Toxicity

A little too bare bones and linear puzzles. Felt like there was a lot of standing around while 1 or 2 people are doing something and not feeling helpful with other things to do.

One of the directional locks was faulty. It did click closed, but opened with normal pressure. So it appeared to be locked. Game master couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so we tried a few different things and found that after the reset, it would just open without a code being entered. Luckily this did not mess up our game play too much. The code we got from opening that lock was clearly for the exit door, but having done many rooms we thought there had to be more to that so we left it be and moved onto the other areas. Like a “it can’t be that simple” kind of thing. No kind of apology from the game master, just a “that’s weird, have a good night”. Also, there are two little containers in the room. One for used locks/keys, the other for another item in the room. This room is not an extensive build, I understand some people may leave rooms in ridiculous conditions but this is a single room. I have had rooms with huge builds where we are just asked to leave the used keys and locks in the rooms we find them, that’s super reasonable. There is no reason to have players organize your locks for you in a room that small.

I love the aspect of having to start over from time to time and the separation of players from the start. Very clever even though it's not the most high tech.

Almost a love from me, this was the most fun room at A Harrowing Escape. This split start game splits in a unique way, and the gameplay is fun -- especially for the "favorite prisoner" (in our game: me). The set is a low point but serviceable and there's an odd moment when it's very obvious there SHOULD be an actor there... but no one appears. A bizarre choice that the GM said was originally made during Covid...and I guess that's been their story since 2020? The GM said "I thought about buying a mask and just coming into the room during those moments because I don't want to just come in as the GM" ... Yes, exactly. Buy a mask and expense it to your employer... It's really too bad these owners don't live in the internationally recognized immersive theme park capital of the world, with hundreds of escape rooms to compare to... Oh, wait...

As an experienced escape room team (we play frequently), we recently completed all three rooms here. Overall, we had a mixed experience and see areas for potential improvement.The first room started with a really cool effect we hadn't seen before, which was a great hook! However, the puzzles felt quite repetitive throughout the room. Specifically, many puzzles involved finding items and simply placing them on different sensors around the room, a pattern that occurred multiple times. More variety in puzzle types would definitely enhance this room.A significant point of frustration was the sock requirement for the first room. While we had appropriate shoes, one team member didn't have socks and had to purchase them. Crucially, we made our booking over the phone and were never advised of this requirement during that call. We also reviewed the several emails received beforehand, none of which mentioned socks were mandatory, only recommending comfortable shoes. This lack of clear communication upfront was disappointing.The second room had some good elements, but we felt the moments where the "killer" interacts with the group were less impactful without a live actor physically entering the room. We noticed reviews on platforms like Morty from as recently as last year (2024) where other teams mentioned having a live actor take on the killer's persona during these checks. When we asked our game master about this after our game, we were told it had been discontinued since COVID. This felt a bit misleading given the recent reviews suggesting the live actor was still part of the experience for others, and we believe reinstating this element would significantly enhance the immersion and excitement of this room.In the third room, the puzzles were just average; there wasn't anything that particularly stood out as a great or memorable puzzle. We also felt the ending was a bit anticlimactic, wishing the final puzzle or the escape moment itself had a more impactful reveal or conclusion.Regarding the staff, we interacted with two hosts during our visit. One host was very helpful and seemed genuinely enthusiastic about us being there, which was appreciated. However, our interaction with the second host was less positive. Our entire team felt they seemed uninterested and somewhat dismissive of our questions. In a customer service-focused business like this, the staff interaction significantly impacts the overall experience, and this particular interaction was a bit off-putting.Overall, there's potential here, but clearer communication on requirements (especially for phone bookings), some adjustments to puzzle design and interactive elements (particularly bringing back the live actor in the second room and enhancing the third room's puzzles and finale), and consistent, positive staff engagement could really improve the player experience.

So first off just wanted to say how nice the staff were they all were amazing and great . And I love their cat . Honestly the cat made it worthwhile 😅. I like the concept of the room as you are being handcuffed and chained to the room and having to figure out what's going on from all the scattered clues and makes it very fun and entertaining. It's just I feel as though the actual room as a whole was kind of a let down. In my opinion I think if they do a mixture of the immersion with their safe option where you can't lose would make it more fun as an experience. We honestly didn't even do the option with the actor because we didn't want to fail the room and not get out. So we decided to do the safe route because we wanted to enjoy the room as it is. I think if they do a combination of the safe option with the actor and not losing it would have been a fine room overall. Also parts of the room felt like they were either just ripped out from modifications or missing it felt like they just put together a room in 20 minutes.

Gms were really nice. Room was basic. Puzzles were basic. We had two people so we opted out of the immersion option only because we thought it would be too hard. Really wished we did it. I think it would have made it more interesting. Only giving a thumbs up because the staff was nice and I liked the cat.

I want to start off by saying the staff was really nice- we were indecisive about some things and they were really helpful and worked with us for decisions. I think the mechanic was very unique too. It was however very clear that this isn’t the first incarnation of this room. They mentioned it was previously 90 minutes and I don’t think as much was changed as necessary to get it down to 60. Some things were very confusing, and not in the expected escape room way- just worded in a way that made it hard to figure out the task at hand.

Definitely a 10/10 difficulty level room. The lack of flow is what makes it hard to navigate around the room. Clues are heavily relied on communication. Married couples… good luck! we kinda got irritated a little at each other LOL. It was a great experience for us as a team of 2 I feel like this would have been a little more easier with 3 or 4. Fun night! will come back!