Adrenaline Entertainment Center Columbia – Riddle High (Review)

Location: Columbia, SC

Players: 2-10 (We recommend 3-5)

Price: $17.50 (advance booking) or $25 (walk-in) per person

Time to Escape: 45 minutes

Busted!

Theme:

You’ve been caught in acts of delinquency one too many times, and now it’s time to serve your time… in Detention! You’ve got better things to do, so your fellow detainees decide to sneak into the school to find and destroy your detention slips. You’ll have to be quick, smart, and devious in order to get it done, or you’ll be spending the next few weeks serving time!

First Impressions:

Adrenaline isn’t solely an escape room venue, their main attraction is their trampoline park, and their focus is towards families and kids. We’d heard their rooms were a bit on the easier side, but still a lot of fun, so we decided to check them out while we were in town. Upon walking in, the chaotic sounds of children at play abounded, but as we were led into the room itself, those sounds faded away, so props to the set designers for the excellent sound proofing! In fact, during the room, I almost forgot there was a huge warehouse of kids behind the door!

High Points:

Riddle High has a great set, invoking the nostalgic days of high school with an escape room twist! The theme of a classroom/high school is underutilized, and when it is presented, the game generally is composed of cast off school props, but Riddle High eschews cheapness in order to create a very clean and engaging set. Many of the props brought me back to my high school days, and it was a lot of fun to interact with certain technology of yore in clever ways to solve the conundrums within the room. Effort has been made to ensure the surprises within the room are able to keep even our veteran group guessing, as the game opens up in very clever ways.

Game flow is mostly non-linear, with several puzzling paths converging towards an exciting climax and escape! All interactions within the room were highly intuitive, and melded with the theme of the room excellently, delivering the full puzzling package! Though the room itself is only 45 minutes, there has been no skimping on content here, and we were able to keep engaged for the entire time.

Low Points:

One particular puzzle triggers the next step silently, so even when the solution has been found, you’ll have to scour the room again to find it. Some sort of sound or obvious light trigger would be appreciated since the puzzle comes later in the game, long after you’ve already searched the room from top to bottom once! There is one late game interaction that makes sense within the theme, but is something I’d rather not encourage groups to do during a game, similar to messing with electrical outlets. A small bank of puzzles can be bypassed due to some of the props having hidden information that’s a bit less hidden than it could be.

Verdict:

Riddle High is an awesome game that newcomers and enthusiasts alike will enjoy. Adults will love the nostalgic look back at high school, and kids can find a lot of fun within this one as well, making the room fantastic for the targeted family demographic. You can book your time in detention here!

8/10 (Great)

Full Disclosure: Adrenaline Entertainment Center Columbia provided comped tickets for our team.