The Missing Toymaker

Pretty, but so many red herrings.

This was my first escape room I had did with some of my friends, I can totally agree with lots of the bad reviews. The room had poor flow, the game master had to constantly give us tips throughout the game because none of the puzzles really made sense. Some of the puzzles were so bad to the point where you lift a piece of the floor up to reveal sharpie writing on the floor. The lighting was horrible, the puzzles were not interesting and the experience wasn’t immersive.

Update: after writing this review, I received a message on Facebook from the owner himself. He said “Your sure run your stupid little uneducated mouth alot don't you”. Never ever ever go to this venue and support such hatred. I read the reviews and still decided to play. The reviews were not wrong. The room was basic and not well thought out. There were red herrings and some answers just given to you. The room had so many things that were confusing or changed recently that the GM constantly had to talk on the intercom and explain. No immersion or satisfaction from this room unfortunately . The GM was super nice though.

This room felt like it was entirely designed around a prop in the final room. Because of that, nothing felt cohesive. Our team has done more than 50 rooms together, and we’ve gotten out of just about every room in the time provided. This room’s “clues” for puzzles, however, were so ambiguous they weren’t helpful. Some props that were clues needed to be glued down, some needed to be more obvious so we didn’t feel like we were accidentally breaking something. Most escape rooms also tell you things aren’t above your head or below your knees, but this one literally had locks I had to lay on the ground to complete. If this was the first room built at this place, I could maybe look past some of the errors. But it’s not. We’ve played most of the others, but this one was by far the most frustrating. I hate to do this to a local business, but honestly unless some major edits are made to this room, my advice would be to save your money.

Some rooms have great theming but subpar puzzles. Some rooms have great puzzles but the story needs work. This room was lacking on both accounts. This room was filled with toys, which should be fun, but the ambient lighting was so dark you couldn’t see the letters and numbers on the locks. I know the owner does not like to leave note pads or flashlights in his rooms, but this one is next to impossible in the lighting conditions provided. I’ve done several escape rooms that had me wanting more, but I think this takes the cake as “most frustrating escape room ever.” If you are an escape room enthusiast, like me, wanting to scratch the itch, I’d advise you to do literally anything else.

Not my favorite of the Huddys rooms . Was a tight fit for 4 people and as 4 very experienced players the game didn’t quite seem to flow.

Rough signposting and some awkward GM'ing (opening the door to congratulate us before the game audio ended...), but some really good puzzles - ansld the best game at this location. Worth stopping by on your way to Gainesville (Huddys in Gainesville has Jacob's Nightmare which is excellent! You qould never know these are the same comoany by playing their games). A few negative of this company is they only allow photos in front a bare wall at the end - and they're sticklers for that. The GMs enter the room with you (not in character). And all the writing in all their games is chickenscratch - and clearly the same person's handwriting (even when some of the language shouldn't be handwritten at all!). Easy fixes that could go a long way!