Month: July 2017

Bull City Escapes – A Study in Murder (Review)

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Location: Durham, NC

Players:  4-8 (We Recommend 4-6)

Price: $25 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Murder most foul!

Theme:

There’s been a murder in Durham! An eccentric old scholar was found dead in his home and as the Police Department’s top detectives, you’ve been assigned the case. Entering the victims study to search for clues, you shut the door behind you and lock yourself in! Try to put together the pieces to the mystery before the killer comes back to tie up loose ends!

First Impressions:

Our GM was very enthusiastic and introduced us to our teammates and the room in an exciting way, while giving us our rules briefing quickly and efficiently. He gave us our mission inside the room, which had an academic and stuffy feel to it, fitting the theme well. After that, we were locked inside and our timer began.

High Points:

Puzzles were overall interesting, and connected together well. The room on the whole felt sort of like a “greatest hits” of escape room solving, so enthusiasts can have a lot fun introducing new players to the hobby here. Your initial starting point with the room does feel like an old study, and had numerous interesting props to play with, and several puzzles build upon themselves, giving great a-ha moments. The hint system is well integrated and adds to the experience as needed, allowing the GM to adjust group by group. Each solve presented us with new pieces to build toward the next puzzles with, and the progression was well implemented.

Low Points:

Study in Murder feels more like a puzzle room than a storyline based escape experience, which seems to be the case for most rooms we’ve done that are touted as high difficulty. There were a lot of puzzles to solve, but the gating was uneven, which sometimes led to multiple unintentional red herrings. The story that was present in the room did not tie up in a satisfying way, and although we solved the mystery, we still had many unanswered questions the room was unable to give us answers for. The how of puzzles was usually present, but the why felt tenuous.

Verdict:

A Study in Murder was a competently built and solid puzzle room, even if it did not deliver the investigation and story that we had expected based on the description. We enjoyed the puzzles, however, and had a great time introducing new players to the hobby in this room, as it had many of the usual escape room themes, and demanded a fair amount of teamwork to solve. Overall, it is a solid Generation 1 experience. Book your time in the Study here!

7/10 (Good)

Bull City Escapes – Enchanted Kingdom (Review)

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Location: Durham, NC

Players:  2-6 (We Recommend 2-4)

Price: $25 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Your Kingdom awaits!

Theme:

Beyond the forest lies a hidden Kingdom, a place where faeries and dragons exist and magic is real! The crown jewels have been hidden away, and it is up to you to find them and return them to their rightful place in the throne room. But first, you’ll have to find the Kingdom itself, and that’s no small task for a mortal.

First Impressions:

Enchanted Kingdom is extremely well decorated and themed, and the atmosphere created by the décor and soundtrack was very immersive and playful. It’s always nice to see a more light-hearted theme when a lot of the main standbys are prisons, murderers, and monsters. This room was one I’d been in before when it was Bull City’s 90s Room, but they had done an excellent job making it unrecognizable!

High Points:

Beyond the fantastic themeing of the room, puzzles were a great mix between set interaction, code finding, and searching. Though there were standard locks around, there were also a good few technological interactions that surprised us in the best possible way. I wish we’d had  someone in the room to take a picture of our faces after one early “magical” interaction, as it’s definitely one of my favorite puzzles I’ve seen lately, and the payoff was a lot of fun. Flow between puzzles was very smooth, and it was almost always easy to determine what to work on next. Difficulty was handled well, and ramped up at the right points. The hint system is clear, but unobtrusive, and allows for the experience to be adjusted based on the team size and experience.

Low Points:

One puzzle gave very little clear feedback upon solving, to the point we solved it by accident and didn’t even realize it. There was also one particular puzzle that had multiple possible answers, causing it to come into play as a red herring too often.

Verdict:

Enchanted Kingdom is an excellent new room that builds on the successes of Bull City’s previous rooms and delivers a magical feeling experience. The diverse and exciting array of puzzles make it a great room for anyone to start with, and is filled with enough tricks to keep Enthusiasts entertained. This is definitely one of the best rooms in the Triangle area, and I cannot recommend it enough. Book your time in the Enchanted Kingdom here!

9.5/10 (Excellent)

Elite (Formerly ‘Epic’) Escape Games – Meltdown (Review)

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Location: Mount Pleasant, SC

Players:  2-8 (We recommend 4-5)

Price: $28 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

“Why is there smoke coming out of it!?!”

Theme:

The nuclear power plant’s systems have malfunctioned, and it’s up to your team of engineers to stop the meltdown! Systems failure is rapidly approaching, and the reactor will hit critical levels in an hour unless you’re able to enter the manual override in time! The only problem is the many locks and puzzles in the way…

First Impressions:

The room was well themed, with button and keypad overload at points, adding to the high tech feel of the room. The reactor itself ominously glowed from behind a door, and spurred us toward action. Our timer began counting up to critical mass, and the race against the clock began!

High Points:

Elite continued to include very tactile and original interactions in Meltdown. Engaging props and bits of technology helped immerse us in the scientific feel of the room, and allowed for many different interactions we’d not seen before. The room at first felt very sparse, but as we solved puzzles, more and more of it opened up, sometimes in really surprising ways. Every part of the room is used, and seemingly innocuous parts end up playing a role throughout the game, leading to some great a-ha moments! The ongoing feedback from the intercom, as well as the reactor itself, keeps the sense of urgency and immersion up throughout the game.

Low Points:

Unfortunately, there are many similar code entries throughout the game, leading to a lot of trial and error entering of codes. At the very least, these entries do not lock out, so frustration on that part is low. Our team was a mixed bag of experienced and new players, and the new players were very much lost during more technological interactions, so the barrier to entry here feels higher than usual. One device for input was used twice in quick succession, but this was not made very clear in game, leading to a bit more fumbling about than felt necessary. One particular puzzle felt a little out of place due to its presentation, but plays a very minor part.

Verdict:

Meltdown is an enjoyable game, even with a few issues holding it back. It was a bit of overload for our new players, so I would suggest playing a couple of rooms before trying this one out, (especially the excellent Undead Outbreak game also at Elite!) but I think enthusiasts might have a better grasp on how the game itself works. Even though it feels as though there is a slight barrier to entry, Meltdown is a solid game, and I definitely recommend trying it out here!

Full Disclosure: Elite Escape Games provided Media Discounted tickets for our game.

7.5/10 (Good)

Elite (Formerly ‘Epic’) Escape Games – Undead Outbreak (Review)

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Location: Mount Pleasant, SC

Players:  2-8 (We recommend 4)

Price: $28 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

The first rule of Zombieland is Cardio.

Theme:

You’ve been running from a horde of zombies for a while, and before they catch up to you, you see an abandoned cabin in the distance! You fight your way there and are able to take a breather for maybe an hour before the horde gets in. Luckily, it seems that someone who was here previously was working on a cure! If you’re able to piece together the clues this ill-fated survivor left, you might just be able to save the world and get out alive!

First Impressions:

Elite Escape Games has a fantastic lobby and a very personable and engaging staff, along with one of the most excellent post-game photo backdrops I’ve seen. Rather than using only the company logo on a blank wall like many others, they’ve worked into the mural every theme that they will have at their location. You can see it in all of its glory above! Customer service here is also a cut above, which is always a plus. (As a side note, if you’re lucky, little Bo man might be there. He is the owners dog, and is enormously cute.)

High Points:

Stepping into the room was fantastic. A beautifully dilapidated, run down cabin was filled with incredibly interesting props and puzzles to play with. As an added bonus, we could see and hear the zombies outside the boarded-up windows, spurring us into action. One of the best implementations of an escape room standby was installed on the ceiling, and was a lot of fun to work with. Several puzzles were very original, and required some entertaining physical interactions. The overarching puzzle was a great surprise and provided excellent feedback on our progress. Each new find was more surprising than the last, building the story one exciting step at a time as what first seemed like a simple zombie escape became something entirely more complex.

Low Points:

There were only a couple issues I found with this room, one regarding an unclued, fairly unintuitive input on one lock, and the other being a fairly small crawlspace that, though our group of 2 had no problems with, may present difficulties for handicapped or larger players.

Verdict:

Undead Outbreak has it all, great puzzles, immersive set, surprising and engaging story, and enjoyable interactions throughout. It is by far one of my favorite rooms, and has me excited to return to Charleston for their upcoming rooms! You can book your race for the cure here!

Full Disclosure: Elite Escape Games provided Media Discounted tickets for our game.

9.5/10 (Excellent)