Ryptic Room Escape, Escape Room Review

Ryptic Room Escape

San Mateo, California

Escape from the Poltergeist: Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters of course! As ghostbusters we had to discover the mystery of the haunted office before we met our supernatural doom.

Escape from the Aliens: A famous UFO expert has been kidnapped by aliens. Our group was tasked with the job of discovering what happened to him before the aliens returned to take us for an extraterrestrial experience. 

Pros: The game master was very friendly and helpful. The storyline was clear and the rooms were decorated to fit the theme. Some nice surprises in the poltergeist room enhanced the experience. The puzzles in both of these rooms were very logical and nicely scaled in complexity. We found ourselves out of time in the Poltergeist room before we were able to successfully break out. 

Cons: The puzzles in Escape from the Aliens were a bit too many for a two-person team but would work well for a group of 4 to 6. Some of the puzzles were more time-consuming than enjoyable to solve. Overall, this is was a solid escape room experience, great for escape room newbies and veterans alike. 

https://ryptic.com

Escape Game 911, Escape Room Review

Escape Game 911

Santa Clara, California

Police Station: Finding ourselves in a precarious position falsely accused of theft, under arrest and confined in a cell in a police station, we had to find a way to gather money, evidence, and escape imprisonment.

Pros: Generally logical and easy to solve puzzles. A great escape room for first-timers as a way of introducing the concept. Also good for small groups. We played as a group of two and found it easy to solve within the time limit. Great for boosting one's confidence in playing escape games.

Cons: Perhaps too easy . . . We broke out with over half the time left to spare. Puzzles could be better scaled to increase difficulty at each level. Generally cheap set design and flimsy locks/puzzles posed problems at times and slowed us down, but we still had plenty of time to break out of jail!

http://escapegame911.com

Palace Games, Escape Room Review

Palace Games

San Francisco, California

The Great Houdini Escape Room: The 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco attracted the brightest minds from around the world. The famous magician Harry Houdini allegedly built the first escape room as a challenge to those geniuses. Our less than brilliant group had 80 minutes to attempt the same puzzles and challenges that these legendary innovators faced over 100 years ago.

The Roosevelt Escape Room: This room had some connection to Theodore Roosevelt and World War I. Although the historical narrative made little sense, we knew we had to solve puzzles to escape. 

Pros: Both rooms had awesome, AMAZING sets. High-tech, elaborately decorated rooms created an immersive feeling for game-players. The puzzles were all tied to the theme and were creative and unique to this escape room. A mix of puzzle types but many mechanical elements. The Houdini Room had a great storyline that carried throughout the entire experience. The storyline was less clearly articulated in the Roosevelt Room and seemed more of a hodgepodge of history. Puzzles were difficult in both rooms and definitely required the whole team. Palace Games is an absolute MUST-DO for escape room addicts.

Cons: The game moderator's opening speech was too long and detracted from our initial enthusiasm. The large group size (they encourage 12) is way too big. These are such great rooms, it would be nice to take them all in with smaller groups. They now allow groups with a minimum of 6 but you have to pay $400 at the outset for the whole room. This equates to $66 per person for a 6 person game. The tendency is then to try to pack 12 people in the room in order to reduce the price per person down to $33 dollars which is much better but still at the high end of the escape room price scale. Twelve people in the room is overwhelming. We recommend that you pay the extra money per person to keep the group size down to 6 people. This may make it more difficult to solve the sheer number of puzzles in time, but the reduced stress level and ability to focus and listen to your teammates will create a better and much less chaotic experience in the end. Less is more in our opinion. We don't like to miss what's happening by having too many distractions.

http://palace-games.com

Escape or Die, Escape Room Review

Escape or Die

Las Vegas, Nevada

The Next Civilization: Disease and sickness have winnowed the world's population. A new civilization is recruiting a select few  members worthy of creating a new world order. Our group had to prove our intelligence by escaping the room in order to be selected to be members of the elite new world.

Biohazard: Suspected of being infected by a zombie virus, our group was sent into quarantine. We had to bide our time and find a way to escape without being infected by the virus along the way.

Pros: This room escape has an AWESOME waiting room with a cool introductory video, a fog machine, props and the general ambience that the zombie apocalypse is in progress. The storyline was compelling and generated lots of enthusiasm preceding our game play. The owners were friendly and enthusiastic. We love the work they have put into creating the mood. 

Cons: As much as we enjoyed the zombie theme and the spooky set-up of the place, we felt that the puzzles largely failed in design and function. The Next Civilization was set in a basic office that did not live up to the general ambience of the waiting room and the promotional material. The puzzles in this room were extremely complex and at times completely illogical. Hints were not allowed which essentially left us stuck for the majority of the game. Biohazard had a much better setup but since we spent over 30 minutes in complete darkness with one member of our team locked in a room incapable of assisting in any way, we quickly grew frustrated. Help from the game moderators came too little too late. We were able to move forward in the game but because of the delay we did not successfully escape. Part of the issue was mistakes we made in searching for clues, but mostly the general set-up of the room made locating items difficult. Oftentimes items were located in places that were less logical especially for frequent players of escape rooms. By the time we were able to reunite some of the missing members of our team, everyone was generally annoyed with the unnecessary complexity of the room.

We really wanted to love this place, but in the end we left disappointed. We failed to pass the test for the Next Civilization and died in Biohazard. Maybe The Zombie Virus is a better game, if we ever rise from the dead to play again, we will let you know. 

http://www.escapeordielv.com

Lock Down, Escape Room Review

Lock Down 

Las Vegas, Nevada

Hostage Rescue: Sent in to rescue a kidnapped friend, we quickly discovered that the kidnappers were demanding a steep ransom. Our goal was to locate a bank account number in order to successfully wire money to the kidnappers and successfully free our friend.

Mob Boss: There is a rat in the pack! The mob boss assigned us the job of identifying the informant and saving the mafia family before the police arrived on scene.

Crazy Professor: A mad scientist is working on a secret experiment. But what is it? We had to make our way through his lab before activating the self-destruction sequence. 

Pros: We entered the building to find a very nice set-up and comfortable waiting room. We had some time in between each game but enjoyed hanging out in the waiting room. The game began with an introductory story which helped guide the direction of our game play. The goals for each game were clear and each room was appropriately decorated and set to the theme. Some of the puzzles directly tied to the storyline, others were more basic. The game master provided hints as necessary. We especially enjoyed some of the unique puzzles in the Mob Boss room. We successfully escaped each game and even broke a record for Mob Boss! 

Cons: Some of the puzzles in Crazy Professor were very difficult and one required more luck than actual puzzle-solving skill. Some outside the box thinking helped at times, but sometimes outside the box thinking borderlines on breaking some of the conduct rules for a room. It is a fine line for escape room owners. 

This brings up a point worth making here to escape room owners. Do you want players to move furniture, take down props from walls, or take apart items in order to solve a conundrum? If not, then do not require ANY puzzles that require such behavior. After encountering such puzzles at one establishment, we have noticed, in ourselves and in other players, a tendency to deconstruct the next room at the next establishment in a similar manner (much to the chagrin of very annoyed room escape owners). The industry would benefit if escape room owners could agree to certain universal rules that apply across the board.

We highly recommend checking out Lock Down. Great rooms, fun puzzles, and overall good time was had by all!

http://lockdownrooms.com

Escapism, Escape Room Review

Escapism

San Diego, California

Escape Gallery 3919: Our friends invited us to a lovely art gallery for a private party. When we get there, things were not what they seemed in this odd place.

Escape the Attic: The strange neighbor asked us to housesit for him. A weird noise in the attic prompted us to investigate. It turned out our neighbor had some very dark secrets.  

Pros: We loved the waiting room which was big and well-decorated. In addition to plenty of seating, it also had props and a great wall for taking photographs. We played Gallery 3919 first and found it particularly challenging at times but awesome fun for our group of about 8 people. The extra people helped locate all the clues in this room. We played the attic game easily with two people. The puzzles in both rooms were logical and we were able to solve them with limited help. Many of the puzzles in the gallery were unique and specific to the story and set. The set-design in both rooms was well-thought out and clearly tied to the storyline. We especially enjoyed the added creepiness of the attic which gave us that whole "should we even be in here" feeling. Creepy props constantly surprised us as well.  The game master was friendly and we appreciated the hints as needed. 

Cons: None that we could think of. These were good solid room escape experiences. The rooms are good for beginners and advanced players alike. Professional and courteous employees! Looking forward to checking out their next room when it opens.

http://www.escapismsd.com

Great Room Escape, Escape Room Review

Great Room Escape

San Diego, California

Houdini's Hidden Workshop: Trapped inside Houdini's haunted workshop, our group had 60 minutes to attempt to free Houdini's soul.

Pros: The set design and special effects of this room were top-notch. The wow factor was truly WOW! Our game master appeared in costume and completely in character. She added to the immersive experience and enhanced the game play by providing hints and clues as necessary (maintaining her accent and role all along). The storyline was clear and consistent throughout the game. The puzzles were a mixture of mechanical and logic types.

Cons: The large group size annoyed us at first and proved distracting at times as communication was clearly an issue. However, the big group size soon emerged as a benefit since the number and complexity of puzzles proved the greater challenge. We did not escape the room and honestly did not even come close to escaping. After reflecting on the experience, we decided that the puzzles were much too complex and detracted from our overall experience. With a little tweaking of the puzzles, this could be a "best of the best" room escape.

We wish we were able to play the other rooms at Great Room Escape. The introduction videos looked amazing. Unfortunately, they were completely booked the weekend we were there. Next time, San Diego!

http://www.greatroomescapesandiego.com/home.html