Time Traveler Escape Games – Dr. Trott’s Apothecary (Review)

Location: Charleston, SC

Players: 2-8 (We recommend 3-5)

Price: $28 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

A bit of heroin for your cold will fix you right up!

Theme:

It’s 1867 and the rain has been falling in Charleston, SC for four straight days. Citizens are beginning to worry that Dr. Trott is the reason for all their woes, due to the fact that he’s captured a mermaid within his apothecary and refuses to set her free! The unprecedented storm threatens to bury the whole city underwater unless you can find the mermaid and set her free. Dr. Trott returns in an hour, though, so you’d better act fast!

First Impressions:

Dr. Trott’s Apothecary is based on a local legend that you can read about here! It’s really quite fascinating that people truly rioted outside of a pharmacy because they thought that the owner was holding a mermaid hostage, but that’s the 1800’s for you. An escape room based on the hidden legends of Charleston really sounded like a fantastic idea, so we were very excited to give Time Traveler Escape Games a visit during our most recent trip out!

High Points:

Dr. Trott’s Apothecary is well decorated, housing some excellent tech, lighting, and sound effects to simulate the storm, as well as other hidden surprises to assist with the immersion factor of the game. Though there are a few trick puzzle boxes and locks, generally a huge escape room sin, they are clued cleverly and justify their inclusion by being more than just a box purchased online and sat in the room for no thematic reason. The game flow runs nicely, and is non linear for the most part, with a subtle clue to start off the room’s puzzling threads. Each section of the apothecary feels like it’s own level of sorts, with all the threads coming together to unlock the next segment, leading to another challenge that repeats the process. We are big fans of this video game like style of escape room puzzling and are glad to see it catching on in Charleston!

Connections within the room are intuitive, and the meta puzzles for each step work smoothly, with the original and sometimes room spanning puzzles keeping our group of five engaged with the story throughout the entire adventure. When we needed a hint or two our GM provided clever clues that gave us just the right amount of push without giving the answer away outright, which is always appreciated. There’s quite a few props to play around with, and all of them are integrated well into the theme of a sea loving, (perhaps too much,) pharmacist from the 1860’s.

Low Points:

One puzzle failed spectacularly on us, and it seemed like there was no backup to overcome the technical problem. Though we eventually were able to force it to finally trigger, it burned a lot of time off of our clock. From behind the scenes looks of other tech heavy rooms I’ve done, I’ve noticed most have a program of backups in place should a puzzle be solved and the prop not trigger, so that might be worth looking into for Time Traveler Escape Games. Though light on hidden objects for hidden objects’ sake, there is one that felt overly well hidden, and without a puzzle or clue to help find it, it feels like a random scavenger hunt rather than an exciting solve. One early puzzle was interesting, but involved a fairly large leap of logic, coupled with searching for a small marking that just blends in with its surroundings, leading to some early frustration on our part. There’s also no timer within the room, which adds to the authenticity, but can make marking your progress within difficult, so this could really go either way based on your preferences.

Verdict:

Dr. Trott’s Apothecary is a fun room for first time players and enthusiasts alike, delivering multiple stages of puzzling fun. Though there are a couple points at which the room failed on us, these seem to be isolated cases of bad luck and I still recommend checking this one out in order to delve into the hidden history of Charleston for an hour, and commend Time Traveler Escape Games on coming up with such an excellent idea. Book your rescue mission here!

7/10 (Good)

Full Disclosure: Time Traveler Escape Games comped our tickets for this room.