Psycho 60 – Infected Lab (Review)

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.