Paradox, Escape Room Review

Paradox Escape Room

San Jose, California

Wonderland: Having successfully fled Wonderland and entered back into the real world, we find ourselves undergoing psychiatric evaluation. The doctor thinks we have gone mad. Time to find our way back to Wonderland. 

Pros: The set design was basic but solidly constructed which was much appreciated since flimsily constructed rooms often delay progress. This room was less about searching for items and more about solving puzzles. The puzzles were all logical and tied into the Wonderland theme. Although, we often found ourselves scratching our heads trying to figure out the complex puzzles, successfully solving them made it worth it in the end. The game master was helpful and offered hints every ten minutes.

Cons: Because the game master would physically enter the room every ten minutes to ask if we needed a clue, we frequently found ourselves distracted. However, it turned out that we needed to take these clues because there were too many puzzles for our two-person team to solve. In the end, we felt that a few of the puzzles were overly complex. With two more solid players, capable of working on their own to solve individual puzzles, we may have been closer to breaking out. Overall, we recommend you take a team of four expert players to attempt this escape room if you want a remote chance of escape. More people than that will most likely be too many. Paradox escape games is one of the best escape games in San Jose/Santa Clara area. But compared to larger markets, such as Los Angeles, that is not a huge compliment. Still, we recommend that when in the South Bay, visit Paradox Escape Room first. 

http://www.paradoxescape.com/

Escape Hunt, Escape Room Review

Escape Hunt

Paris, France

Opera: The star of the caberet is missing. What happened to her? Our team of investigators was sent in to find out.

Pros: This establishment has an inviting waiting room that adds to the overall ambiance. The game master was also welcoming and helpful from start to finish. The set was decorated to theme with puzzles somewhat aligned to the storyline. The combination of mechanical and traditional puzzles was fun. We struggled with a few and needed hints to move us along but we enjoyed the puzzle-solving process.

Cons: One of the puzzles in the beginning stumped us for quite a while and we thought it could be slightly adjusted to be a bit more clear. Most of the puzzles however proceeded nicely and were logical and fun to solve. The set design was no frills but worked with the story. Overall this was a middle-of-the road escape room experience.

http://france.escapehunt.com/en/

Happy Hour Escape Room Review

Happy Hour Escape Game

Paris, France

Professor Zoltan's Virus: Professor Zoltan has gone mad and plans to release a deadly virus that will destroy humanity. We had  to locate the virus and flee the lab in order to foil his evil plan.

Police Academy of Palmento City: As police academy cadets we had to pass one final exam: defuse the bomb and escape with our lives. 

Pros: The game master enthusiastically introduced the story and dressed us appropriately for the parts we had to play. The added touch of costumes always adds to the experience, so hats off to Happy Hour Escape Rooms for props and costumes! The game master offered much needed hints through a monitor on the wall. Thankfully, we only needed a few hints here and there as the puzzles were clear and quite solvable. The game flow was linear and logical with each puzzle proceeding clearly from one to the next. 

Cons: The sets were basic in design but clearly aligned to the story. However, not all the puzzles fit the theme and storyline. At the end of the day, this was an overall solid middle-of-the road escape room experience. So grab a croissant and play a game or two  at Happy Hour Escape Game in Paris!

http://www.happyhourescapegame.com/?lang=en

Victory Escape Game, Escape Room Review

Victory Escape Game

Paris, France

Mona Lisa's Diamond: Mona Lisa's diamond is hidden in the central bank of Paris. Our band of expert burglars, had to locate and steal the world's largest diamond.

The Matrix: Trapped in the Matrix, we had to find our way out and save the world in the process. 

Pros: We loved the game masters here. The young woman who led us through the first game was exceptionally friendly, fun, and enthusiastic. She was excellent at introducing the game. Once inside the rooms, we discovered that the sets were decorated to theme, creating a fun, immersive environment. The puzzles worked overall but we struggled with a few that seemed illogical.

Cons:  In both of the games that we played we felt that the puzzles were overly convoluted creating an unnecessarily frustrating experience. In the Matrix, for example, we needed a pen and paper to help us remember parts of the puzzles that we had already solved. But a pen and paper were nowhere to be found. After our game was over, the employees told us that at one time paper and pens were included in the game but had since been taken out since the game seemed too easy for people. We thought this was a huge mistake since we had to memorize a large amount of numbers while also continuing to solve the puzzle. The game lacked a clear progression to indicate to players the next steps. This created unnecessary confusion and required redirection from the game master. Adjustments could easily be made to puzzles and game flow to fix these issues.

http://en.victoryescapegame.fr