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You have 60 minutes to find what escobar needs, or your family will die. Can you save them? The year is 1993. You’re a mid-level Sicario working for Pablo Escobar in Medellin, Colombia. You receive news that Escobar is furious—one of his most trusted allies has betrayed him. In his rage, Escobar killed the informer, who happened to be the only one who knows where your boss’s money and fake passport are hidden. The DEA are on their way to the clandestine cocaine lab, and Escobar desperately needs his money and passport to flee the country, and he’s demanded that you find them. If Escobar doesn’t get these things before the DEA arrives, he’s sworn to murder your entire family in revenge. He’ll have no mercy on you, and neither will the DEA.
All ratings (667)
Very positive
Gameplay
Overwhelmingly positive
Atmosphere
Overwhelmingly positive
Customer service
Overwhelmingly positive
101 escape rooms
Some real physical crime experience. A few puzzles are unique and super well designed. It’s a big room with a lot of puzzles. We escaped as a group of 2 with less than 2min to spare, after using several hints
Yes
Expert
4
Not scary
13
Somewhat
A very interactive one
Easy
41 escape rooms
My girlfriend and I must’ve had an off day lol. Took us a minute to get going and we needed a nudge to get us on track which is why we ran out of time. The room itself was pretty cool, but we didn’t have our best day that day. So we went to do another room and totally killed that one 😁
Not scary
497 escape rooms
This was an interesting room. I played a room with basically this theme in Budapest but haven’t played a “Pablo Escobar” room in the USA. The set design in the first half is very good. It gets a bit lazy IMO in the second half, although there is a reason. The room has some good puzzles, including a couple where you will do things that you’re probably not expecting to do in an escape room. The story is exactly what it says it is: it is the early 1990s and you are working for Pablo Escobar the drug lord. I enjoyed it but I am not bothered by the subject matter. So with that caveat, recommended.
The set design is very good.
Yes
It’s interesting because of the theme, and they absolutely lean into the theme. The actual room itself is not particularly interesting or different, but it’s a decent room.
Medium
Mechanical
Mix of physical and environmental puzzles. Some electronics but mostly locks.
4
2-4 would be fine. More than 4 would be too many. Doable with 1 but it would be challenging to get it all done in time.
Not scary
You are, to be clear, working for a drug kingpin.
16
Hard to recommend a room with this theme to children. Older teens have probably seen far worse on television.
No
No
Not at all
Not accessible. Multiple staircases and a couple of tight spaces.
Yes
Medium
They have a small parking lot behind the building, otherwise street parking.
15 escape rooms
I hate to give this a negative review as the room itself was fun, but it was immediately spoiled by our time already having started before we even entered the room. We arrived ten minutes -early- and used the bathroom, greeted with smiles and no implication that we would be on a time limit as soon as the clock turned over. It was only after I asked mid-rules explanation that we were informed 6 minutes had already gone by. We felt manipulated and robbed of time- the fact they didn’t even tell us beforehand made this room (and business) feel less like they cared for us and more that we were on the conveyor belt of their schedule. I’ve had so many incredible experiences with caring owners and passionate workers, but this just stung. We likely won’t be coming back here.
Strong start, but I felt the set design was weaker in the second half.
Yes
Pretty surface level plotwise.
Medium
Mechanical
Not scary
No
No
Somewhat
Stairs in places.
Yes
Easy
125 escape rooms
As a big fan of history, this escape room put together some of my favorite elements of Pablo Escobar's life and made puzzles out of it. The room follows the story of the drug lord and the cartel. We had a group of 4, two experienced people and two newbies. The newbies managed their own pretty well. There were some comments that folks shared already in their reviews and I agree with them. The room is not as linear and some of the puzzles did not have as much clarity. One of the first puzzles took us a good 10 minutes to figure out, and even then we asked for a hint. When we found out how this puzzle was supposed to work, the "answer" did not feel particularly challenging or insightful. The puzzles were at middle difficulty, but that's because the parameters around which to solve for them are not as clear. Overall, the ending redeemed this room for me but the price is still too high.
Hard
50 escape rooms
We had high hopes but went home frustrated First off, as many others have said, they start the 1 hour the second they open the door to the room. They then spend about five minutes talking before you can begin. Longer if they’re feeling chatty. Next, there are puzzles which seem intentionally poorly designed. The writing is sometimes difficult to read, there is a picture so bad as to be misleading, and there is way too much junk everywhere that just gets in your way. Finally, our GM gave us a spectacularly bad hint early on which sent us down the wrong path. We ended up not completing the room. (This is only the second time that’s happened to us and we’ve done around 50 rooms by now.) It seems with minor tweaks, the room could be top rate, but given the number of other reviewers who have made complaints exactly like mine, I don’t think this place had any desire to improve.
Off kilter and jerky
Great look but too much extraneous stuff that ends up being pure red herring
While always pleasant, our GM started the clock the second we walked in the room, while they were still giving us the basic set-up. And this was after we had sat waiting for them in the lobby for about five minutes. We basically started out with only 55 minutes to solve the room. Also, we were lost and asked for a hint. The we were given was worded in such a way that it sent us even further down the wrong track. At other times, they seemed sincerely to be trying to help. But the amount of time we lost at the top and to pursuing an incorrect solution cost us the escape.
Yes
You get a lot dirtier here than in most escape rooms
It’s been done many times before, even just right up the street.
Hard
There are puzzles which will stop you cold. And are surrounded by misleading bric a brac that eats up your time and focus
High tech
4
Not scary
16
No
No
Somewhat
I ended up running up and down those damn stairs.
Yes
Medium
There’s parking behind the building, but you have to ask them to open it up to you. They don’t tell you that in advance. And if you don’t show up early, they’ll penalize you for looking for parking by deducting from your time in the room
382 escape rooms
I’m so surprised that something so rooted to a very specific person in history has inspired not just one, but two whole escape rooms. But Escobar shows that any passionate topic can become an escape room. This room follows the story of drug lord and cartel leader Pablo Escobar. I don’t know much about him, but I feel like I’ve learned quite a bit just from playing the room. Goes to show how educational escape rooms can be! I particularly liked the Colombian set design, and the tasks you get to do in the room feel raw and practical. I even got to do something cathartic that I never thought I’d do in a room. We even had to confirm with the GM if we could do it, which felt wild and a little confusing. My biggest peeve is how strict the room is about time. We were a few minutes late, and we basically had 10-15 minutes taken off our clock… Yea, we shouldn’t have been late, but wow. We ended up escaping, but we needed more hints than usual to make up for the time loss. It is a hard room, regardless, and there is a puzzle that requires you to literally wait a few minutes. I still loved the room despite our experiences, and I do like this one more than Escobar Part 2, which we did immediately after.
Welcoming but strict on time…
Yes
Hard
High tech
Not scary
18
Yes
Maybe our scale was broken, so they paused time and checked it
No
Somewhat
Gotta use a tool to do something
No
Limited
27 escape rooms
The room was very linear which isn’t my favorite as there were lots of moments where people couldn’t do much. The puzzles themselves were just okay. The set was really beautiful and atmosphere was great but there was no wow moments which I think is really important for a room to have. This may be somewhat unfair as we have done some great high tech rooms lately. However, we just did Stashhouse in Ktown recently which was a similar theme but much better done, even with that room having a similar level of tech (if not less than this room). There were a million red herrings that drove me crazy, one of my biggest pet peeves. Handwriting was unclear in multiple parts of the room. Ultimately, I don’t think this deserved a thumbs down, as we have done truly bad rooms that deserved a thumbs down, but I certainly am in no rush to recommend it to anyone. *There was a review by someone else that gave it a thumbs down and it says it contains spoilers, but it didn’t really, and I think he did a great job of hitting all the problems in this room. I’d recommend referencing that review as well when considering doing this room. **The aesthetic of the business itself was really fantastic. Between that and how awesome our game instructor was, I would consider trying a different room here in hopes it may be better.
Room was extremely linear which I personally dislike. Also tons of red herrings.
GM was very fun and friendly! Cannot say more positive things about them.
No
Hard
Mechanical
2
Room is linear so I can’t recommend more than two.
Not scary
13
Yes
We had to take batteries out of scale and hold to reset
No
Somewhat
There are stairs but only one person needs to do them.
Yes
Easy
117 escape rooms
The room was fun loved the set design and loved the physical aspect of the room!
“Escobar is a really good escape room in Los Angeles.“
“Very well designed game, with the set design transporting you to the 90s. Multiple rooms to explore.“
“This game made us do things we would never ever do an an escape room...“