I’m a pretty seasoned escape room player, and unfortunately, my experience at Legend of the Pines was disappointing. We did not escape, and several aspects of the room made the experience frustrating.
One major issue was the game master—it was clear they weren’t paying close attention to our game. We repeatedly received hints for things we had already solved rather than the information we actually needed, which wasted valuable time and added to our frustration.
Beyond that, the room itself had several problems. The standard puzzles didn’t feel intuitive, and on top of that, there were multiple puzzles that required a physical component to solve. While I personally don’t enjoy these types of challenges, I can usually work through them. However, in this game, they were so finicky and frustrating that we spent over 20 minutes struggling—not because we didn’t understand the puzzle, but because of the execution.
Also, they explicitly stated at the beginning that everything in the room was single-use—but that is not true in this room. There was an element that had to be reused, which threw us off.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this escape room, and I don’t plan on returning to Solve It Sherlock. There are much better options out there in New Jersey for escape room enthusiasts.
