The Courtyard

Amazing gameplay. Live actor was incredible.

my reviews for all The Basement rooms are gonna be pretty similar. pros: great sets & fun live actors in some rooms. cons: way too short (45 min limit & generally easy to finish even earlier), so not enough puzzles, the puzzles aren’t that creative, the main bottlenecks are not being able to find random things, & too many unsolicited hints from the (albeit very nice & well-intentioned) game masters. with 3 of my inexperienced friends, we were still somehow able to miss the leaderboard by just 30 seconds, so i would have rather gotten less unsolicited hints, even if it took us 15 more minutes, since we had so much time to spare.

Absolutely incredible atmosphere, unique and immersive puzzles that had us thinking outside of the box, but the live actor was an absolute standout.

This one was frustrating. The set was amazing; truly impressive. However, the lack of signposting and not knowing what a completed puzzle triggered (perhaps in a different room) was frustrating. Also, the live actor interaction was very strange. Do they really want me to do that to her? Hmmmm. Overall, I was disappointed. It still doesn’t deserve a thumbs down, but it could’ve been so much better.

Room felt bigger than it really was with the great set design. They made being inside during the day feel like it was outside at night. Good use of the live actor use as GM, as well as part of puzzles. Do note that you will need at least 1 player in your group that can crawl into a tight space. Over all it was great, immersive and overall a great story.

The beginning of the room was a little frustrating for me. I felt like we chewed up a lot of time there. I remember doing a lot of fast walking between puzzles as a team of two. Overall, just eh.

This is probably the best horror series in LA. It’s worth going through every room.

Solid room, and a great live actor, but frustration with the overall experience. Did this as a team of two. Some tech issues (a mechanism didn’t properly work, costing us time). Frustratingly. the game master had totally disappeared at the one moment we needed a hint, near the end of the game. Several minutes later they responded to us, gave a hint for the previous puzzle, and then disappeared again for several more minutes. After the tech screwup, the MIA gamemaster, wrong hint etc, we needed about thirty more seconds (literally) to finish the game, but they ended it on the dot, with no reference to the mistakes—which felt a little shady to me, to be honest. The Basement feels a bit too close to a corporate, efficiency-oriented escape room business for my tastes—the ones that seek to maximize customers by pumping you in and out, depersonalizing the approach, etc. Also possibly a bit overwhelmed/understaffed. So it goes. But I’m sure other people have had better experiences here obviously.

The Basement is always incredible and this room is actually jaw dropping with its scale and production value. Fun puzzles with good difficulty but solvable and very on theme the whole time

I rate this room a 4/5 (ck out my bio for rating system). The room got points for set and theme design which was totally immersive and realistic! The live actor was quite believable and added to the room in a positive way. I feel bad I didn't keep my pinky promise I made with her! 🤦‍♀️ There were some surprise elements and novel puzzles and I experienced more enjoyment than frustration while doing it. The reason it didn't get a perfect 5 was because there was some frustration - something was put in a wrong way but there was no indication it was wrong because it fit - and the dreadful 'hint system' if you'd even call it that. First they tell you there's no hints, then a lady starts shouting thru the wall trying to give you a hint. It just didn't match the quality of the room set. If you're not going to give hints, commit to that, don't do it the ghetto way. Even though I liked the escape experience overall, I didn't like their other room, The Elevator Shaft, and because of the hint system, or lack thereof, I won't be experiencing the rest of the rooms at this location.