the connection between the puzzles ate up time as they could be a bit nonsensical. A lot of veteran players’ escape room intuition serves against you in this room. Could be something special with some rework, better connections between puzzles, and more plentiful puzzles overall. Currently a 6/10. Worth doing if you are low on highly rated rooms.

This place was great! Slightly hard to find the front door (this was probably more of a me thing) but once we got in this place was awesome. The lobby was nice and clean and had great photo opportunities, they also had come little games and other goodies for sale. The GM was super nice and really friendly while getting us set up! As far as gameplay, this was only the second room we’ve ever done, but I enjoyed it in different ways from the first one we did. This one was bright and easy to see your surroundings…the puzzles were challenging yet satisfying. We did need a fair amount of clues during the middle of the game but once we got over the hump, we were able to fly through the end! We got a small souvenir when we finished and got a few pictures as well! I definitely recommend this room for newbies but I think more seasoned adventurers would enjoy it for a slightly less stressful inducing experience as well.

RILEY was a great game master... in and out no issues with the room. Great room.. not for noobs however.

The room has some disjointed puzzles that didn't make sense at first. There was one lock not reset and off when we came in. One flip switch type puzzle didn't trigger automatically and they had to do it. Just not a well put together room. Fun for someone new to escape rooms but enthusiasts will likely be disappointed. The staff was really friendly.

Overall the atmosphere of the game was wonderful. It was super immersion and the puzzles fit in universe. There weren't very many puzzles, but they all made sense when you thought about them. Not a beginner room, but not insanely difficult. The one thing that took away from the experience was unfortunately the game masters. We got two hints, one at the beginning that wasn't helpful, but it was timely. The second hint was near the end and we spent 1 full minute trying to get it. Then once we escaped we waited for a while before someone finally came to get us. Everyone has off days, but they were monotone in "congratulating" us and honestly sucked the energy out of the room. Overall a solid room, but there are definitely some kinks that still need worked.

Overall a straightforward and mostly reasonable room; it wouldn't be my room of choice for beginners, but at the same time I don't think it would be a bad one. Puzzle Effect takes the unusual stance of allowing photos in rooms, which seems like an interesting viral marketing tactic. There were a couple puzzles where the cluing felt a little rough (e.g. I figured them out because I'm familiar with common escape room puzzle tropes by now, but I didn't see a reasonable way for a beginner to make the correct leaps). Some of the props felt worn, but not in a way that was a markedly worse than other rooms I've played. The set in the first room felt a little bare and underwhelming, but after that, the production values felt better - almost as if the space was built out from the end to the beginning, but they ran out of money/time/attention when they got to the first room. The GM, Paige, seemed attentive on hints - after we had difficulty getting traction on the first puzzle, I mentioned to the group that I was ready for a hint and one was provided almost instantly. There were other points in the game where a hint popped up just as we were slowing down, which kept us moving at a satisfying velocity. On the other hand, there was (what I assume was) a timed hint that appeared well after we had solved the thing it referred to, so it wasn't perfect. I was worried a little by another review which mentioned the set being dark; while it was on the dim side (and thus not ideal for my older parents whose eyes don't work as well as they used to), I personally had no problem.

Uniquely themed room compared to range we've experienced. Lots of fun and involved some clever coordinating between players.

Pretty fun, some things threw us off on the puzzles, but we got them figured out, lots of interesting team work needed. And the set design was fun since it looked like an old school theater. The only very lame complaint I have is that it's all a bit backwards as it relates to rooms and how you would normally walk into a theater, which is a really lame thing to even review about.

I did this room as a beginner and thought it was challenging. There was one particular puzzle that threw us off but once we got a hint we were kicking ourselves. The theater theme was fun!

Certainly it was reel-y good but not amazing. Puzzles are very linear. Thematic is good. Puzzle effect allows photos in rooms which is fun!