The Haunted TheatreCaptured LV Escape Room - BethlehemEscape roomIRLThe set was executed somewhat simplistically but perfect for the haunted theater theme, very immersive and spooky. They offered to tone down whatever they could if it was too spooky for our liking. Mostly mechanical aspects but executed wonderfully along with tasteful special effects. No puzzle was too complicated and everything was pretty intuitive, medium difficulty but plentiful puzzles. I appreciated the variety of locks, keys, and sensors. There is a multi-step end goal which kept things interesting, and it was very clear that we had won when we finished. Staff was friendly as always and helpful with the hints. You get 3 hints but they give you opportunities to get more by following them on social media.
Puppet Heist: The Hand Of LifeThe Bureau Adventure GamesEscape roomIRLYou must read your booking email for context on how to enter the building, it looks abandoned on the outside. Plenty of parking. The lobby is neat and definitely sets the tone for the experience. We were pleasantly greeted and given the mission details. Going into the room I had expectations based on reviews, so I was aware that Melvin was meant to help out in creative ways. However I might have been too excited about this because I kept hoping throughout the room he would be used in more ways than he was. The set design in the first room is pretty standard and becomes more elaborate in the second room, fitting for the mission’s theme. As other reviews have stated, seasoned escape room goers (or anyone who has done even just a handful) will need to put on a different kind of thinking cap for this room, it’s more task based than puzzle oriented. The gameplay was a little difficult because of this, but also certain paths that seemed wrong were actually the way we needed to go, and things that seemed right were not something we had enough information for. Definitely not always intuitive in my opinion. We figured it out with the assistance of unlimited hints (which you ask for and receive on a tablet, which I enjoyed) and had 29 seconds left. Your timer is not visible in the room. Overall it was a fun experience, two women traveling across the country doing an escape room in every state told me about this room at the escape room I work at in New Jersey, so I was excited when I realized I’d be vacationing near the location. It’s a change of pace but enjoyable.
The Mayan TempleCaptured LV Escape Room - BethlehemEscape roomIRLMy group of two would have escaped if we realized much sooner that we were going to use a clue to skip the skill based puzzle. We were running around with a lot of things to do but I had so much fun! I’d recommend only experienced groups of 2 to play this, otherwise 4-6 players would probably be ideal. Lots of things that can be done simultaneously, divide and conquer seems probably necessary in order to escape. I wouldn’t say the room itself is hard, the puzzles are all medium difficulty, there are just a lot of them.
Tiki Treasure BoatAmazing Escape Room - EdisonEscape roomIRLI had high hopes for this room but nothing was working, puzzles would trigger long after we had completed them, pretty sure our game master is the one who made them work. Things were not very intuitive, we did a lot of things that did not make sense. The boat room did not work. When we completed the room nothing happened to indicate it even though the setup seemed very clear that, at the very least, the tiki gods would light up. There is extremely limited parking. We had to park across the street. When you get inside, it’s unclear where to go but the lobby is up the stairs.
Guardian Of GothamPanIQ Room - NYC [prev. Clue Chase]Escape roomIRLAs soon as you step off the elevator you are transported to the PanIQ waiting room and it’s an awesome transition. Finding it was only possible because we knew it was on the 4th floor, otherwise you’d never know from the street (no signage). We were greeted by Gus who was our very enthusiastic, helpful and attentive game master. The only thing we noticed is that our time kept stopping, I forgot to ask about this before we left, I’m assuming he was typing clues and didn’t want to take from our time but we would randomly turn around just to check the timer and the time was paused. Once in the room it was unclear where to start as there are multiple puzzles just waiting to be solved in order to open a new set of puzzles. Most were pretty intuitive and some were not but I appreciated how they worked once we figured it out. The set design was pretty standard, I noticed there were no audio clips playing when significant changes occurred like after we solved something or whenever the giant screen in the room began showing something new, it took a moment to realize we did something right. The story had a lot of lead up which may not have all been necessary for how standard the room was and the lack of indication that we were progressing. Difficulty was medium and definitely possible with just a group of 2.
Alien EncounterOC Escape Adventure GamesEscape roomIRLThis is a 30 minute room. As long as you are moderately acquainted with how escape rooms work, this is not a bad room. The fact that you can “choose your path” means that half of the items and puzzles in the room are irrelevant to the game you are currently playing, which I personally think would be confusing to beginners/amateurs and might ruin the experience. My experienced group of 2 players escaped with 8 seconds left. Otherwise gameplay was mainly intuitive. The set design was nice and definitely fits the alien encounter theme, a certain puzzle related to eggs and the final puzzle were especially nice touches. However not all technical puzzles were functioning properly, costing us time. Our game master was mostly helpful but we had to ask for clarification several times when things did not trigger and he could have provided it to us sooner than we asked. Overall I enjoyed this room even though it left me a bit frustrated at times. Not sure it is worth $26 for a 30 minute room, but if you also go through their haunted house and do their haunted mini golf, all three things are $40 and will take you 1-1.5 hours total.
