For those who want to know the difficulty order of the 3 lowest level difficulty rooms at this location, we view Gold Rush as the easiest, Timeliner comfortably in the middle, and The Depths as the hardest of the level 7 difficulty rooms. Aa advertised, Special Operations: Mysterious Market is even harder and Prison Break is the hardest at this location. Keep in mind that how you react to tech puzzles versus mechanical or traditional lock and key puzzles will impact how you perceive these difficulties. While Gold Rush and Special Ops are more mechanical/traditional, Timeliner and The Depths are extremely techy and require more interaction, observation, and thought.
The Depths was my husband and I's second escape room at The Escape Game and we did it back to back directly after completing Timeliner. I highly recommend doing this when possible as you get a 40% discount when you book a room on the same day.
We were warned before starting it that while it shared a difficulty level with Timeliner and Gold Rush, The Depths was definitely harder and we couldn't agree more with that statement. While we barely escaped with just over 2 minutes left and having utilized 2 hints, we really enjoyed the experience and were laughing throughout the majority of it at how novel some of the puzzles and activities were. There are several times where you have to be highly observant and once or twice where the puzzle wasn't overly intuitive but a gentle nudge from the GM easily clues you in on the situation without straight out spoiling it. Our GM, CJ, was really good at providing solid hints or nudges without answering the puzzle.
Teamwork is an integral for this experience and it is clearly incorporated or required in most of the puzzles. This is especislly true for the end of the experience and I advise you to have a group that communicates and works together well. Overall, this is a really fun and novel room that heavily uses tech and teamwork. Great for experienced players and even some larger groups of less experienced players. Don't be afraid to ask for hints!
The gameplay was very novel and fun! The puzzles flow in a very linear fashion at the start and very end, leaving only a small portion of the experience where you can get clues and be able to immediately use them.
The atmosphere, props, and special effects were awesome! This experience consists of multiple compartments and each one was well designed and decorated to be fitting and immersive to the story. Great use of screens and technology to further the immersiveness.
CJ and the rest of the staff were awesome in every way! CJ was a phenomenonal GM who didn't give any hints or nudges unless asked and had an awesome personality our entire time there. Him and the staff were super accommodating too as they offered to set up a room for us to do after we completed our first one, which is how we ended up doing The Depths and Timeliner back to back. This opportunity was appreciated and shows how dedicated to their customers and players and ensuring a good time is had.
Particularly interesting or different
Yes
There were several puzzles or tasks I've never experienced before and this is admittedly the first room were I've had to work so closely together with my teammate to make it through. Definitely not an experience you can solve solo or as a group who doesn't communicate.
This story was amusing memorable as the characters are simply yet quirky and humorous. You don't spend much time mulling over it all yet the entire experience is perfectly tied into the unique story and concept for this room.
Despite being amongst the 3 rooms at The Escape Game ranked as 7/10, we definitely rank The Depths as the hardest of the batch and would honestly consider it closer to a 7.5 or 8/10 due to the heavy use of technology and teamwork required.
There are a few lock and key, number, and word locks but the majority of the room utilizes technology to further the story and experience.
Definitely doable with 2 but far easier with 4. This is especially true for the end, where you will be quite grateful for having so many hands available.
Lots of technology and tricky or scientific puzzles that would be hard for kids to comprehend.
There was a small issue at the very start where the video audio was echoing. Our GM immediately stopped it, asked us to step out for just a moment to reset the audio, and restarted us back in. Didn't impact flow or time as it happened right at the start during the intro video and was handled smoothly. Nothing else was wrong or broken.
Quick note. While not broken, some of the number locks are finicky and you might need to wiggle the numbers around to ensure they are sitting just right to open.
Physically active
Somewhat
You don't have to lift or move anything heavy but this room keeps you quite active between having to run to different spots and completing various interactive activities.
Accessibility
I would consider this room quite friendly for those with mobility issues but do acknowledge that there is a lot of moving around that one might find troublesome.
Colors are an important part of a few puzzles so color blindness would be an issue if no one else could handle those puzzles.
You will have to pay for parking. I recommend following the directions on their site as they provide 3 separate parking garages that are all affordable ($10 and under) and are within a 5 minute walk.
