I can’t believe I finally got to play project Minotaur!
I’ve been stalking this room since it’s opening, but unfortunately it was way beyond my budget for many years. Since quest room closed, I was able to go due to the finale sale, but I’m so sorry to all the wonderful game masters, builders, actors and creatives that so clearly poured their hearts and souls into this.
Pros:
- loved the chasing/rushes
- Music/special effects were amazing
- Actors were incredible. Both the creature (Robbie what the heck that was terrifying) and Chris (we salute your commitment to the bit but also: ow that must hurt)
- So many secret passages. If anything I want more. What a blast.
- So unique as a room. Never done one like that. Will be so hard to top but won’t stop looking for something this thrilling bc we loved it.
- Perfect blend of scary but not too scary. The creature isn’t horrifying to look at, the GMs weren’t out to get us, we didn’t get yelled at or punched or anything crazy. They really nailed it. Even the scaredy cats in our group had a blast.
Cons:
- Wish they’d either incorporated more Greek myths or done away with them - they kinda weren’t evenly sprinkled throughout imo and stopped adding to the game after a point but I loved the fates.
- The set was super well done but was ultimately just kinda. Apocalyptic ruin. Which was on theme. Just kinda boring visually (I know they reuse the room for other horror escapes tho so it has to be versatile)
- They did more story than I thought they would! Wish there had been more of it to solve as we went. More story clues please! I want to help solve the mystery!
- The last room - would’ve loved a screen to see the finale/more holes/plexiglass? The whole team couldn’t see what was happening due to the placement.
Onto the room review: I will be fully spoiling this one because it is closed and I want a record of it for those that are curious but won’t ever be able to play. My team had a blast but I do think if we’d paid the original price point, I would be harsher in my critique. An experience that’s over 100 dollars has a lot to live up to for the average room goer, and I think it’s reflected in a some of the less favorable reviews on their Morty page. That being said, the amount of work that went into this room is a lot so I’m not sure what the solution would’ve been - paying 2 actors, multiple camera setups + involved high tech puzzles, AND special effects take a lot of work & costs a lot of money. So I get it.
There’s not a lot of story for Project Minotaur which I always think is a bummer for escape rooms - if I’m gonna be in a horror movie I want to help solve the plot and I think it would’ve made more sense if we were on a mission to find a missing doctor given the ending - but the majority of horror rooms sadly don’t have a narrative beyond “get outta here” so I knew what to anticipate. They give you jumpsuits, knee pads and a hood for a blindfold and split your group into 2 cells while the intro plays out. You were tourists in Greece who wanted an adventure so you ignore the tour guide and go into an abandoned military base where you get trapped / try to escape (I actually think this was a little convoluted bc there wasn’t a lot of story throughout the maze to play into this but whatever). The room was basically jail cells, a morgue, many hallways and a sacrifice room. They had a sick puzzle as soon as you started with statues of the 3 fates where the team had to work together between the cells to roll an eyeball back and forth to get the right sequence of sound cues. It was pretty confusing esp in the dark and we almost lost the eye more than a few times between the cells but I loved the idea. The Minotaur bursts from the door and tries to attack you but you can fend him off by running back into the cells and holding the doors for dear life. During all of this is so much sound & ominous music, it’s great. There’s more minor puzzles as you escape into an air vent (with the Minotaur right behind you! I didn’t know the actor would follow us as we were CRAWLING my stomach sank to my feet!!!) and then you pop into a caged morgue. It’s here you meet a GM doctor who through charades will steal a shoe / explain that yall need to kill the Minotaur, who will pop back into the room when the Dr leaves as you try to move forward (Eventually the Dr speaks, kinda. This is your hint system). There’s a guillotine puzzle, a morgue escape hatch, and then you finally get into the meat of the room: those damn hallways! We got so lost, it really WAS a maze! It’s just dingy walls but they all look alike. We got to a Medusa head that was screaming (this confused me bc you could fully see her eyes which is like. Her whole thing. I thought for sure there would be a mirror puzzle here but. Nah. Again, whatever I guess). The Minotaur is always around and we kept going back and forth constantly. At one point my friend literally got dragged away by the ankles and we had to go rescue them - I about attacked someone on my team bc we had to go all the way back to the start but then they left the key we’d need to get my friend out of the first cell!!! So then we had to go all the way BACK!!! And do it AGAIN!!! The whole time I’m trying not to soil my jumpsuit bc the creature is going to attack at any second, now you’re telling me you forgot the key and we have to go BACK!? We are NOT surviving this horror movie. EVENTUALLY we got everyone but then we hit the sacrifice room - a chair and machine with skulls that I presume would turn someone into a Minotaur. But of course, the doctor, who is ALSO popping up and jumpscaring us constantly, said we had to go get another power block for the machine which of course meant back into the maze AGAIN. This guy with a PHD is out here literally parkoring up the walls like spiderman (yes he did this multiple times) as I’m praying my knees don’t pop in the silence just from walking! The hallway had the block sitting in the middle of the hall in THE most obvious horror trap and I told my team to be ready to MOVE once I got it - turns out the creature ofc barreled at me immediately and then I turn around and almost stampeded my team bc apparently hauling ass to them meant stand still and watch me grab the thing we need causally as I’m running at them screaming with a guy on stilts gunning for me. We got the sacrifice going, the chair spun around, the Minotaur attacked one last time, and then the Doctor and the Minotaur battled it out - wish we could’ve seen the final scene better but they only gave us 2 holes to watch from so a good chunk of the team missed it which was a bummer. The end of the story is that the Doctor actually had turned himself into the Minotaur and was transforming Dr Jekyll style the whole time! We won and lived to see another room! Overall we loved it. I’m so sad they’re closing. It will be hard to find anything to top this experience. Thank you for such a great night, even the scaredy cats on my team had a blast. And we only got one bruise and a scrape between all 7 of us despite the odds (we’re not the most coordinated). So a win is a win. Thank you Robbie and Chris, and I wish nothing but incredible careers for the escape room team. You gave us a wonderful memory despite the horrors and we really needed it.
Puzzles were all pretty interesting throughout and had fun twists even with long pauses as we sprinted around
While I wish the set could’ve been more than it was, I get the practicality of it and they really went all out with the theming they did have!
Robbie crushed it and helped us feel immediately at ease and then proceeded to take that ease and grind it into the ground so we could get the jumpsuits scared straight off us. Thank you 😭😂
Particularly interesting or different
Yes
Never had to run for my life before in a maze - want to do sth like this again asap!
Not a lot of story but they committed to the theme and tbh, I appreciated that more than anything. A lot of times rooms seem like they’ll have a story like a haunt will - this one was pretty clear that wasn’t the case despite being labeled “thrill theater” and I appreciated that
The puzzles weren’t the most hard but everyone got a chance to do something which I always love, and considering the mounting time / stakes it took a puzzle from like a 5 to a 9 in difficulty when everyone is screaming, there’s dry ice flooding the halls and the dubstep starts to blast🫡
There’s a lot of locks and codes which I don’t always love but the special effects are so good that I’d still rate it high tech. Also bc people destroy stuff accidentally when they get scared I totally understand why they’d do more padlocks than something that could be smashed in panic, or thrown.
We did 7 which got a little cramped but was worth it for us. And everyone got to do something which was awesome.
Listen everyone gets scared differently but this will rattle your boots and I think even the most stoic would break into a jog.
I think this would’ve been too scary for me at 15 but I see little kids at HHN now so maybe for the right kid it’s nothing
Robbie and Chris the legends
I am still sore from running/crawling/cramming. That was on me.
Accessibility
This one kinda depends on darkness, twisty hallways, flashing strobe lights, sound cues and loud noises. Plus the physical stuff. So probably not very at all.
There was a weird back alley to drive down and no sign on the outside of the street but we got there.
They had their own lot but there was def some car moving around that had to happen.
Here’s the thing: no but yes. We knew we could get dragged away or grabbed at any time but the GM was really good at helping us understand the boundaries and how much of that there would be, and the jumpsuits also really helped. I wasn’t worried at all until I almost stampeded my team but that was their problem cause I told them they needed to book it. I was afraid this would be like the videos I see of Zoe but it was not. Even my friend who got hauled away said it was fine!