Escape The City - Las Vegas [Outdoor]

TL;DR: Fun, novel way to combine puzzles with exploring a real world neighborhood. Recommend to others with a few caveats as described below. Escapely, for anyone who hasn't done it before, is like a combination scavenger hunt and puzzle experience with puzzles that are akin to those in traditional escape rooms but using landmarks and other things in the real world location. You get a box mailed to you ahead of time that contains envelopes with clues and puzzles, and use your phone with the Escapely app/website to scan QR codes and input answers as you solve the puzzles, and read the directions to the next puzzle/location. The game gives you a rough suggested start by and end by time, based on when businesses/areas you might need for the puzzles would be open. You're free to take as much time as you need within that, so ours took about three hours including walking around and stopping for lunch. It's a fun experience and a cool way to wander around an area- but the plot and immersion is naturally lower than in a traditional escape room because you're confined to what exists in the world already. This also means it can be confusing to match what's in real life with the clues you're given as some things may change over time. Escapely for Vegas was a fun experience for me and my mom and aunt, who have all done 30+ escape rooms. The puzzles were on the easier side but were really cool, especially the first third or so of them. Logistically the game runs into a few issues that should be taken into account by anyone who is looking to do this themselves. 1. The location is in downtown Las Vegas- this is NOT the strip, this is around the Fremont Street area which is a few miles away from the strip itself. You have to drive, take a taxi/rideshare, or public transit to the location where you're supposed to start if you're staying on the strip. This area is not that great- we were warned by our Uber driver not to stray much further from the area where we were being dropped off. We were there in the late morning/early afternoon and would not recommend doing this at night, especially if you're by yourself. There's also a lot of construction going on (as of Dec 2023) which almost closed off one entire puzzle location- we had to walk across a construction site to get to it. There was no work going on at the time, likely because it was a weekend, but just something to keep in mind- and also impacted a different walk from place to place. 2. I rated this for 21+ solely for the final location- it requires you to go inside a place that is now only for 21+. We talked to an employee inside who said that the game was designed before the pandemic, when they had no age restrictions. After everything opened up again, the business changed their policy to only allow in those who are 21+. But Escapely hasn't changed the game or noted the age restriction on their website. You have to come inside this place to solve the final puzzle. If you have younger people with you who are fine waiting outside, then go for it- but it kind of sucks to be locked out of the place where you solve the final puzzle. Especially because it's a cool place, and seemed pretty fun. I will also note if you have children with you that this game has you go through the Fremont Street experience area. If you haven't been, it's a stretch of outdoor walk that's a few blocks long lined with businesses, hotels/casinos, outdoor performers/buskers, live music, etc. It's always crowded, loud, and bright (like the strip, but in a smaller area). If you have sensory issues this may not be for you. In addition, the standard warnings for anything you'd see on the strip apply- scantily clad men and women, profanity, drugs, etc. If you're on a family trip to Vegas you're probably already fine with seeing all of this, but it's worth noting this is slightly seedier than the standard center strip experience. It's a cute idea and especially the first few locations were awesome, but we might have been stopped from being able to complete the game if we hadn't been able to walk across that construction site for one puzzle, and/or if we hadn't been old enough to get into the last location. I would do other games from this company, but this one probably needs some updating from Escapely to reflect the latest situation in the neighborhood. It worked out for us but may not fit everyone. But it's a lot of fun to wander around solving puzzles, and we ran into a few employees at various places who knew what we were doing and had seen other people doing it.