The Secret of The Tower Keeper

As an escape room enthusiast with 400+ rooms under my belt, The Tower Escapes - The secret of the Tower Keeper was underwhelming and disappointing. If you’re an enthusiast I think you’ll be disappointed and if you’re a beginner, I don’t think you’ll want to do another escape room after this. To start; The Good - Customer service was really great. We were visiting Raleigh from out of town and with a short schedule. They agreed to open early to allow us to play which was wonderfully accommodating. When we arrived, the game master was friendly enough, though didn’t introduce himself and didn’t know us other than by our time slot, which personalization is just a personal preference of mine. The tower is in fact an old water tower from the 1800s so the space itself looks and feels cool. Those were all pluses. The room itself was dated and didn’t quite match the theme. It was definitely aged and needed care, and not in a way that was suitable for the theme. For my group, we needed a hint with every puzzle and the hint was “Do X, Y and Z.” We did X, Y, and Z. That’s the most frustrating thing when the hints are to do what you have done. It’s an immediate turn off for me. Turns out you have to push things harder or knock slower. When two people have attempted the puzzle multiple times and it’s still failing, it’s frustrating to be told just to do it again until it works. That’s just not enjoyable. At the debrief we were told some days the puzzles work perfectly, others they’re temperamental. To me you need to change the puzzle if historically it’s not going to work a lot of the days. I think the room could benefit from Some minor improvements that could improve the experience across the board. The game master said they wanted to ensure we had fun and a good time, and they missed the mark on that. Bottom line - Looks great and customer service is good but actual escape room is dated, with glitchy tech and in need of puzzle upgrades and repairs

This could have been a fantastic room, but had lots of puzzles that weren’t working smoothly that had some age that needed some care

The tower is definitely a neat location to have an escape room but found the puzzles themselves to be a bit frustrating. Some parts didn’t flow well; it made it hard to figure things out but not in a way that felt clever but rather needed a bit more thought out into it. Game master was great! Room was just definitely different than we expected.

It was fun!! Some of the puzzles need to be updated but the charm is there!

This is a really cool room. Being inside the tower really makes this one unique. It is challenging!

I think this place gets mixed reviews because it’s just not the same as a traditional escape room. I really enjoy all the rooms here, but it’s important to go in knowing it’s not going to be exactly like all escape rooms you’ve done before. First of all, they don’t make a big deal out of designing a ‘set’, the tower IS the set (which makes sense, right? It’s a historic landmark, they should use it). Second the puzzles are just… different. I’m not entirely sure how to describe it but they’re not like the kind of puzzles I’m used to. I kind of love that about them, but I could see it frustrating people who want to go in to something knowing what to expect. Overall if you’re looking for a deeply immersive experience this may not be it, but if you’re looking for something a little off the beaten path give it a try!

This is their best room and definitely recommended. We had a blast!