Escape Artist (Concord, NC) – The Hangover

Location: Concord, NC

Players: 2-8 (We recommend 3-4)

Price: $25 per person

Time to Escape: 60 Minutes

At least we didn’t wake up with a face tattoo!

Theme:

Last night was a doozy, and you’re sure you had a great time at the Las Vegas bachelor party, but you just can’t remember it! Waking up in your booze bottle littered hotel room, you remember you need to bring the wedding rings… somewhere. You also can’t remember where you put the rings… maybe somewhere safe? Try to piece together what happened last night and find those rings before the wedding starts in an hour!

First Impressions:

Yin and Yang was a fantastic room; a hard to pull off, yet very satisfying pure puzzling adventure. We were excited to see how Escape Artist did with a story involved, especially one involving the hazy aftermath of a Vegas hangover! We were led into our hotel bedroom and set loose on the mystery, complete with spinning colored lights and tiny casino game!

No time to sleep, theres’s escaping to do!

High Points:

The room itself is well decorated, with a few zany props adding a touch of color and fun to the room. Game flow is linear, and solutions to puzzles are, for the most part, very clear cut, though challenging enough to require some logic and deduction. The room is set up in such a way that searching for new puzzles and locks is interesting, and the space is used in an entertaining and clever manner. Several in jokes for fans of the movie are scattered around, and provide a nod to the main influence for this room. There are a couple of points where previously nonsensical items become important after a specific puzzle is solved, providing a nice payoff through sometimes humorous interactions.

Low Points:

The Hangover is heavily inspired by the movies, to the point that during some puzzles, you’ll need to have at least a surface knowledge of the movie in order to get by. It’s an unfortunate spot of outside knowledge that shouldn’t be included. The movie itself plays in the background during the game, and although it’s a funny one, it doesn’t really add to the experience and was overall more of a distraction, especially while trying to solve enigmas quickly. Puzzles aren’t quite as creative as we’d have liked, as the majority of the interactions come off as merely banal. Many random props are scattered about, and though it isn’t overly cluttered and messy, the room fails to deliver a tightly designed experience. Some puzzle solutions rely on immersion breaking leaps of logic that really don’t have much basis beyond “escape room logic.” A lot of similar locks abound here, with guess and check becoming mandatory, especially during the early stages of the game. The ending is clear, though the climax falls flat as the story doesn’t really go anywhere during the game.

Verdict:

The Hangover provides a decent game, with a few clever puzzles, but relies a little too heavily on the movie of the same name to really become its own thing. Add in some outside knowledge and a few more leaps of logic than necessary, and the game becomes just an okay experience. If you’re a fan of the movie, I’d say go for it, but if you’re looking for the best puzzling experience, Yin and Yang is definitely a better bet. You can book your time recovering from your Hangover here!

5.5/10 (Mediocre)

Full Disclosure: Escape Artist provided discounted tickets for our team.