Gold RushThe Escape GameEscape roomIRLThe last room and the transition to the last room were amazing. There is such a cool puzzle in the last room that I still haven't seen anywhere else. There are a lot of unique puzzles throughout, and the theming is on point. I have only two complaints, but they were enough for me to knock this down from a love to a like. 1) There is a puzzle that requires a fair amount of dexterity and can only be done by one person. The range of motion is very limited which makes this harder to do. Honestly, we might have spent like 10-15 minutes on this task alone which was just frustrating. 2) The last puzzle is math intensive, and there is no board or anything to write on so you have to be good at mental math if you're trying to do this the legit way. I have a degree in mechanical engineering so I would say I'm pretty good at math, but this was just not clicking because I am horrid at doing math in my head. Upon analysing this puzzle after completion, I do see that the easiest way to solve this is through guess and check, but I really just feel that escape rooms should never have any math based puzzles in general besides very basic addition/subtraction.
Dead Man's CoveEscape Hour AustinEscape roomIRLVery solid room, but it does feel slightly dated. The projector in the room desperately needs to be updated though because the quality was something from the last century. Aside from the visuals, I don't really have any complaints though I wouldn't say that it super impressed either. All the puzzles were good. Absolutely loved the gamemaster/hint system. The parrot was just so much fun.
Prison BreakThe Escape GameEscape roomIRLMy favourite room from The Escape Game overall having done about half of them. Of all the split start rooms I've done so far, I think this one required the most communication. Each room has a ton of puzzles and you may have to go back and forth between rooms depending on if you missed anything. I loved the ending. There's some puzzles that require a bit of dexterity, and there was one specific puzzle I would've never figured out because of typical escape room etiquette which are my only knocks.
A Christmas UnrememberedEscape Hour AustinEscape roomIRLI really think this room is worthy of just being a permanent addition rather than a seasonal room (I enjoyed this more than Dead Man's Cove for what it's worth). Great puzzles and technology. This room has such a fun and light-hearted theme. Harder than you would think for sure though.
Special Ops: Mysterious MarketThe Escape GameEscape roomIRLI've done about half of all The Escape Game rooms, and I think this is probably my favourite one in terms of theming. First room is very open where your group can split off and do their own things. The second room is a very stark contrast both in linearity and in one other facet that I can't say without spoiling.
Classified!The Escape GameEscape roomIRLI was told that this was a sort of prequel to The Escape Game's other room Special Ops. I'm not sure the stories quite match up after having done this one, but maybe this was more like a beta version rather than a full on prequel. This one feels a bit older than Special Ops, and I definitely think Special Ops is the superior room, but this is still a solid room overall.
The Gate13th Hour Escape RoomEscape roomIRLThis room has so much potential, but there were just so many things that didn't perform well technically for me to really enjoy it. The effects and sounds were truly amazing, but it was really hard to appreciate these when things were failing mechanically or just not performing optimally. Two puzzles in particular were legitimately near impossible for us to read, and even going over it with the gamemaster after finishing did not help clear things up at all. It was a miracle we were able to get past these two through sheer guess and check alone. The last lock box straight malfunctioned right at the start too which was anti-climactic. I want to reiterate, this room could legitimately be a 10/10 room if these technical issues could be resolved, but as is, it ends up being a frustrating experience wrapped in beautiful effects.
Lunar MissionMaze Rooms VermontEscape roomIRLI really loved the theming of this room. Everything looks so nice, and the atmosphere was great. I thought most of the puzzles were cool and very well integrated with the theme. There were 2 things that really miffed me about this room, but otherwise I loved it. 1) There is one puzzle that requires a great amount of dexterity, and the controls for it were very unwieldy. 2) There was one puzzle that we were doing correctly, but it just straight up wasn't working for the longest time. I'm not sure how attentive our gamemaster was since this was the only time we asked for help, but she told us to do what we were already doing and we still couldn't get it going for 10+ minutes.
The Savannah SpeakeasyThe Escape CompanyEscape roomIRLMy group breezed through this room, but I still did not enjoy the experience. The first and last room are extremely cramped for our group of 4. The maintenance here is horrendous, and there was even a dead cockroach in one of the rooms. I found this room very easy overall, but I can actually see how it would be frustratingly confusing for some. There is a puzzle that would be hard for vertically challenged people to figure out. Some of these puzzles just required guess and check on our end because they weren't very clear. Not very many puzzles overall.
A Night In Greyside ManorThe Escape CompanyEscape roomIRLThis room was an exercise in frustration, and I really think it boils down to management. There were lots of artificial difficulty throughout whether it be from the dim lighting, to a puzzle that requires you to read an entire page of text meticulously in CURSIVE, a red herring, terrible maintenance to the point of not being able to read the locks, etc. One box just had two locks to open it because why not? No theming or thought behind it. I'm pretty sure the gamemaster was not watching us at all because when we asked for a hint, she literally asked what we had done already. There was also a part where she started giving a hint for a puzzle we had already completed. Because they use a walkie talkie to deliver hints, we had to wait for her to finish the entire schpiel which was annoying as well. I literally just checked out of the game halfway through because I was just annoyed with all these compounding things. The sad thing is, I actually think this room has a lot of potential, but my experience doing this and another room here make me feel that management doesn't actually care about the escape room experience whatsoever. The maintenance and gamemaster experience MUST be addressed if this company wants to be taken seriously at all as an escape room destination. Perhaps, the bar is really just the main draw with the escape room as a side thought which in that case, they can ignore my advice freely. I highly recommend escape room enthusiasts to stay away from this establishment until majour changes are made.
