The Man From BeyondStrange Bird ImmersiveEscape roomIRLTruly one of the best. Completely immersive, great puzzles, great story, amazing production design. Would look forward to doing it again with new friends!
The Missing SeasonSteal and EscapeEscape roomIRLThere's a lot to praise in this room. Impressive production design, novel theme, varied and interesting puzzles (including physical stuff). There's just a few things that impede the experience that let it down: a few too many clues that are visually related but apply to different puzzles, causing some time-suck red herrings; some visual instructions that were seemingly created before the final room was tested, so they aren't quite accurate; and an oddly vague final puzzle that drained the energy from the final escape fun. I think a couple hours with an outside developer is all they's need to make this a top-tier room. But even so, I'd still recommend it as-is. We had a great time and the hints were provided well.
Scooby-Doo™ and the Spooky Castle AdventureEscapology - Fort LauderdaleEscape roomIRLThe story was enjoyable, especially with the Scooby Doo characters leading you through the puzzles. Production design was good and in keeping with the IP and puzzles themselves were solid. Sound was way too quiet -- it was hard to hear the character voiceovers and hint chimes. Tech was very spotty. Multiple puzzles were triggered and doors opened with incomplete solutions and one didn't trigger at all so the staff had to come in and open it manually. Hint system was also poor, as it pushed hints for things we were actively in the middle of solving (didn't need a hint), but when we got stuck because of an error in a solution, it didn't point us toward the error so we could correct it ourselves, it just gave us the correct answer.
Steam-Powered S.O.SKryptoScape Escape RoomsEscape roomIRLUnfortunately we can't recommend this room. The room theming was nice, but the puzzles and details left a lot to be desired. The narrative video felt very cheap. I would have preferred a live action video of a guy dressed in steampunk and then just added a static or low-res filter. And although the theme is all tubes and gears and steam, there were 3 trunks just sitting in the room that you unlocked with basic keys or codes. And a lot of emphasis on an ancient rune language, which felt lifted from a completely different room/theme. Last major complaint is having two of the exact same puzzle in a single room. Just felt pretty low effort. I think with the theme and the tech in the room, the puzzles could be reworked to be way more interesting.
Runaway TrainBreakout Games - DaytonEscape roomIRLThe room atmosphere was solid but not enough detail to praise. The puzzles tried to be "in theme" but didn't feel very immersive. Solve was linear, with us doing one puzzle to unlock a lock which gave us the next puzzle. It tried to have a story/characters, but didn't give you enough to get invested. Also, multiple simple math puzzles, which isn't interesting to solve when everyone can just use their phone calculator. I would recommend this room for newbies, but skip if you are practiced escapers.
