Nightmare

We played Nightmare on opening night as the first official public test run of an experimental room by R.O.N.R. This room was my second ever escape game. My hindsight may be tinted with rose-colored glasses, but we had a blast in this room. Three live actors, blacklight puzzles, carnival games, a full grand piano... this was a wildly ambitious escape room that fostered the appetite I have for them today. It's too bad we lost R.O.N.R., but I will forever respect them for their impressive scope and creativity. I'm writing this review to pay homage to what was the start of my escape room journey, and a source of inspiration many years later. My heartfelt thanks for the experiences.

Pros: The game owners and employees were exceptionally friendly with excellent customer service skills. The creative themes of the rooms added to the experience. Live actors in the room also made for more engagement. The Nightmare room had an immersive set design that added to the feeling that we were really inside of somebody's dream. Cons: The puzzles were largely illogical and unsolvable without extensive hints and clues from the game masters. We found ourselves mostly frustrated and incapable of actually solving most of the puzzles due to poor puzzle design. We did successfully escape all three rooms (even breaking a record in one room). However, we felt that this was largely due to the help of our game masters in pointing us to the answers. Some tweaks to the puzzles could help improve the experience substantially.