The Gift

My group and I didn’t make it out, partly due to the fact we had a faulty reset that prevented us from moving forward. We didn’t get the minutes back for it and trying to flag down a GM was so difficult; it certainly felt like no one was paying attention to our game and when someone finally addressed our problem with the reset, it really took me out of the immersion. However, I will say the room flows well, the set is nice, and the puzzles range from simple to boss level puzzles.

As extremely experienced players that literally travel to other cities and states to play escape rooms, Red Door San Mateo is too difficult. Failed 3/4 games there.

Overall this was a good room. I think 3-4 players is the sweet spot, if you’re an experienced group. Except for one spot, there are enough puzzles to engage multiple people simultaneously. My group of 4 made it through with only one real hint (for an obvious puzzle too!), but there were a few good head scratchers that took us some time. I thought it was a good mix of easy and challenging puzzles. The presentation was clean and well finished. With one exception, everything worked well. The room doesn’t have the “high tech” feel that you get (and I look for) with some escape rooms. I felt like it leaned a little heavily on padlocks as objectives. The exception was that the final puzzle broke which, unfortunately, killed the experience for me. Because it wasn’t clearly broken, we ran through several hints, but the hints we received just told us to do what we were already doing. Eventually, our GM came in, confirmed something was up and… we just walked out because it was the final puzzle. That’s how it goes, however, and I wouldn’t de-rate the room for it. Overall, I had a lot of fun and would recommend this room to friends.

Had a lot of fun. Only asked for one clue and also got one from the game master when we were stuck.

Intricate room with lots of great puzzles. Had to use a clue on a difficult puzzle and would never have figured the challenge out without the clue. Enjoyed the room alot.

Awesome room and so much fun! The room was very well built and the GM was great. It was difficult but not impossible!

My favorite room with red door. Comparable to the Sacramento one with some different puzzles. Good medium level game with some clever puzzles

Really immersive room with an interesting story line. There are some really clever and unique puzzles.

San Mateo is a newer location and has slightly better production and aesthetics because the inventors had more time to refine the game The Gift was my favorite room. You really feel like you're in the streets, then inside an antique gift shop. The design elements are absolutely  wonderful!! My wife and I played this room by ourselves, we got to the final puzzle and time ran out. It sucked to not pass, but it was okay because we were so mesmerized by the room. (still sucked not passing though LOL) I'd really recommend any escape room enthusiast like myself or anyone at the Hillsdale Mall looking to kill some time check out Red Door.