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johnlarson

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@johnlarson
Morty score147
  • Escape rooms147
  • 273Wishlisted
  • 20Reviewed

johnlarson

Matthew Keller (He / Him) | SF Bay Area / Los Angeles / Seattle / Boston

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  • Bio
  • Experiences (147)
  • Wishlist (273)
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  • Escape rooms (20)
Moriarty's Manor

Moriarty's Manor

MindFox Escape

  • Escape room
  • IRL
Victoria was such an amiable and considerate game master! We felt very welcomed and that we were in good hands. The game was so creative, immersive, and had a wide range of puzzles that would appeal to all types of thinkers. Absolutely loved every part of this game!
PuzzBox™

PuzzBox™

Real Escape Game - Online

  • Escape room
  • Portable
SCRAP is known for their paper and pencil puzzles, so having an entire experience self contained to a locked box and various envelopes seems very fitting. While it looks simplistic, there were elements with the content that made it quite engaging — things that went a step beyond just “homework-sequel” activities. It has good entertainment value for you and a friend to just go through everything and crack open the box.
Virtual Reality Room [VR]

Virtual Reality Room [VR]

Quest Factor

  • Escape room
  • IRL
I want to emphasize that the game (it was an escape out of prison / horror theme) was alright, but my friend and I couldn’t make much progress due to technical difficulties. The headset was unwieldy, the remotes were unresponsive and lagging (making for controls within the game difficult), and there was a lot of trying to reset and recalibrate the devices. I think this was a relatively new experience when I played it, so I just got caught in their growing pains / almost beta period. I’m sure things have improved since!!
Flashback

Flashback

Escape Room in a Box

  • Escape room
  • Tabletop
I thought this was really cleverly designed! For one of the earlier escape room in a box experiences, I think they did well in throwing puzzles and story that immerse you into the flashback theme. There’s a creative mechanic toward the end of the experience that I hadn’t seen in any other experiences (boxed game or otherwise), and it made for a satisfying end to the series of puzzles to solve. It’s a great rainy day or stay-in activity!
Final Destination 2.0

Final Destination 2.0

Roundabout

  • Escape room
  • IRL
This was a good experience! I’d recommend 2-3 players, based on both the size and scope of the room and puzzles. The puzzles seemed disparate at first but the room was designed in a way where everything you need is there, so it didn’t require a lot of overthinking — perhaps just connecting the right dots that are there (and not to get distracted by other dots, of which there may be many!). The logic of everything made sense and nothing felt far-fetched or unfair. I enjoyed the experience a lot, and it was bolstered by incredible customer service.
Medieval Madness

Medieval Madness

PanIQ Room Mission District

  • Escape room
  • IRL
This room had a great set — it really immersed you in various elements of medieval times (be it torture or religion…or dare I say, what’s the difference? Just kidding!). I have to say, while some of the puzzles had some interesting interactive elements to them, the effects kind of fell flat. The logic for some of them just didn’t quite click and some things were worn out to the point where it made an additional barrier to solving what you needed. I think the experience did pick up in the latter half of it, with more straightforward puzzles that were simple enough to follow. Overall, I would have loved to see better logic and functionality for the first part.
The Rosenburg Conspiracy

The Rosenburg Conspiracy

Kryptic Tales Escape Rooms

  • Escape room
  • IRL
I thought this room had a lot of good things going on in it! The set and production value seemed simple (but not in a bad way!). The story wasn’t as cohesive to sell the immersion, but that was fine. The were some clever puzzles in there that were enjoyable — the kinds that really make you think a little more (where you feel satisfied with solving them!). I thought it was good overall experience!
Operation Ares: Escape from Mars

Operation Ares: Escape from Mars

Kryptic Tales Escape Rooms

  • Escape room
  • IRL
This was a cute space-themed room! I thought that the puzzles fit perfectly into the theme and story, and they definitely required a lot of collaboration, decoding, and patterns recognition. I found this to be a “big brain” thinking game mixed with some great physical prop usage and mechanics. There were many opportunities to divide and conquer, but the more you diverged, the more you’d come together again (…that will make sense if you play the room!). My team and I really enjoyed this experience and we felt super satisfied after finishing everything.
Hackfiltration

Hackfiltration

Puzzle Break - Online

  • Escape room
  • Virtual
This was a really fun game! Developed as a pivot during the peak shelter-in-place era, this game really did get you to think creatively and collaborate with your teams on Zoom. The puzzles were a creative mix of scavenger hunt, decoding certain documents and assets, as well as a hilariously throwback element at the end that proved to be far more challenging than it seemed (in a good way)!
School For Spies

School For Spies

Puzzle Break - Online

  • Escape room
  • Virtual
Developed as a pivot during the early days of shelter-in-place, I thought this game knocked it out of the park! I think that when I envisioned a virtual escape room experience, my mind darted to one of two things — either a VR-esque self-contained game experience OR watching a GM with a GoPro walk through a physical room while you speak commands (remember those early pandemic days..?). But this game was so well thought out — the files and pages you interacted with online were crafted to mix using their own documentation paired with the internet (i.e. Google Maps, for instance) in tandem to piece everything together and figure out the appropriate solution. I found it to be an ingenious way of incorporating the use of Internet resources that are already there and integrating them into some of the room’s clues, which strongly stayed on theme the entire time. I was very impressed!