Ghost PatrolTrivium GamesEscape roomIRLI was very impressed with the mix of interesting puzzles, uses of technology, and overall story. Clearly Trivium has put a lot of thought into their room and it shows. The ghost theme was really interesting (and don't worry, it isn't at all scary) and could really extend itself to future rooms should Trivium Games decide to expand their brand. Note for experienced players: although the room goes up to 8 people, if you know what you're doing you could easily cap it at 3-4 people max. I honestly think 8 is way too many for the space unless you're complete newbies, though the room is pretty good about avoiding bottlenecks, so you can theoretically have multiple people working on different puzzles at a time. But if you know what you're doing, err on the side of fewer people.
Da Vinci's Secret60Out - HollywoodEscape roomIRLSuper fun! I liked the variety in the puzzles and the theme was cute. My team of two was able to escape in time—I’d say if you’re experienced players don’t book with more than three people, the puzzles were mostly linear and anyone extra will just be standing around. Kudos to game master Alex who did a great job keeping us on track without overwhelming us with hints.
Nautilus60Out - KoreatownEscape roomIRLSome 60 Out rooms are great but this one was not worth the $45 a person (with a discount!) that we paid. The room felt old and tired. As mentioned in another review all the pretty undersea atmospheric theming that you see in the promotional photo isn’t working in the game so you just have black windows with the screens turned off. Several of the puzzles had wonky tech, where we solved things but they didn’t trigger right away, confusing us if we had actually done the correct thing. Makes me wonder if it was on a manual trigger and if our GM, who was manning another escape room at the same time as ours, just wasn’t paying attention? (At one point they accidentally gave us a clue for a different room, which led to further confusion.) One of the puzzles involved a digital number screen that was impossible to read, which was very frustrating. We also thought several of the puzzles didn’t really make logical sense as to what you were supposed to do with them. This room also relies heavily on both darkness and a fair amount of reading as an element, which I am not a fan of. Unless you’re a 60 Out completist I’d skip this one.
Cereal KillerTrapped! Escape Room - WilloughbyEscape roomIRLFirst off, our game master was amazing, major kudos to him for being such a delight. Unfortunately, though, I really didn’t like this game. I don’t mind a hard game, but there were several puzzles in this one that made no sense. Granted, we also made some boneheaded mistakes and that’s on us, but a few of these puzzles required logical leaps that I felt were impossible to make. We were so confused by several of the puzzles, I don’t think there was any way we’d be able to solve them without a hint and a lot of extra time.
