Montauk ProjectMyssTic RoomsEscape roomIRLSolid 3.5/5 - 4/5 stars. I think my expectations for this escape room were too high after having heard so many people recommend this and say that it's like the best escape room. It's not a bad room, and the rooms are immersive, but there were more physical puzzles (finding things, placing them in certain places, etc.) than brainy puzzles (riddles, etc.). I think I would've liked some more logic-based puzzles. Some of the puzzles seemed like they didn't connect with the story too well. I completed the room with a friend feeling a bit unchallenged. It also might've felt easier than other rooms I've tried because there are unlimited hints and the game master's voice did pop in a lot asking if we needed a hint, which made the experience feel less immersive. The game master was very sweet and attentive though. The climax of the escape room / story was a pretty cute idea, and I do appreciate that there was that "climax," which not all escape rooms have.
Prison BreakThe Escape Game - New YorkEscape roomIRLWe were a group of 2 and finished in 55 minutes, but we did get about 5 hints. This was really fun and challenging, but I wouldn't say that this is any more challenging than their other rooms like Gold Rush and Special Ops. Everyone says that this is the hardest, but I don't think the puzzles were that much more challenging the the ones in their other rooms. I think most people get stuck and lose a lot of time in the first part where the players are split up and need to communicate with one another across the two cells to advance, so having good communication and being familiar with the other people you are playing the room with really helps. Overall, I thought it was fun to be split up from my partner. If there were more people, the first part would've been harder and more unorganized. As with the other rooms from the company, the experience was immersive, and I thought the storyline was cohesive.
The Haunted Hotel [ex Escape Artist: The Final Seance]The Great Escape Room - Queens Rego ParkEscape roomIRL
Gold RushThe Escape Game - New YorkEscape roomIRLMy group of 5 people escaped with 12 minutes to spare. My friend and I joined a family of 3 for the escape room, and I'm glad we did because I don't think we would've finished with just 2 people. There were a good number of puzzles with a good balance of scavenging and logical puzzle-solving. I think a group size of 4-5 would be great for this room. Overall had a great experience with The Escape Game. They're professional, friendly, passionate, and efficient and they have a seamless hint system. The Gold Rush room was immersive, clean, and had great theming.
Timeliner: Train Through TimeThe Escape Game - New YorkEscape roomIRL8/10 overall for the experience, difficulty, and cohesive storyline. I liked how there were a variety of puzzles that all tied into the story rather than the room being a bunch of lock and combination matching puzzles.
Special Ops: Mysterious MarketThe Escape Game - New YorkEscape roomIRLImmersive experience and great, cohesive storyline. Out of all the other escape rooms we've done with the Escape Game company, I think the puzzles in this room tie most closely to the storyline. My friend and I did this with 3 strangers, and our experience wasn't that great because the company (the people we played with, not the Escape Game company) could've been better, but I don't want our individual experiences to affect the rating of this room. The room is well-designed and puzzles were good. Cannot give a reliable review on the difficulty of the puzzles because it felt like we didn't participate in all of them, which is what happens when doing escape rooms with a larger group of people.
The HeistThe Escape Game - New YorkEscape roomIRLReally enjoyed feeling like a secret agent in this room. It was pretty hands-on and the room did a good job in getting us to feel like we were lock-picking / breaking in. We were a party of 2, and although we escaped in 55 minutes, we used a lot of hints (like ~10 hints), so it didn't feel like a win to us. We thought this was harder than Prison Break because the puzzles weren't as straight forward and they had a lot of high-tech, physical puzzles, which I wasn't used to. They were all still fun, but just a lot harder than we had anticipated. Loved the hands on experience.
The Haunted HotelBrainXcape Escape Room NYCEscape roomIRLDid this room in a party of 2 and got 70% of the room complete with ... a lot of clues (2 clues every 10 minutes). I'd rate the overall experience 3.5 stars out of 5, the service and venue professionalism and theme boosting the rating. The puzzles themselves were not bad, but were rather difficult to get started with. I love how thematic the room and the whole experience from entering the lobby was. Brainxscape seems to do everything they can to make the experience as immersive as possible (not displaying a countdown timer and instead using a system of listening to the dong every ten minutes, not meeting the game master until the very end, reading the clues off of a very old TV, etc.) The theme really make this experience memorable, but I was disappointed at how we weren't able to proceed ourselves on anything without asking for clues to get us started and even pieces parts of the puzzle together. The puzzles were good for the most part, but I think they could've been a bit more intuitive. Or maybe it would've helped to have at least an extra person in our party. We were missing pieces/props of a puzzle, which made solve the puzzle impossible, so we had to rely on clues to get passed it. Missing key props made the experience more confusing and caused us to waste time unnecessarily. Overall, good experience. Not the smoothest escape room because of the missing props, but the immersion and theme were really good. Game master was also very nice. He was patient and answered all our questions at the end during the debrief even though there was another party waiting to do the room right after us.
High Speed NYCExit Escape Room NYCEscape roomIRLWe were just 2 people and we completed this with 15 min to spare. Puzzles were too straight forward and didn't have a lot of logic. It was mostly composed of finding some codes and checking which locks they fit with. Too easy. The room is probably their most immersive though, hence why it's their most popular. We did the Perfect Heist with them as well (their most challenging room), and that room felt more "homemade." It also wasn't that much harder, if at all.
Moonshine MadnessPanIQ Room - NYC [prev. Clue Chase]Escape roomIRLWe were a party of 2 and escaped in 48 min. 7/10 overall for the experience, puzzles, room design, and immersion. 6.5/10 for difficulty of puzzles. It felt like a good combination of puzzles and riddles, and they all made sense and flowed well to the story. It's a pretty linear progression (we needed to solve one puzzle in order to unlock another puzzle), so I don't think doing this in a bigger party would've helped speed things up too much. There were a good number of locks, but it was clear which "combination" went to which lock because they logically tied together. I've done escape rooms where there were a lot of random locks and combinations, and this room was not like that at all. The game master was very nice and attentive, but not too intrusive. He messaged us when we were getting stuck but on the right track or when we did solve the puzzle but getting confused by the props. Overall, had a great experience, and would love to return to try their harder rooms (Houdini and Pirates).
Escape Like It’s 99Big Screen Escapes - TannersvilleEscape roomIRL3.5 - 4 out of 5 stars. Not too easy but also not too challenging for a group of 2 people. We escaped in about 54 minutes without using any hints. The whole company has old fashioned, non-flashy escape rooms, but they make it work with their old-school themes. The Escape Like It's 99 room was very simple, but immersive. Like with their other rooms, I like the notes scattered throughout the room that tie in the puzzles to the story. It makes the whole experience cohesive. I also did the Solitude room in the Mt. Pocono location, which was more challenging, but it is their most challenging room. This 99 room has fewer puzzles, but it was still fun. Probably wouldn't be as fun if you didn't grow up in the 90s or at least weren't familiar with some 90s stuff because although we didn't need to know any references, some of the enjoyment came from just feeling nostalgia.
![The Haunted Hotel [ex Escape Artist: The Final Seance]](https://res.cloudinary.com/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/603fba64-ef38-4938-b558-c0755ac7b4e3.jpg)
