Doldrick’s Escape Room – Super Bomb Squad: Commandos Awesome (Review)

Location: Kissimmee, FL

Players:  2-8, Always Private (We recommend 3-5)

Price: $33.99 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Press start to play!

Theme:

From the Doldrick’s Escape Room website:

As part of an elite group of commandos, The Super Bomb Squad: Commandos Awesome are on a mission to find and deactivate a newly developed weapon of mass destruction, capable of obliterating the entire planet! Only the Super Bomb Squad: Commandos Awesome have what it takes to break into the evil corporation and deactivate the explosive!

First Impressions:

Doldrick’s came highly recommended by… pretty much everybody. The word of mouth was overwhelmingly positive, and after taking a look at the themes on their website, Doldrick’s was easily the top, must-see escape room to visit during our stay in Orlando. It didn’t hurt that they have bought fully into the humorous trope of extremely ridiculous and long-winded titles that I love so much. I had, to quote the local radio’s apparent favorite song, high high hopes.

And they have a *pool table*! We didn’t play, but it was an *option*! Which is *awesome*! Kind of like *asterisks*! And running *jokes* into the *ground*!

High Points:

Super Bomb Squad: Commandos Awesome is a trek into the world of a Super Nintendo game. Full of nostalgic ’80s theming (without being a strictly ’80s experience,) slick set design, and a bombastic story and cast of characters, this room remained an absolute blast from start to finish. Let’s start with the story. You’re sent on an elite commando mission to take down a doomsday device, and you’ll be accompanied, via intermittent cut-scenes, by support from your pixelated pals back at the Super Bomb Squad base. It’s over the top and even more exciting than it seems. And this room absolutely nails the humor, making it one of those rare rooms in which the experience is actually funny rather than playing at being funny or making references. It really is a rollicking good time.

Starting off in the room, things are mostly linear, but with enough non-linearity and a lot of teamwork based interactions that I’m sure even larger groups will find plenty to keep engaged. Every puzzle was excellently themed towards the room’s storyline, wonderfully clever and inventive, and challenging without becoming frustrating. Most steps along the journey provided us with brilliant feedback and enormously satisfying moments of revelation, and nothing seemed out of place or run of the mill. It’s difficult to choose a favorite puzzle, as even the simplest of them provided the thrill of solving, but I have to say that some of the enormous and layered room spanning interactions we came across were fantastic. Many of them had bits and pieces sprinkled throughout the rooms, and by gradually uncovering new clues and props, we could naturally come up with the highly intuitive solutions as we came to them.

The climax of the room was slick, as was the rest of the set, and the doomsday device itself was absolutely beautiful; sticking with the theme and just being a cool set piece to mess around with. The room had very few physical locks, relying on really awesome and tactile tech to bring the experience to brilliantly colored life! The effects and soundtrack kept the adrenaline pumping throughout the escape, and when we finally shut the doomsday device down, we felt really accomplished and satisfied with the whole experience.

Low Points:

The Power Glove we used in the after room picture didn’t actually work anymore? I dunno, I got nothin’ for this.

Verdict:

If you are in the Orlando/Kissimmee area, you have to play Super Bomb Squad: Commandos Awesome. Full stop. Do not pass Go, do not collect 200 dollars, go straight to Doldrick’s. This place is a jewel in the crown of Florida area escape rooms and I cannot recommend it to you enough, and I can’t wait to go back for their newest room. Book your time as one of the illustrious Commandos Awesome here!

10/10 (Phenomenal)

Full Disclosure: Doldrick’s provided our team with discounted tickets.