Insane Asylum

Full transparency, I’ve done this one before, just not at this location. I think the PanIQ in Long Beach was more challenging only because we had 2 people and I didn’t know what the puzzles. I had more people in my group this time around, I stayed out of helping with most puzzles so they could enjoy them. There were no glaring differences between the rooms and the puzzles were still clever. This theme remains one of my favorite at PanIQ, I just wish I waited longer to forget the solutions a little more.

It was … fine. The room was nicely themed. A few puzzles did not seem to be working as intended, were finicky, which got us stuck a few times. The plot of the escape room did not really make any sense and the puzzles were not like… really related to the theme of an insane asylum. But some of them were fun! Lots of more physical “move this around puzzles and basically no mental puzzle solving here. Everything was relatively straightforward and was just about finding objects around the rooms.

Gave a lot of unprompted hints

Fun! Nothing particularly novel, but I will say what I like about these rooms is you just start. Theres no real guidance on what to do. They just throw you in, which adds a level of difficulty to the room. With that said it wasn’t challenging, but we had a very fun time playing it. Spooky. Not scary. For escape room experts I would say this is a medium difficulty. I’m very happy we played it. Everyone who was working there was incredibly nice. We didn’t ask for hints, so can’t speak on that level of interaction with the GM. But if they see you struggling they will poke you in the right direction. Also, if you do a room they will offer 30% off to book another room. It’s a cool space to hang out in. Definitely would be a good place to have a big gathering or party. Other note is you have the choice to play a public room or private. Private rooms are at a higher ticket cost. But just be aware when you are booking.

Very positive atmosphere, one of the nicest escape room locations in la for sure, game was fun , interesting , and the vide is on point , GMs were great as well

We had such a fun time at Paniq! Sky, Kevin, and Jack were so warm and welcoming and the puzzles were really fun. The set design was very eerie and immersive, and it was great to be able to see how much time we have left at all times. Taking hints is very easy here with the click of a button! No more waiting for the GM to notice! Overall, a really great room and such a fun time for my birthday!

This room was really creepy and the puzzles were very challenging! Shout out to Sky for being so welcoming.

Crazy that the first one Ive won was one rated as hard! I didn’t think it was that hard though, there were almost no red herrings and the GM was giving us clever clues. Still fun!

I really loved the room and the entire experience of this location. They have built out a lot of cool features: quiz room, karaoke, games in the lobby, as well as a bar. The room itself was themed and designed well. There were a few puzzle that felt like they were solved physically that needed some tinkering for it to be considered complete. The room was largely linear in the beginning with opportunities to divide in conquer toward the end. The puzzles all fit the theme, maybe requiring more out of the box thinking than they appear. We will be going back, hoping the bar will be ready when we return.