The Secret of The Tower Keeper

To start, I saw a few mixed reviews and took my time when deciding if this was the room I wanted to play. I'm glad I did! I played with 6 total people (including myself and two 10 year olds who are newer to escape rooms). The room is very tactical puzzle forward, which is always my preference over lock and key. The room was non-linear, however often felt linear due to a single item being the main source of info. There is a set of stairs to get to the room *and* in the room. It felt extremely unique. It's very important to know that the set is the water tower itself, which I really liked - it's a different kind of immersion, of knowing I'm experiencing history while doing an escape room. I think my only complaint is that when we got a hint of was just a straightforward "do this" rather than something more cryptic to help lead us to the solution.

It was an amazing decor and process. The puzzles felt like they flowed well with the story and the props were flawless in execution. You are in a literal abandoned water tower! Gavin was our guide and role played so well.

The game master knew when to give us a nudge. Clues ranged from user friendly to slightly cryptic but not impossible. A couple of clues you had to fiddle with a little bit but it honestly aligned with the aged theme of the room.

The Tower Keeper room was such a memorable experience! Being inside a historical building added so much atmosphere and made the setting feel truly authentic—you can’t beat the ambiance. The puzzles were creative, well-designed, and kept us engaged from start to finish, with a great flow that made the gameplay both challenging and rewarding. On top of the room itself, the staff treated us wonderfully and really elevated the whole experience. Their hospitality, combined with the unique environment and clever puzzle design, made this one of the best escape rooms we’ve done. Highly recommend checking it out if you’re in Durham!

This room is so close to being an instant recommendation but sadly it just fell a bit short for our party. The theme was pretty spot on since it all takes place inside of an old stone water tower. Our party was originally 3 people but one of them had a pretty strong claustrophobic reaction once the GM closed and locked the door so she had to be let out. The GM was very understanding and compassionate, making sure our party member was alright and escorting her to the downstairs lobby, before resetting the timer and locking the remining 2 of us in. There were some nifty mechanisms in the room I haven't experienced yet as an unseasoned escape room player but sadly some of those mechanisms were a little finnicky or just didn't work at all. We figured out all of the answers to one of the larger puzzles that involved an interactive map/board and no matter how many times we input our answers the board refused to unlock the next part of the puzzle for us. Ultimately, after communicating with the GM via the camera in the corner of the room multiple times, he had to come in and reset the board and manually bypass that step for us when we showed him our answers written on the provided notepad. That was a big immersion killer and a huge time sink for us, easily burning 8-10 minutes off our timer. I don't know that we would have ultimately escaped but that experience certainly didn't help and left us feeling a little deflated by the end of it. Beyond that, there was one puzzle in particular that was a little tough to understand exactly what was being asked of us due to how it was laid out but that could have just been a shortcoming on our part. Overall I say it's worth giving a shot. Just be ready to flag a GM as soon as your party encounters any technical issues because you'll probably need every second you are given to get through this one if you're in a small group like we were.

We really enjoyed this room. We didn’t experience anything broken or misplaced. The room was very immersive and gave the intended vibe. I am glad I didn’t let negative reviews deter me from doing this room. I will definitely go back to do the others.

As an escape room enthusiast with 400+ rooms under my belt, The Tower Escapes - The secret of the Tower Keeper was underwhelming and disappointing. If you’re an enthusiast I think you’ll be disappointed and if you’re a beginner, I don’t think you’ll want to do another escape room after this. To start; The Good - Customer service was really great. We were visiting Raleigh from out of town and with a short schedule. They agreed to open early to allow us to play which was wonderfully accommodating. When we arrived, the game master was friendly enough, though didn’t introduce himself and didn’t know us other than by our time slot, which personalization is just a personal preference of mine. The tower is in fact an old water tower from the 1800s so the space itself looks and feels cool. Those were all pluses. The room itself was dated and didn’t quite match the theme. It was definitely aged and needed care, and not in a way that was suitable for the theme. For my group, we needed a hint with every puzzle and the hint was “Do X, Y and Z.” We did X, Y, and Z. That’s the most frustrating thing when the hints are to do what you have done. It’s an immediate turn off for me. Turns out you have to push things harder or knock slower. When two people have attempted the puzzle multiple times and it’s still failing, it’s frustrating to be told just to do it again until it works. That’s just not enjoyable. At the debrief we were told some days the puzzles work perfectly, others they’re temperamental. To me you need to change the puzzle if historically it’s not going to work a lot of the days. I think the room could benefit from Some minor improvements that could improve the experience across the board. The game master said they wanted to ensure we had fun and a good time, and they missed the mark on that. Bottom line - Looks great and customer service is good but actual escape room is dated, with glitchy tech and in need of puzzle upgrades and repairs

This was a fun enough room, but the logic leaps were a bit challenging when I played. We seemed to waste more time than needed because of just being a little non-intuitive. Looking back, I would better know how to use the runbook. It is beginning to show a bit of wear, but a quick update could make this a really awesome room. The story is a good premise for a treasure hunt room. As many have said the coolness of being IN the tower is a major plus and if the room were updated just a bit it could be a major standout - the kind we need here in the Triangle. I don't think it was a good room for only two players too - 4 would have been better. I may go back and play this again to see if I can get to the end. SIDE NOTE: As much as I enjoyed the story, a tower like this BEGS, almost DEMANDS, a wizard or fantasy-themed room. Those can be hit-and-miss, but the fact it is a tower could take a typical medieval room to an insanely cool level.

The tower is definitely a neat location to have an escape room but found the puzzles themselves to be a bit frustrating. Some parts didn’t flow well; it made it hard to figure things out but not in a way that felt clever but rather needed a bit more thought out into it. Game master was great! Room was just definitely different than we expected.