Stash House

We'd been saving this for a special occasion and an escape room fan friend's bday was the perfect occasion! I can see how this needs a team to do - it's nonlinear so there are enough puzzles to keep everyone occupied. I thought the variety of puzzles was great, and the use of the location was creative and efficient!

Such a fun and unique room!! It’s worth pointing out though, that this may not be the best room for beginners. There is a 4 person minimum, but I was able to do it with two other people because we’re all experienced escape roomers. It’s not so much that the puzzles are super difficult, there’s just a LOT of them, so every team member needs to be able to pull their weight so the team as a whole can divide and conquer. You also get 90 minutes for this room, but don’t get too comfortable with that extra time because it still feels like only 60 minutes. We needed every minute but still managed to escape and the payoff is so rewarding!

Pham was such an amazing game master! He was personable and texted us some jokes during the game. Also, the environment of the game was so cool in that right as you walked in, you weren’t in a waiting room, you were already in the escape room! Looking back on it, every part of this game was SO much fun to do with my group of 4.

Lives up to the hype if you like puzzles and locks. We tackled this with a team or 5 and I enjoyed watching each other excel at our varied strengths. It’s feel like an OG boss battle escape room with simple analog locks and puzzles. I didn’t think the immersion / worldbuilding / subversive subtleties were as strong as others feel. At its core, it’s a puzzle room. Which is a good thing, because I like puzzle rooms.

The room was fun, but the GM did not start us off with the enthusiasm we normally receive at other escape rooms. The puzzles were challenging, but our group was large and full of experienced players so we ran out of things to do at times. If your group is very experienced, I recommend keeping it on the smaller side to keep it challenging.

A true puzzle gauntlet. This game forces your group to split up and think fast, as there are almost always many things to do at once. While some puzzles require creative thinking, two puzzles ask for deciding, and one long sequence requires a lot of simply finding the right numbers is a busy and cramped space. The puzzles that require teamwork are often more one person does something while the other plays admin or scribe. This feels more like you’re doing multiple solo escape rooms at times. Pluses are a creative ending, unique props, a large space (though AC is lacking in parts), and a game that truly necessitates a large team and a longer run time. It’s an elevated Gen 2 room that serves as an exemplar of the medium’s potential but also isn’t absent of some of its sins.

overall it was an awesome room. not a fan of going to LA for escape rooms bc parking is always a hassle but the room itself was awesome and thank god air conditioned. the puzzles were a tier above normal not super difficult but multistep type puzzles that made you really think. i definitely enjoyed and recommend it!

I was actually quite underwhelmed with Stash House, the game shows it’s age in terms of puzzles, and has some puzzle design decisions that still baffle me in how they could go through so much play testing and still be left as is. The design was ok, but it didn’t really feel like a stash house, or a drug kingpin’s pad, or a grow house or anything…just felt like your fairly standard, bachelor’s pad type set. Of the 8 we played in LA this was probably my 7th place game. I would say it really doesn’t live up to the hype, it’s a fine game, but in spite of what the website shows, and some of the reviews discuss the game doesn’t have that over the top “you’re part of the story from the moment you find the door” thing, at least not with the GM we had.

really well thought out escape room! highly recommend

One of the most Wild & California-themed concepts. Our group had an absolute blast and were very entertained by the creative puzzles and interactions we had to fulfill !