Storyteller's SecretBoxarooEscape roomIRLOne of the best rooms I've ever done. Very unique story, a relaxed atmosphere, incredible set design, and an interesting approach to reusing puzzles. Felt like a very interactive experience and like actually stepping into a fairy tale
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLA really awesome escape room with excellent production values. There are lots of cool high tech elements, but I do really like that you actually go through a lot of the actual story of the Wizard of Oz. The atmosphere feels whimsical at times, and the puzzles were mostly intuitive though a few were a bit finicky. I do wish the tokens you are supposed to be collecting were a bit more evenly paced out throughout the room, but it's a very minor complaint for such an excellent room.
Cutthroat Cavern13th Gate EscapeEscape roomIRLOne of the best escape rooms I've ever done, and definitely the one with the best production quality. Felt like you were on a movie set. Puzzles were good as well, but it's really the set that shines here
The Campground13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLThe Wizard of Oz room at this location is really impressive, incredible production values and interesting gameplay. I was very excited about the 90 minute room at this location, but it was overall slightly disappointing. The production values are nowhere close to Wizard of Oz. They are still pretty good, but nothing I would write home about. Also some elements created a smell that caused our group to cough. The real disappointment was the gameplay though. We didn't even realize we accidentally solved a few puzzles, so we kept trying to utilize those clues. There were a lot of puzzles in this room, and we did feel overwhelmed with 3 people. Also, the GM does appear in the room and was resetting the room while we were still in it, causing us to rediscover things we had already solved. It's still a good room, but it feels overrated and a few steps down from The Wizard of Oz one
Curse of the Hidden TemplePuzzleConnect Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLThis was our first room at this location. I really liked how polished and responsive all of the technology was. Everything happened at the exact right times without anything feeling finicky. The production design isn't necessarily as crazy as some other rooms, but it does feel immersive. I think these rooms are on the easier side, but they are still very entertaining
Hidden Temple60 to Escape - GurneeEscape roomIRLSome of the puzzles became a bit repetitive involving having to keep going back and forth. However, that's my only real negative. I love how the room unfolds, and there's strong environmental storytelling. Lots of cool magic locks, and we definitely started to feel the tension of feeling like we were trapped. Really cool!
Frozen In Time: The Race To Save Christmas!PuzzleConnect Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLI enjoyed how this room felt like it had more parallel puzzles than their tomb. We missed some obvious things, but it wasn't a fault of the room as it had clear clues to point us to the correct solution. Everything worked nicely and the GM was really awesome. I think this one didn't feel like it had as many unique puzzles or production elements, but it was still a great time
The BirdMyssTic RoomsEscape roomIRLThis is one of my favorite rooms I've ever done which is saying something after doing more than a hundred rooms across numerous cities. As soon as we walked in, we were blown away by how beautiful the room looked. The production values are really amazing, but not in the over the top high tech way, but rather a real attention to detail and aesthetic. This room does multiple things I've never seen done before, some of which shocked us. This also made it feel truly challenging and not as intuitive since we didn't find the usual patterns from other escape rooms. The way the story is integrated into the room is also really well done. A must play, and it's great to see new rooms that are able to feel innovative and fresh even after all this time. Parker was out GM and was amazing, even after we accidently made a dumb mistake and dropped an important piece into a place we couldn't reach.
Ghost LightMyssTic RoomsEscape roomIRLI really liked the theme and atmosphere for this room. It was one of the first rooms I've done where it seemed like the game master was manually unlocking a lot of the puzzles (remotely) after verifying we had finished. It allowed for some cool puzzles/challenges that would be hard to build mechanically.
The PassageTwisted Limits Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLAn awesome room designed and run by an excellent GM who felt like a true escape room enthusiast. I did find one puzzle slightly unintuitive, and there was a section that was a bit hard to do with only 2 people (though there was a workaround). However, outside of that, I loved the room. There is a story, and the production values are really high -- with everything actually fully functional. Without spoilers, there are some cool twists as you progress through the room that felt unlike anything I had seen done before. Also, the puzzles didn't feel like the typical variant of puzzles you find in escape rooms, with a lot of them being actually different and requiring multiple steps of logic to parse. I highly recommend it, even if it is a bit of a trek to get there. I hope I can try the other rooms here at some point.
