Special Ops: Mysterious Market

Embark as a secret agent on a mission to save the world! This game was a cool mix of mechanical and high-tech puzzles. I’m a sucker for math-based puzzles and loved the inclusion of one. While the darkness fits the theme, I’m not a fan of the artificial difficulty that it creates, as it limits accessibility to promote the atmosphere when there are ways to do that while maximizing accessibility. GM Gwen was awesome, and a heads up that The Escape Game only offers public bookings, so you might get put with others. I loved aspects of this room, but it falls short for me in how it’s all weaved together.

So fun!

Calling all agents! If you’re looking for a high tech, medium skill-level room, this is the one for you. We had an enjoyable time in this room, and Special Ops was specific to the Irvine location as the Orange location does not have Special Ops. The set design was great in the marketplace! My favorite part was definitely how much detail went into it. From the tiles to the ceiling, you felt like you were immersed in another country. This escape room had a strong start from the moment you walked through the doors to the market, however; I wish that the other part of this room was cohesive with the set design which felt underwhelming when completing the second set of tasks for this game. But overall, still had a great time completing. I played with 2 other players and we were able to escape, but I would recommend a team of 2-4 (depending on your skill level) because this room relied on a lot of high tech puzzles. Personally, I enjoy the basic lock and key and mechanical puzzles, but the rest of my group liked how high tech it was because it really made them feel like an agent. 2-4 players is a good number also because of the physical space so that each person is able to collaborate and complete the tasks in an efficient manner, otherwise you may be on top of each other.

it was a very high production experience, my favorite was the very beginning. i loved the theming

Super fun beginning and while it has an engaging end I do think it kinda falls off versus the start (and you want to build up the room as you go through). Has one of my favorite room reveals of all time that is done just perfectly, just think the ending room needs some tweaks in its puzzles. While fun it is pretty straight forward and feels less exciting and more pure analysis. Still a very good room, and one of the (if not the) best "The Escape Game" rooms.

Several rooms, with a decent amount of scavenging and puzzle solving. There was plenty for several people to work on, and puzzles were intuitive and satisfying to solve!

Definitely interesting content but not my favorite game. It has good puzzles and was fun, just have other themes I like more

This room is amazing. From the room it starts in to the room it finishes in you can not predict the ending. A very amazing mix of mechanical as well as technological puzzles. Love the juxtaposition of the theme. And love the setting and puzzles. Overall, extremely good set design as well as challenging, but rewarding puzzles to solve. Bring friends ! You’re in for a challenge

My biggest complaint of this game is that I think the theming gets weaker the further in you go. Not that it’s ever bad, but the game starts off incredibly strong. The first room, however, makes this game worth it alone. This might be my favorite single room of any escape room I’ve ever been in, at least in terms of theming. One of the people we played with was a girl from Morocco, and she said it was extremely accurate to a Moroccan marketplace.