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briggseric

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Morty score25
  • Escape rooms25
  • 239Wishlisted
  • 7Reviewed

briggseric

    @randallrodriguez@vcollins
    a

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    • Bio
    • Experiences (25)
    • Wishlist (239)
    • Reviews (7)>
    • All (7)
    • Escape rooms (7)
    Magician's Workshop

    Magician's Workshop

    Ravenchase: Escape Room Herndon

    • Escape room
    • IRL
    An outstanding room with excellent puzzle flow. Great fun, and we’ll definitely be returning to this venue.
    The Crystal Maze Live Experience

    The Crystal Maze Live Experience

    The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience

    • Escape room
    • IRL
    Note that this is not an escape room. It’s a recreation of the UK TV show The Crystal Maze, which is escape room-adjacent. Basically, it’s a collection of individual challenges, many of which are similar to things you might do in an escape room. Pros: •Fun, and does a great job of capturing the TV experience. •Some of the games are fun and elaborate. • Great maze master who was funny and positive and (I’m pretty sure) subtly gave the kids in our party extra time on their games to stop them from being discouraged. • Many games gave all team members the chance to participate by shouting suggestions, even if they weren’t the official player. Cons: • Very expensive— twice the price of a standard London escape room. I get why: real estate in Picadilly Circus must be insanely expensive, plus they have to pay for the licensing fees. But from a consumer point of view, it was twice the price I’ve paid for equivalent entertainment. • Some of the games are simplistic — think traveling carnival level. • They are really insistent that you bring a full team of 8; if you don’t, there’s a very good chance your team will get broken up and you won’t get to play together. With a total of 16 games, that means each person only gets to be the star of 2 games. • Difficulty of games is extremely unpredictable and you don’t get to see the game before assigning the player, so you can’t really assign people to their strong suits. This is entirely authentic to the TV show but it can make for a frustrating experience. OVERALL: If you’re a fan of the TV show and you feel the price is a fair one for a chance to live out the experience, go for it. But if you’ve got a fixed entertainment budget and you just want the greatest bang for your immersive entertainment buck, you’re probably better off with a trip to one of London’s many high quality escape rooms (eg Cluequest, Escape Plan, or the Game Is Now, to name a few.)
    Pudding Lane

    Pudding Lane

    TimeTrap Escape Rooms Reading

    • Escape room
    • IRL
    Great set decoration with terrific use of historical detail. Excellent puzzle flow as well. I have to give a special nod to our GM Jack, who was clearly watching closely-- he gave exactly the right nudges at exactly the right times. And he was knowledgable and passionate about the game as well. Also, I want to praise the game for giving us the best set of flashlights I've encountered in an escape room. They were small and lightweight but very bright. I wish other rooms with atmospheric lighting would follow their lead! (I realise that’s a small, almost trivial detail, but it’s indicative of the overall attention to detail that made this room so great.) All in all, one of my favorite games in the UK.
    Pharaoh's Chamber - A Cursed Tomb

    Pharaoh's Chamber - A Cursed Tomb

    Escape Rooms London Bridge

    • Escape room
    • IRL
    This room opened in 2014, making it (I believe) one of the three oldest still-operating rooms in London. So, it’s not going to have the elaborately themed decoration of some more recent rooms. Expect an old school experience, with lots of puzzles and combination locks. But there’s a reason this room has survived almost a decade. The puzzles are varied, fair, and fun, and the nonlinear nature of the room means your whole team can stay busy.
    The Gates of Hell

    The Gates of Hell

    No Escape - Victoria

    • Escape room
    • IRL
    A fun, well-constructed game with well-done sets and good puzzles. I’d put this in the top 50% of London escape rooms. It would rank higher, but there was one badly designed puzzle, where an object was in reach but we were told not to use it. It would be a fairly simple matter to move it a little farther away, so that it was out of reach to the average player but still accessible at the right time.
    Underground 2099

    Underground 2099

    Mission: Breakout

    • Escape room
    • IRL
    It has an atmospheric location in an abandoned tube station. We appreciated our attentive and helpful gamemaster. Unfortunately, the game itself is very linear with only one or two puzzles to work on each time, and the early puzzles in the game just aren’t that much fun. One in particular vastly outstayed its welcome. The puzzles get better as they go, building to a fun final puzzle and a fun final actor interaction but it wasn’t enough to build back my enthusiasm.
    The Flying Dutchman

    The Flying Dutchman

    Breakin' Escape Rooms

    • Escape room
    • IRL
    Kind of a mixed experience. Great pirate atmosphere, and some fun puzzles, including a few with sense of humor that is rare in escape rooms. However, one physical challenge took too long and only involved one member of our party while everybody else watched, and the final puzzle was glitchy. If Morty had a “mixed” option, I’d choose that— but since I did have fun, despite the room’s flaws, I’m giving it a thumbs up.