The Red Wire

Honestly better than I expected it to be. An improvement on scenery and an absolute improvement on puzzles from Insane Asylum. Cool looking environments, fun soundtrack, and some nice puzzles once you really get going. It captures a distinct spy/secret agent feeling that really scratches an itch. That being said, there are an ABUNDANCE of locks in this game, without lock mapping. There is one interaction that is unclued and nearly impossible to figure out without a clue. There are definitely some logic leaps, and the puzzles towards the beginning and end are not quite as strong as the rest of them. There are better games in Boston, but if you’re going to PanIQ, play this game. It has more to hide than it first seems. (Although much to my disappointment, there was not a single red wire in The Red Wire. Shameful.)

I played this right after Atlantis and enjoyed the game much more. The theme was carried nicely through out and had a good story with a few twists I had not seen before. The set was a lot of fun and some nice twists playing off of the various spy tropes. The puzzles were fun and made for a lot of different skill sets. If I would tweak anything it would be the radar puzzle. The blips often feel between buttons and there was no way to really tell where it fell. It became a big time suck. Also, if you have codes that will disappear and not come back then please give players something to write on. I'm old. My memory is spotty at best.

This room felt a little disappointing for us. Room designs felt a little basic - not crafted with as much care or attention to detail as others we have seen. Also, many of the puzzles had technical elements that weren’t working or required really specific instructions that weren’t intuitive. Hopefully the company can fix/update these things, as they really interrupted the flow and made solving much less satisfying.

Standard "Disarm the bomb. Save the world" theme with a British twist. Set design was nice. More tech puzzles than standard lock which is always fun & led to 1 or 2 surprises. That being said, several puzzles were vague, there were "red herrings" that we wasted time trying to solve, & some puzzles didn't work quite as intended (requiring jiggling to get them to work). There was nothing "wrong" with the staff, but nothing great either. They were all business with absolutely no warmth or friendliness. There were delays getting hints & GM had to ask if we had already tried things. The GM never spontaneously offered hints or asked if we needed one. We spent 5 minutes on the final puzzle & ultimately did not escape. From other reviews, it seems like they monitor multiple games but there were at least 3 employees on (1 walked us in, another gave hints, a 3rd walked us out). The employee at the end was a little pushy trying to get a rebook. Overall, this game had alot of potential but in my opinion customer service is everything & this place just didn't provide a great experience. I'm sure being in Boston they'll get lots of tourist business no matter what, but it's not a place I would rush back to

Probably my favorite room at PanIQ but not my favorite overall. The puzzles generally flowed well, sans getting stuck at a few points.

Fun room, well themed. Some puzzles were a little vague and definitely needed us to step back and look at things differently. One tedious challenge took several tries. Another didn't register right away and took some fiddling. Overall, I thought it was a fun room worth checking out.

The game was good. However, there were many things on the room that crossed the line from decor to red herring. Also, there were some things in the room that were not sign posted well or at all. Pet peeve: when a GM is running more than 1 room and has to ask have you already done… or what are you currently working on. If a team pays good money the GM needs to be aware

Very beginner friendly room. Puzzles were all fair and well balanced, and the MI6 style theming was quite fun. Only issue was it was difficult to make out what was being said during the end of room victory audio.

Game masters are distracted and overseeing too many rooms at once.

I’m just not a fan of this place. It doesn’t seem super well run, they’re not that friendly, and the rooms range from okay to good. There was also a puzzle in The Red Wire that didn’t work as intended, and when we asked for clues, we had to wait 15-30 seconds to get one, like the game master wasn’t watching closely.