Downtown Escapes – The Heist (Review)

Location: Goldsboro, NC

Players: 2-8 (We recommend 4-6)

Price: $25 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Ocean’s 2-8 Players

Theme:

The art collection of Juan-Carlos is without equal, and a new acquisition is rumored to be the most exquisite, and expensive, addition yet! Therefore, your team has decided to steal it. Posing as a janitorial crew, you’ve been given an hour inside the gallery, but you’ll still need to disable the security protecting the most valuable collections and find the prize! Make sure you’re out within an hour, though, as Juan-Carlos didn’t get to be as rich as he is without being ruthless towards his enemies.

First Impressions:

Downtown Escapes has a cozy location in downtown (obviously,) Goldsboro. We got started soon after we arrived, and were given a story rundown before being left outside of the room, waiting for our contact to get in touch. Once we were cleared to enter the art gallery by the mysterious voice, we broke in ready to get our hands on some priceless art!

High Points:

The room’s reveal was excellent, as it was extremely well designed and flawlessly sold the theme of Art Gallery. The gorgeous set design also allowed for many tactile interactions as well as myriad places for surprises to be hidden. Props fit the theme well, and allowed for some really engaging design. A good mix of puzzle types and a non-linear structure ensured that our entire team was engaged from start to finish and the props and set pieces were a joy to interact with. Game flow was well planned, and it was always clear what was next, though not too clear as to be simplistic. The climax of the heist was appropriately exciting, ending the room on a high note.

Low Points:

One puzzle that gave us some serious issues felt somewhat burdensome due to it’s unwieldly nature, but was otherwise interesting. Another late game one made sense once we’d figured out the solution, but would benefit from slightly more direct cluing.

Verdict:

The Heist is an amazing first effort for Downtown Escapes, and is a great introductory room for beginners, as well as an enjoyable enthusiast romp. An immersive and beautiful experience, I definitely recommend trying it out, especially since it is rare for escape rooms to allow you to be thieves or other “bad guys.” Stage your art heist here!

8/10 (Great)

Full Disclosure: Downtown Escapes comped our tickets for this room.