Escape Plan Columbia – Missing (Review)

Location: Columbia, SC

Players: 2-10 (We Recommend 4-6)

Price: $28 per person

Time to Escape: 60 Minutes

Gone Baby, Gone

Theme:

You’ve been kidnapped by an elusive serial killer, and a team of detectives are trying to find and save you. You’ll have to work together to solve the puzzles and escape before he returns to finish you all off!

First Impressions:

The fairly sparse and generic serial killer theme is still one of my favorite overall guilty pleasures as far as escape rooms go, so I wasn’t overly worried to that point, and when we were told that we’d be separated into two groups, one for the kidnapped victims and one for the detectives, I was fairly excited for this twist. We were briefed just outside of our respective rooms, blindfolded, and set upon the room.

High Points:

The split up as detectives and victims idea was interesting, even though it didn’t play out excellently. Room flow was alright once we were reunited and there were a couple surprises here and there to keep us on our toes. Emphasis on teamwork was appreciated, and worked as intended.

Low Points:

As the kidnapped, my group was locked in a sparse room and had our end of the puzzles solved pretty quickly, and did what little we could to help our teammates. There were several minutes we spent sitting on the floor wishing we were in the next room while we waited for the detectives to figure out how to get us together. Once we had been reunited, we found that the detectives were next to done with most of the puzzles in their room, so we weren’t able to help much there. Due to poor gating, it is very likely that many groups will have the same issue of waiting around for the other group to figure out which puzzle gets everyone back together. Once we entered the final stage of the game, it didn’t take overlong for us to finish up, as the game was fairly sparse overall. Puzzles weren’t overly exciting, and themeing was sparse. For all the good ideas in the beginning, we were fairly unimpressed with the execution. The fact that one group of us were detectives and one were victims could’ve been played up for much better effect, but was sadly just a reason to split us up.

Verdict:

Missing has a few good ideas to start off, but fails to execute properly. Puzzles are overall pretty banal, and do little to excite. There are a couple interactions that lend a fun bright spot, but don’t quite overcome the overall average nature of the room. A major retooling would be necessary for me to recommend this room, but for now, I cannot. If you’d like to check it out, however, you can do so here.

4/10 (Subpar)

Full Disclosure: Escape Plan Columbia comped our tickets for this room.