Month: April 2019

No-Da Escapes – Jurassic Bone (Review)

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Location: Charlotte, NC

Players: 2-10 (We recommend 3-5)

Price: $25 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Boned.

Theme:

From the No Da Escapes website:

A team of modern archaeologists have found the remains of a Giganotosaurus inside an old gem mine. The Giganotosaurus is one of the rarest types of dinosaurs and is related to the T-Rex. A mole has worked their way into your group and has stolen a piece of the skeleton for personal profit. The stolen bone is believed to still be hidden in the cave where the dinosaur’s skeleton was found. Your mission is to retrieve the stolen bone and return it to the head archaeologist. The problem is, you only have 60 minutes before the cave collapses and you are sealed inside forever.

First Impressions:

After the terrible Dracula’s Lair, it was time to take on No-Da’s more recent creation, Jurassic Bone. We didn’t exactly have high hopes after what we’d just experienced, but perhaps some lessons had been learned along the way to make Jurassic Bone more palatable? The theme certainly was original!

High Points:

Jurassic Bone is rather large, so a bigger group won’t feel smushed into the room, though there wasn’t as many activities as there was room for. There are a few interesting ideas around, with a water based puzzle that we enjoyed working through, as well as a couple out of the box items we hadn’t seen used in quite the way they were here. The room did a good job of connecting puzzles to locks on the whole, though there were a few repeats, but on the whole didn’t overlap during the game flow. The theme itself is a great idea, though it isn’t fully capitalized on.

Low Points:

Jurassic Bone is a really large escape room, but at many points during the game, it just feels empty. “Big to be big” was the general sentiment of our group. For a game that has a maximum of ten players, it just doesn’t have all that much to do, and a mostly linear game flow does not help matters any. The experience itself also feels rather static, as the puzzles and interactions are generally mildly interesting, but don’t really feel like they add to the room or theme in a dynamic way. Solving them allowed us to move forward, but didn’t really trigger much excitement, or carry a greater impetus for why these actions were important. One particular puzzle had a creative and out of the box idea behind it, but it’s inclusion felt random, and it was extremely finicky to boot. Though I had performed the correct action, it didn’t trigger, causing me to leave it behind before someone else tried it in a slightly different way, popping the obstinate lock.

One of the major selling points listed for this room is that it takes place underground. Technically it does, but it is like a half basement in that it still opens up to the outside and never really feels truly underground, nor does this partial underground-ness really add anything. Parts of the room also feel unnecessary, as we were able to trigger a late game puzzle’s solution without properly placing certain bits, leading to a weird anti-climax that wouldn’t really have benefitted much from us placing those bits anyway. The big reveal at the end it laughable, with one of the poorest looking props we’ve ever seen in the giant foam bone. Unfortunately, this was also the only part of the room that really stuck to the Jurassic theme we were hoping for as well.

Verdict:

While a marked improvement from Dracula’s Lair, Jurassic Bone just doesn’t quite measure up to the other rooms available in the Charlotte area. On the whole, it’s just an average experience and I would recommend checking out one of the many other rooms in the area long before this one. If you’d like to try your hand at retrieving the big foam bone, however, you can do so here.

5/10 (Mediocre)

Full Disclosure: No Da Escapes provided our group with Media Discounted tickets.

Timed Out – Illusion (Review)

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Location: Charlotte, NC

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

Price: $28 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Now you see me…

Theme:

From the Timed Out website:

For years the world has been wowed by the unique and unexplainable magic of “Angelica Steele”. She started just like any other magician, obscure and unknown, until one day, her act changed. From that day forward she was the best of the best. Her rise to fame and years of domination in the magic industry did not gain her friends, but did give her a lot of enemies. You and your team received an anonymous tip that the magician is in fact a fraud! With the promise of good fortune, your team has been tasked to uncover the truth by gathering information and learning the secrets behind her magic.

First Impressions:

Timed Out was one of those escape rooms I stumbled on while planning one of our usual escape marathons. It’s always exciting to see a new business pop up, but even more so when the website has all the hallmarks of a good spot, and this one even had a really awesome blog to boot! We’d been bamboozled before but still, Timed Out definitely seemed as though it would be awesome.

High Points:

Timed Out has some great Game Masters, so I want to start by thanking our GM Chris for his excellent work giving us great hints and feedback during our game! The room itself is one of the most tightly integrated to the theme I have seen in recent memory, with so many excellent illusions and magical interactions peppered generously throughout. There are rooms that are themed as magical, and then there are rooms like Illusion, where the experience actually is magical, and it’s really quite amazing. The items found throughout the room continually deliver surprising reveals, and rather than just being random magic trick props, they are key parts of the puzzles themselves and bolster ah ha moments into moments of awe. The set design is great, and is at the same time a magician’s lounge, a storeroom of tricks, and an elegant parlor for an intimate magic show. Truly this room is a creative marvel, and it doesn’t end with the props and set design!

The puzzles within Illusion are very intuitive, even when many involve some sort of magic trick. Care has been taken by the designers to ensure that no outside knowledge is needed to manipulate these props, and many times, it feels as though they perform their own slight of hand as they are being examined. The room is very non-linear, and though we had a larger group of six, there was always something to do during our game. The story is engaging, and though the focus is on the magical puzzles and interactions, the enigmatic Angelica Steele remains a figure we were very interested to learn more about.

Low Points:

Many lock types repeat during the room, ensuring that there will be a fairly large amount of guess and check to be done after solving puzzles, which could be remedied with clearer connections between the puzzles themselves and the locks they are meant to open. This lack of connection made the game flow a bit more choppy in parts, as several puzzles also tended be fairly stand-alone; their threads terminating at the moment the lock was opened.

Verdict:

Illusion is absolutely one of the most well themed games in Charlotte, with an emphasis on ensuring that each puzzle is magical rather than just magic themed and a bevy of tricks up its sleeve, it is an engaging adventure for escapists of any skill level! Book your time investigating the illusions of Angelica Steele here!

8/10 (Great)

Full Disclosure: Timed Out provided comped tickets for our group.

Sleuth Kings – Case 019: My Brother’s Reaper (Review)

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Location: Your Home!

Players:  We recommend 1-4

Price: $29.95 per box

Always bet on King.

Theme:

Rival Private Investigator John Malvone returns, but this time, instead of seeking to beat Sullivan to the punch, he’s asking for our help. Well, perhaps not “asking” as much as “breaking and entering” and “telling,” but being the altruistic and ultimately curious PI he is, Sullivan is willing to assist. Malvone’s brother was killed in the line of duty during his work as a cop, but he suspects it wasn’t the accident the police department has chalked it up to be. He suspects this goes all the way to the local Moretti Crime Family, and he’s determined to take them down in retribution. There’s a small window to do so, however, as the Morettis aren’t known for their inattention to detail or gentle hand when it comes to outsiders meddling in their business!

First Impressions:

After our latest showdown with the mysterious organization responsible for Sullivan’s father’s disappearance, it was time to get back to the day to day business of Sleuth Kings. Only this time, we were greeted with a letter from one of our known rivals, John Malvone! An excellent twist to get things going, the adventure only becomes more exciting from there!

High Points:

After an receiving our briefing from Malvone, we began to unravel the meaning of the many excellent Moretti Gaming props that were the centerpiece of this experience. From the start, the mystery really fires on all cylinders, and doesn’t let up until the conclusion. The initial puzzle is ingenious in it’s elegance, and I really enjoyed the hugely satisfying ah ha moment it delivered. This led smoothly in to the next clue, and each subsequent puzzle built upon the next with a extremely rewarding difficulty curve that kept things challenging without becoming vague or poorly clued. The layouts of each prop and puzzle present themselves superbly, and look convincing without giving away their secrets willingly. The layers of puzzling packed into each bit is amazing, and I really think this is one of the most tightly layered experiences that Sleuth Kings has come up with yet!

The story is fantastic, and the mystery is full of easter eggs and callbacks to previous cases, tying in to the overall universe nicely. Veterans of the series will love how this case pulls from older capers, bringing back interesting characters and delivering an experience that is wholly grounded in the Sleuth Kings Universe, while still being a fresh adventure to engage with. Everything is still accessible, however, so new players need not worry about getting their hands on older boxes before they can fully enjoy this one. Sullivan’s interactions with Malvone are humorously written, and provide great levity to the overarching revenge story being told. By the end, the sometimes rival becomes yet another great, and multifaceted character that we look forward to seeing more from in future Sleuth Kings cases!

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All the glitz and glamour of a Mafioso casino!

Low Points:

My only real issue with this box was the strange red herring we came across during the latter part our investigation. Usually, everything within a Sleuth Kings box is important, especially those pieces that stand out, but there was one specific item that seemed like a fairly obvious clue, but didn’t bear fruit. It was a weird side trail we got caught up in that we couldn’t muster any meaning from. Otherwise, the whole case was tightly plotted and amazing!

Verdict:

My Brother’s Reaper is one of the best cases Sleuth Kings has put out yet, and a prime example of how their product has continued to improve every month! We loved this case, and absolutely think detectives new and old will too. Absolutely give this one a try when it is added to the Sleuth King’s archives here, and if you’d like to subscribe to upcoming adventures, you can use the promo code ESCAPEADVENTURE to get $5 off your subscription here! You can also read the rest of our Sleuth Kings reviews here!

9.5/10 (Excellent)

Full Disclosure: Sleuth Kings provided a complementary box.

Codescape – Deep Space (Review)

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Location: Charlotte, NC

Players: 2-8 (We recommend 3-4)

Price: $28 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

In space, no one can hear you scream

Theme:

From the Codescape website:

Is humanity truly alone? Radio signals have been received from a distant part of the known universe, suggesting the existence of intelligent life. As a team of exobiologists, you have been sent on a mission to deep space, in hopes of making first contact. But somewhere along the way, a breach has compromised the spacecraft’s security… Will you discover alien life, or will it discover you first?

First Impressions:

After a tangle with the ghosts in The Residents, it was time to shoot into space to deal with some aliens! This was our final room to play at Codescape, so we were interested to see how it played. It certainly looked interesting, and we’ve been looking for a great outer space themed game, so we were excited to get started!

High Points:

To start the game, there was a really fun technical interaction that encouraged teamwork from the start, and was a simple, yet fun start to the room with a fun payoff. Most puzzles and props were really cool, with some interesting designs throughout the game, most notably after solving the penultimate puzzle. The payoff to this is one of the most fun engagements I’ve seen in an escape room recently, and the unexpected nature of it just added to the experience. The set design was colorful and the soundtrack and lighting matched the theme well. Game-flow also worked, but with the caveat that it begins to break down after you have more than three or four players present within the room.

Low Points:

Unfortunately, the entire room began to feel rather same-y, as the mostly linear experience tended to boil down to the same type of interaction. While varied enough to veil this, a lot of the game can be seen as a “simon says” type room. Further, because of the mostly linear design and lower amount of puzzles, a maximum of eight players will definitely see a lot of the players facing large amounts of downtime with little to do. The biggest puzzles require a maximum of three people to comfortably complete before becoming an issue of too many cooks, and unfortunately, without buying out the rest of the tickets, there’s not much you can do to prevent overbooking. One particular puzzle presents a color based conundrum, but the lighting and solution choices tend to make several spots look overly similar, causing difficulty in solving not due to the challenge, but because the parameters of the interaction are not clear. During the final puzzle, the soundtrack is amped up with techno music that not only feels out of place, but is far too loud, adding artificial difficulty to a teamwork puzzle that relies on communication.

Verdict:

Deep Space is an interesting game that divided our group quite a bit. Some of us thought it was good, while others hated it. It all comes down to the fact that several folks ended up on the edges of the puzzles looking in due to the mostly linear game design and low actual maximum people that could work on any given puzzle. I’d say this is a fun room for beginners and those who can ensure that their group stays small, but if you’re looking for an experience that can handle more players, I’d look elsewhere. Book your expedition into the unknown here!

6/10 (Alright)