Neighborhood WatcherThe Escape VenturesEscape roomIRLI adore this room. It does everything; great puzzles, great atmosphere, engaging plot, and it's spooky-scary. A great introduction to scarier rooms for non-horror fans. I honestly have nothing bad to say, this is one of my all time favorite rooms and The Escape Ventures really don't miss a beat.
Hope EndThe Ministry Of PeculiaritiesEscape roomIRLI love when escape rooms are innovative and immersive. This room checks a lot of boxes for me: horror/spooky theme, split-start, live-actor, tech puzzles, great story, great set decor and atmosphere,... There's not a lot to be improved, aside from the clue system breaking immersion. The staff and actors are phenomenal and stayed in character from the moment we walked in the door. I absolutely love the company and am excited to see what they bring next. A must-play for anyone in the area.
Operation Arctic Storm: The Final MeltdownThe Escape VenturesEscape roomIRLI am in love. One of the best rooms I've ever done. Super large set, tons of puzzles, extremely fun to traverse through this story. Note that some spaces are a bit tight - it was a hard fit with a group of 5. A group of 3 would probably feel the most comfortable. This was a super unique experience that has increased the bar for other rooms.
Bros for Life: Fraternity HeistThe Escape VenturesEscape roomIRLGreat room, really fun! Lots of puzzles, nice atmosphere, fun story.
Captain Spoopy BonesDoldrick's Escape RoomEscape roomIRLGood room, solid puzzles. Lots of co-op action with a split-start. Nothing stood out as particularly memorable, but everything was strong overall and would recommend as a decent room to play with a group!
The Weeping WitchCross Roads Escape GamesEscape roomIRLI'm perhaps one of the only people who didn't really enjoy this room. As a live-actor horror fan, I don't think this room gave me the atmosphere I wanted as it was quite an on-rails experience (probably not dissimilar to a Disney ride). The good news is having the horror-side so tame allowed for more puzzles, although I didn't find any of them particularly fun or interesting, and some of them were a bit convoluted. Small room, beware of red herrings. The theming and set dressing was great however, and there are a few good and creative scare moments as well. This would be excellent for people who prefer puzzles but want a little hint of horror and to get a taste of live-actor experiences.
The Last SupperQuest TavernEscape roomIRLI didn't enjoy this room as much as I thought I would, but it is by no means a bad room. Our actor was very comical and theatrical, which I think worked great for others in my group. I was hoping for a more tense or horror-like experience, so I would've preferred more subtle and immersive character acting. With that said, our actor did a great job improvising with our group. The story is unique and fun, and the set dressing is quite nice. There are some cool moments. I -do- wish there were more puzzles though. This room is great for some lighthearted fun and a simple experience.
The Seventh RoomDare 2 EscapeEscape roomIRLHints are given out of necessity as the room consistently does not contain enough information to solve some of the puzzles. Numerous pieces broken or not functional. A lot of puzzles that are tedious and unfun time sinks where you understand what to do but the actual act of doing it is something quite boring and uninteractive. Certain jump scares and scary moments, but the frustration and waiting around broke the immersion for 80% of the experience. On the bright side, the set dressing was nice, the staff were friendly, and I like the non-linear start. I think they could take the same puzzles and apply better design to improve the experience.
The Hex RoomCross Roads Escape GamesEscape roomIRL"The Hex" is the room my group uses as a reference for a high-quality escape room. Excellent atmosphere and immersion, customized split-start, intuitive and engaging puzzles, side-objectives, and replayability. This is a must-play.
Irvine School Of Wizardry And The Dragon WandHidden DonkeyEscape roomIRLThis room had a very strong start and but a rather weak ending. The atmosphere is great and the puzzles are fun to do. Lots of tech to bring it away from the lock-and-key genre. If you're a Harry Potter fan, this is a must-try. Overall, it's worth doing once for the experience. If they update the latter half of the experience, I think this could easily be one of the best escape rooms.
