The Attraction

Saying it was bad would be a bit unfair as it had interesting elements and solid puzzles. It just didn't function as a typical escape room. A few puzzles were definitely on the tedious side and even though all the puzzles were unique, not all were fun. The pop culture references were enjoyable and the story was okay, though I don't particularly care for those.

Overall I was disappointed by this escape room. The technology and atmosphere of this room were both incredible but our group found the puzzles to be a little nonsensical and even overwhelming at times. Additionally some parts of the room seemed to be broken which hindered our experience. I also am not a fan of when puzzles can be solved by accident or answers are given away too quickly which happens multiple times in this room.

❗️Very concerning experience❗️ (🆗Understandable) We visited Palace Games recently and were instructed by staff to place all personal belongings in a designated basket area before entering the game. The basket was located outside of the game room and remained out of our sight for the entire duration (~2 hours). (⚠️Incident) After the game, we discovered that a wallet valued at $1000+ (including cash and multiple cards such as ID and credit cards) was missing. Based on the noticeable weight difference before and after, we were able to reasonably determine that the item went missing during the game time. (🛑Their Action) We requested assistance immediately and asked to review surveillance footage. Initially, we were told that the footage would need to be “retrieved through a third-party vendor” and that we would be contacted later — however, ❌no one followed up. The following day, after multiple attempts to reach them, we were informed that the ”vendor was unavailable (PTO) ”and the footage could not be accessed at this point. Later, a manager called and stated that there is no recording at all (⁉️), only live monitoring on site. When we asked for confirmation of this and whether we could document the conversation, the call was abruptly ended ❗️Subsequent attempts to follow up have gone unanswered. ❗️Additionally, on the game day, we felt rushed to leave immediately after the game ended, even though our scheduled end time was 4:00 PM and it was only around 3:45 PM at that point. ❗️This made it more difficult to properly check our belongings around the game area. 😡We followed all instructions provided by staff, yet there appears to be no secure storage, no accessible review process, and no clear accountability when something goes wrong. Their responses were inconsistent and changed over time. the incident has NOT yet been addressed at this point. We are sharing this experience for transparency regarding how personal belongings are handled and how incidents are addressed. Update: The owner has reached out to us, apologized, and showed us the available surveillance footage. The footage only covers the lobby and hallway areas and does not include the room where personal belongings are placed, so it was not possible to determine what happened. We appreciate the follow-up and the owner’s sincere attitude. However, this situation highlights that the designated storage area for customer belongings currently has no surveillance coverage or secure storage. We hope additional measures (such as lockers or better monitoring) can be implemented in the future to prevent similar incidents. While we acknowledge their efforts to address the situation, we are keeping our original rating to reflect our experience.

This was truly one of the most immersive experiences of my life. The puzzles were fun and engaging, characters were unforgettable, and interactive and immersive elements second to none. Wonderful “room” and experience, delightful throughout.

We loved the immersive experience of this game. We didn’t find it overly challenging but we genuinely enjoyed the immersive atmosphere and experience. Highly recommend doing this game.

Crazy game! Best with larger groups rather than smaller

We loved this game! It was full of plot twists and shocking discoveries, and it incorporated a lot of different puzzles, strategies, and games. I wish I could replay it because I had so much fun.

Visual wise the room was great. The atmosphere was amazing and the story was well integrated and well done. Super techy and has one of the coolest “transitions” I’ve ever seen. The puzzles themselves were easy, and felt more repetitive than challenging. Gm was super nice and showed us a little behind the scenes after we escaped

Like all of the Palace Games, the gameplay is very intelligent. Every puzzle has multiple steps with some layering on top of each other making you think in ways you’ve never thought before. This gameplay here is the most experimental of the Palace Games. All sections are distinctly different from each other, with some parts being abstract and bending reality while other sections being very straightforward but puzzle dense (and some having… barely any puzzles admittedly. I thought all of it was very interesting to play and there was nothing I hated, but a lot of it can come off as vague and/or repetitive (and confusing for some) and there’s not any super standout puzzles. Story wise The Attraction is the opposite of the other games. While the others are extremely light on story, this game has about as much story as possible. The story is extremely overt, which makes it easy to follow, but also makes it seem kind of barebones. But there are some fun twists and story payoff in the second half that makes it come together well. Unfortunately they still have in-person hints here, which are very immersion breaking for this game (but the game makes it mostly unlikely you’ll need them). Unlike the other Palace games, which are pretty bare in set design to match the “1920s World Fair escape room experiment” theme, this one (while bare in moments) goes all out on set design in certain areas, and it’s beautiful. I also wish there was a bit more. Even though it can take up to 2 hours, it wastes a lot of time on some early stuff that could be shorter, and as I said the story picks up very late into it, so I left the game wishing there was more. But after all this analysis, the fact is: this game is amazing. It is a massive experimental marvel in design that really needs to be tried! (Oh yeah also be prepared to look up a lot, do neck stretches or something or you’ll be in minor pain) Palace Games Ranking: 1. Edison (true immersion through puzzles) 2. Attraction (true immersion through… immersion) 3. Roosevelt (Houdini but more of it) 4. Houdini (still one of my favorite games)