The Scorpion Code

I feel that a good escape room starts with your game master and unfortunately, our most recent game master was a dud. Upon early arrival, we were met with an empty lobby waiting for a few minutes. Our game master popped out quickly and just said, “I’ve got to clean your room, and rushed back”, with no greeting nor instructions. Luckily enough after doing numerous escape rooms, we knew to sign the waivers on the desk. After waiting quite some time (after room start time) our game master returned a simply just said “Come on” and gestured to follow her. During our briefing, our game master's tone was rushed and lazy. After our briefing, our game master led us to our room where she rushed through the scenario of the room. I barely heard half the things she said. She then just left the room. Now the room was fun for sure and we only really needed one clue, however, we got unsolicited nudging and hints that we never asked for which ruined the fun a mystery of the room (felt like our game master just wanted us to finish the room as soon as possible to get us out of there). At the end of the game, our game master just came in and asked if we had “any questions” not “good job”, “do you guys want a picture”, “Did you have fun” etc. The reason for this negative review is that this experience was very off-putting and made me hesitant to finish the rest of the rooms at ANY ESCAPE QUEST. Honestly, I have had better experiences with other escape rooms with cheaper production value, BUT the game master is very enthusiastic and attentive which sets up their guests for a fun experience. I really hope no newcomers come here for their very first escape room and have the same experience we had tonight. If they did they would probably have a poor impression of escape rooms and never try another one again. Over the past 3 years, we have traveled the US and competed in over 40 escape rooms and this all blossomed from our very first escape room where our game master set us up for fun and success, not whatever this was tonight.

The room itself was well-designed, albeit lacking unique features. Initial difficulty arose due to the non-linear nature of the puzzles, but we managed to overcome them eventually. However, the experience was marred by the negative tone set by the staff and GM from the outset. Their lack of enthusiasm and attention to detail, such as neglecting to activate a necessary puzzle, significantly detracted from an otherwise enjoyable room and puzzle. Unfortunately, this interaction has left me hesitant about returning for future experiences.

This is a cool room with some unique highlight puzzles. I did feel that the flow was slightly off; we would find/get clues that we didn’t need yet, which was confusing. There was also one puzzle that required outside knowledge, and they immediately provided a clue on the screen to help us with it. This leads me to believe that most groups struggle to possess that bit of outside knowledge needed. On the positive side, there is a unique story element that involved some physical activity and teamwork. A good room, but not quite as good as Expedition Unknown. I will be back to play the third room!

The room was not fully constructed. I felt like we were beta-testing thre room. GM said, assume there is a door here, and only pass through the corridor once you solve a specific riddle. :/ One of the locks were already open. During the game, somebody entered the room, and stayed about a minute and left. I think he picked up something.