Tag: Adrenaline Entertainment Center

Adrenaline Entertainment Center Columbia – Russian Bomb Party (Review)

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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

Bombed.

Theme:

A bomb has been planted in Columbia by a Russian operative, and it’s set to blow in 45 minutes unless your team can break into their lair and stop it! Try to find out who is behind this threat and disarm the many traps inside or South Carolina will meet a nuclear winter!

First Impressions:

The last couple rooms we had tried at Adrenaline, Riddle High and Federal Bank Robbery, were fairly good and competent rooms, and while the theme of Russian Bomb Party seemed somewhat heavy for a family focused escape room, we were willing to give it a go!

High Points:

The set of this room is definitely the best of the three rooms we experienced at Adrenaline, with excellent lighting accompanying an interesting set that featured all manner of Russian propaganda and weaponry. Most puzzles were fairly practical and made sense on the whole, with bits of technology peppered throughout to bring a modern and somewhat magical feel to the room. The props are well built and lend a fun tactile nature to the game.

Low Points:

The soundtrack in the room was a loop of overly loud Russian anthems, assaulting our ears like a rapidly firing AK-47. It got old really fast, and didn’t really help with the immersion or themeing really. Game flow was choppy, and for a family friendly room, tended to have clues hidden high above even our tallest member’s head for no discernible reason. The structure of the clues within the room tended to range from somewhat reasonable logical leaps to completely unreasonable, seeming to demand we read the mind of the designer on several occasions. Like in Federal Bank Robbery, weird American political references abounded, making us wonder what purpose they served beyond just being there. A couple of times puzzles just triggered in seemingly random ways, confirming a solve we hadn’t even engaged with yet. There is crawling required within this room and it is immensely uncomfortable, with the hole being incredibly difficult to make it through for even our smallest member. While the room is family friendly, the puzzles in the adjoining room can be too high or perhaps too difficult for your usual child, so this crawlspace absolutely must be widened for comfort. Anyone who can’t make it through the wall by crawling might miss out on several puzzles due to the almost nonexistent cluing towards how to open the main door between rooms.

Verdict:

Overall, Russian Bomb Party is a jumbled mess of a room that doesn’t really seem to go anywhere story wise. The puzzle flow is incredibly choppy and the cluing within the room definitely does not alleviate any of the problems within. Furthermore, the room’s theme and puzzles tend to stray from the family friendly theme that Adrenaline seems to be trying to capture with their other rooms. With much better rooms available at Adrenaline, I don’t recommend checking this one out. However, if you want to experience this one for yourself, you can do so here.

4/10 (Subpar)

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

Adrenaline Entertainment Center Columbia – Federal Bank Robbery (Review)

~ EscapeAdventurer ~ 1 Comment

Location: Columbia, SC

Players: 2-10 (We recommend 3-5)

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

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Money, Money, Money, Money!

Theme:

Donald Trump has decided it’s high time his face be immortalized on a new banknote, and of course, it must be a one thousand dollar bill. (Weird, right?) Your group of thieves have decided that it’s high time you quit your nine to fives, so you’ve hatched a plan to steal the plates used to make the bill itself before the release of the money, ensuring you have plenty of time to crank out enough counterfeit bills to keep you comfortable for life.

First Impressions:

We were led into the main area from the huge entertainment center, and just like when we entered Riddle High, the sounds of shrieking children immediately faded away, leaving us in the dark environs of the Federal Reserve. After a quick briefing, we began scouring the room for our way in!

High Points:

There are some very interesting puzzles and interactions peppered throughout the game flow of Federal Bank Robbery that we hadn’t seen before, and even though some were quite simple, they still were a lot of fun to complete! A lot of great tactile interactions come into play, and moving around the thematically fantastic props really helps you feel the part of a thief raiding the Reserve. Many puzzles rely on technical solves, using that magic to create excellent challenges throughout the room, and ensure that surprises are well hidden until they are needed. The later part of the game really ramps up with a few of those surprises, and stays fairly intense from that point to the ultimate climax of the game. Though the storyline is fairly light, the movement through the game is intuitive and each gate along the mostly linear path provides a sense of ongoing progress throughout your heist.

Low Points:

The theme itself centers around Donald Trump, a highly divisive politician, and it’s weirdly jarring to have that be the basis of an escape room based on a heist. While it’s one hundred percent believable that he’d want to plaster his face on a new thousand dollar bill, it just seems weirdly out of place within an escape room. One puzzle in particular involves an ambiguous trivia question that requires outside knowledge, nothing that most Americans won’t already know, but outside knowledge is still unacceptable at any rate, especially at this location, which is geared towards families and kids. One puzzle’s solving method is fairly straightforward, but the trigger is fairly well hidden, and there’s no prompt to let you know that the solution worked until you see it, causing lost time and a small amount of frustration. The concept overall, however, is very cool once you notice it. For the Federal Reserve, the main area feels pretty sparse, as the set design is quite Spartan for the most part.

Verdict:

Playing Federal Bank Robbery was fun, though admittedly the inclusion of Trump throughout was fairly weird. Jarring nature of that addition aside, the game itself provides a fun, family friendly challenge that beginners and enthusiasts can enjoy. If you’re craving further escapes after your trampoline or VR adventure, you should definitely begin your Federal Bank Robbery here!

7/10 (Good)

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

Adrenaline Entertainment Center Columbia – Riddle High (Review)

~ EscapeAdventurer ~ 2 Comments

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.