michaelyoung
132 escape rooms
This room did enough clever things that I considered giving it a thumbs-up, but this room also committed some major cardinal sins that frankly give escape rooms a bad name. Puzzles are very poorly clued, some props aren’t labeled as they should be, some instructions are really hidden, many locks could work for multiple puzzles, parts of one puzzle are very obscure and hidden (almost where the instructions to not touch certain props would make you ignore this altogether), magnetic unlocks aren’t always apparent, one puzzle requires math, and one puzzle requires outside knowledge. I get that designing fair yet challenging puzzles is a challenge on its own, but it feels like this room’s purported difficulty comes from instances of poor design or insufficient signposting. The room does offer some clever and lesser-utilized puzzles, and some props are quite novel; other props have seen better days. This could be a good room, but it needs to be more fair to its players.
Gameplay
If I’m playing $40/person, I don’t want to do a crossword-style puzzle or use scratch paper to solve a math problem.
Atmosphere
The barber chair and the beer taps were standouts. Much else felt generic and phoned in. The brick wall was just wallpaper.
Customer service
Particularly interesting or different
No
Story
Find the ledger and escape in 60 minutes. While the clear goal was appreciated, the puzzles were not integrated into the story, and the story (what little there was) was all but forgotten.
Difficulty
Hard
Difficult due to poor signposting, confusing wording, mislabeled props, etc.
Game tech
There were as many arduino-style locks as there were traditional combination locks. An early puzzle was mechanical in a simple yet clever way.
Scary
Not scary
Was anything broken?
Yes
One puzzle was broken, but the GM was attentive and quickly paused our time and got us a new prop.
Live actors
No
Physically active
Not at all
Easy to find location
No
Depends if you go to the right location. They’re in the same mall area, but they’re a 2-minute drive apart.
Parking
Easy
