Labescape: Quantum Salvation

I really like the premise of LabEscape: teaching science via an escape room is a great way to motivate people to interact with things they might not otherwise. I think the current implementation is a decent start, but also could use some tweaking to be a good escape room experience. The major issues IMHO are the public bookings and game flow. I walked into the game thinking there would be a group of 3 other enthusiast friends, but we learned that an additional 4 strangers had signed up. They were nice and smart people, but playing any game with 8 players is questionable, much less with people you've never met before. While I'd prefer private bookings with smaller groups, I understand that probably wouldn't serve LabEscape's goal - it feels like they're aiming more for a field trip of students. Game flow was pretty linear, which meant we could get blocked easily. There was also a lot of stuff available right away. As a teaching tool or engagement driver, LabEscape is great. I hope they continue to succeed and want more places to be doing stuff like this. I just don't think I want to play it myself, at least without some tweaks.

As someone who has played a fair number of escape rooms, LabEscape is certainly not the best escape room I’ve ever played. But it does do a uniquely good job of incorporating some fantastic science demos into its gameplay. The mechanics of the actual escape room are fairly rudimentary - relying on locks, searching, a run book, and very linear game flow (lockbox A gives you the reagents for experiment B which gives you the code for lockbox C…). I would love to see the LabEscape team do a little more gating of access to materials, rather than finding almost everything we would eventually need during our initial search of the room. Even so, if you are excited by science, this is worth playing. As long as you know going in what you are going to get, I think you’ll still have a great time, and the team’s enthusiasm is infectious