Month: August 2017

Escape Quest – King’s Ransom (Review)

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Location: Alexandria, VA

Players:  2-10 (We Recommend 4-6)

Price: $34 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Long Live the King!

Theme:

The King has been taken hostage and a hefty ransom has been demanded in exchange for his safe return, but a firm deadline has been set, removing any hope for a negotiation or time to muster a force to find him. As his most trusted advisers, you are tasked with putting together a ransom of gold and jewels before the King is executed, which is sure to begin a long and bloody war!

First Impressions:

As previously mentioned in our Lost Temple review, Escape Quest boasts a beautiful and comfortable lobby, as well as an excellent space for briefings. Our experience with GMs here was also top notch, as they provided excellent customer service and help whenever needed.

High Points:

The room itself is, as we’ve come to expect from Escape Quest, beautiful and highly immersive. In fact, I’d say King’s Ransom is the best looking game we saw while in the area! Progression is linear, but builds in a way as to include multiple teammates and encourage teamwork. Tech is well hidden, and is used sparingly, in order to evoke a sense of mystery. King’s Ransom is Escape Quest’s hardest room, so puzzles are generally a bit more esoteric in their solutions, but were not frustratingly done. Once methods to solving were figured out, there were many ah-ha moments to be had. Props felt overall like they belonged, and were fun to manipulate and use in our puzzling. The story was light, but continued to be uncovered throughout, leading to a climactic and satisfying conclusion to the experience.

Low Points:

One puzzle in particular was very weakly clued, and we the connection between the solution and input was tenuous at best. An interaction we had solved fairly quickly was finicky and required a lot of unnecessary jiggling and guess and check in order to finagle it into the right position. One particular prop felt anachronistic, and confused us a little bit.

Verdict:

King’s Ransom is another great addition to the DC area escape scene, and delivers a more challenging experience for enthusiasts, while still remaining accessible to newcomers as well. I would, however, recommend getting at least a couple rooms under your belt before attempting King’s Ransom. In short, I highly recommend this room for it’s fantastic set design and exciting puzzling. You can help Ransom the King here!

8/10 (Great)

Full Disclosure: Escape Quest comped our tickets for this game.

Escape Quest – The Lost Temple (Review)

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Location: Alexandria, VA

Players:  2-10 (We Recommend 4-6)

Price: $34 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Fortune and Glory, kid. Fortune and Glory.

Theme:

Dr. Dakota James has gone missing in SouthAmerica while on the hunt for an ancient artifact, leaving you, his proteges, to find his campsite and figure out what happened. Unfortunately, you’ll have to act fast, because a nearby volcano is threatening to blow soon, taking the entire area with it! Find out where Dr. James went, and find the treasure before you go missing too!

First Impressions:

I don’t know what it is about DC, but it is the land of the amazing escape room lobbies! Escape Quest’s front door leads up a flight of stairs that leads to an excellent waiting area, filled with odds and ends, and a few interesting puzzles to while time away as you wait. Staff is extremely friendly and customer service is top notch here. The briefing room is separated from the lobby and the rooms, which is always a plus, and the briefing itself is succinct and to the point. The room itself was very well done, and felt immediately like stepping into a temple far from Washington!

High Points:

The immersion factor in The Lost Temple is top notch. Props and scenery feel realistic, and technology inserted within is hidden well, giving a magical feel to some puzzle solutions. Progression is mostly linear, but there are several instances where other puzzles can be solved, so there’s no shortage of things to do while exploring the temple. Puzzles are clever and give satisfying feedback when solved, and are mostly tactile in nature, which is always appreciated. The variety of things to do in the room mix escape room standbys and new interactions in surprising ways, and the build towards the climax of the room is excellent.

Low Points:

One late game puzzle felt a bit obscure in its cluing, but once it is figured out, is enjoyable to solve. The story itself was very front loaded, and while the room does not suffer from it, peppering more story bits throughout would not hurt.

Verdict:

The Lost Temple is one of the best rooms I experienced in DC, and would recommend it to enthusiasts and beginners alike. Despite a couple minor hiccups, it is an extremely entertaining and well thought out experience that will engage veterans and hook newbies into the hobby. Book your time in The Lost Temple here!

9/10 (Excellent)

Full Disclosure: Escape Quest comped our tickets for this game.

Psycho 60 – Quantum (Review)

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Location: Kernersville, NC

Players:  2-8

Price: $25 per person Fri-Sun, $20 Mon-Thurs

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Last one, I promise.

Theme:

You’re going back in time because something something, someone is messing with the timeline, maybe? You’re not sure where you’re going, but it’s going to be to save someone important. Maybe? I don’t know, this was a mess.

First Impressions:

Hey, there’s an old Mac in here, this’ll be some good nostalgia, I hope! We did this one after Hostage, so as you can imagine, the bar was not set very high.

High Points:

It was better than Hostage, but not by much. I liked the old Mac computer, but wish there was more to do with it. The movie posters from the 80’s were also a nice touch as well.

Low Points:

This room did not have walkie talkies like the other two, so the GM was in the room with you, which was enormously awkward. A teammate opined that this was because the game is not solvable without someone leading you by the hand, which, for some parts, I’d have to agree with him. Puzzles continued to be fairly banal to illogically maddening, with one puzzle being reset incorrectly. One “puzzle” was particularly lazy, I won’t spoil what it is, but at least it was the “easy” version of one of these. More puzzle boxes, which at this point felt more and more uninspired. This room was lightest on the outside knowledge, and felt a little bit more forgivable than that found within the other rooms. The story was fairly incomprehensible and the escape was random feeling and anticlimactic. One large puzzle felt like a huge missed opportunity, as it’s solution was lame, but the several theories we had during the solving process felt like they’d have been much more exciting.

Verdict:

There’s not much more to be said beyond what I’ve already written for the previous two rooms, (Infectious Lab and Hostage), other than to say that it’s really not a great experience, though we were really hoping they’d be. I try to make sure rooms I take teams to are at least good, but I felt I needed to apologize to my team for us having to make the trip out to Kernersville for these. Obviously not recommended, however if you want to check it out, you can do so here.

2/10 (Bad)

Full Disclosure: Psycho60 provided media discounted tickets for our team.

Psycho 60 – Hostage (Review)

~ EscapeAdventurer ~ 1 Comment

Location: Kernersville, NC

Players:  2-8

Price: $25 per person Fri-Sun, $20 Mon-Thurs

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

It’s worse than I thought.

Theme:

You are bank employees who have been taken hostage during a bank robbery and forced into the manager’s office with bombs strapped to your legs. The bombs are set to go off in an hour, and you’ll be disappointed when they don’t, really.

First Impressions:

After the Infected Lab, I was not expecting much, and was still greatly disappointed. I’m not a huge fan of writing bad reviews, but trust me, this one deserves it.

High Points:

Eventually, you are allowed to leave. I’m not trying to be facetious here, I discussed the room at length with my team later, and we could not come up with one thing we liked about this room, it’s that bad.

Low Points:

There are more problems in this room than I initially thought possible. Puzzles ran the gamut of unintuitive, illogical, and off theme, most were a combination of all of these. We were made to strap chain “bombs” to our legs at the beginning of the game, which were uncomfortable and unnecessary. I took mine off immediately, but others on my team who did not reported varying levels of discomfort and pain. Outside knowledge is required at two points of the game, a definite no no, and the hints given to overcome these poor puzzles were confusing and delivered condescendingly. The connective tissue of the room is completely absent, and there is no flow to gameplay whatsoever. When doing the after game walkthrough, it was revealed that many of the puzzles relied on guess and check, which is an unsatisfying time sink. One guess and check puzzle, we were assured each item appeared only once, but this was patently wrong once we took a closer look. There were random puzzles boxes about, with tenuous clues as to how they should be opened. Cluing is extremely vague, in a misguided effort to be “difficult.” Don’t get me wrong, I like a difficult room, as two of my favorite rooms of all time was a failure and one in which we escaped with :27 to go! The difference between those rooms and this one was that those were fair, and solvable without hints. This was just a disaster overall, and the worst part is, I have no idea how this could be fixed.

Verdict:

This was the first room I have ever been in which after 20 minutes in, I did not care if we escaped. It is touted as “difficult,” but in truth, it’s just an exercise in frustration. I recommend you stay very far away from this one. Beginners will not get a good introduction to escape rooms, and enthusiasts will balk at this poor imitation of an escape experience. However if you want to check it out, you can do so here.

1/10 (Rubbish)

Full Disclosure: Psycho60 provided media discounted tickets for our team.

Psycho 60 – Infected Lab (Review)

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Location: Kernersville, NC

Players:  2-8

Price: $25 per person Fri-Sun, $20 Mon-Thurs

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

On second thought, let’s not go there, ’tis a silly place.

Theme:

You work for the government building nuclear bombs, but your team has apparently also been working on bioweapons, and has let a parasite free through carelessness. Unless you find the antidote within 60 minutes, the world will end. I know, it doesn’t make much sense, but lets just go with it for now.

First Impressions:

Psycho60 is located in a small office park, in a small town in NC. Pretty unassuming, but some of the best games I’ve played are very much out of the way, so no need to judge a book by it’s cover. The interior is interestingly decorated, if small. Our briefing was a standard, no-frills rules rundown, and there was effort made to bring a small theatrical bent to the room during the story delivery.

High Points:

There was a mouse in the room, and it was very cute, so that fit pretty well with the theme of a lab. Several props were standard for a lab, and fun to use. No puzzles really stood out to us, but the majority were at least fairly competent, if unexciting. The puzzles connected well, and there wasn’t much confusion about what was next.

Low Points:

Outside knowledge should never be required in an escape room but one puzzle in the room would have required it had we not been able to bypass it due to a fairly wild guess. A fairly complex algebraic problem was included, that will frustrate many players, and there were several red herrings peppering a couple of the puzzles. The game itself felt uninspired, and the linear nature was unable to keep our team of 4 engaged, so I imagine a group of 8 would have some serious issues with the amount of standing around while one or two others solve the puzzles. The ending was anticlimactic, and due to the unintentional ease with which we bypassed one of the steps of the game, we weren’t sure we had finished.

Verdict:

The Infected Lab was just not very exciting. The game itself worked, but did not do much to entertain our group of enthusiasts. We required no hints and set the room record by completing it in a little over 25 minutes, but it didn’t feel like much of a win, as we were completely underwhelmed by the entire experience. Unfortunately, after doing the other two rooms that Psycho60 has to offer, this one was the least offensive. I do not recommend this room unless some serious renovation is done. However if you want to check it out, you can do so here.

3/10 (Poor)

Full Disclosure: Psycho60 provided media discounted tickets for our team.