Tag: Charlotte

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.

Timed Out – Precinct (Review)

~ EscapeAdventurer ~ 1 Comment

Location: Charlotte, NC

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

Price: $28 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

It may be an abandoned police station, but it still has doughnuts!

Theme:

From the Timed Out website:

Set against the backdrop of three missing police officers, your team’s ability to unravel the story of Precinct will be tested by challenges that require analytical skills, deductive reasoning and collaboration. If you’re successful, you’ll progressively uncover the details behind the mysterious disappearances and seize opportunities to change the outcome of the series of events. But be careful – you’ll need to avoid be pulled into the very things you’re trying to prevent!

First Impressions:

Police Stations and prisons are an old standby for escape rooms at this point, so it really takes a masterful hand to ensure they remain fresh, especially for escape room veterans, and after doing two other rooms at Timed Out, we were sure Precinct would be a lot of fun! We were advised it was their most challenging room, and we were ready to take it on!

High Points:

Our game master for this game was McKenna, and she expertly sent us a couple clues when we began to flounder or became too confident in our wrong answers, she read the room perfectly and did an excellent job! As an aside, she is also the writer for Timed Out’s blog, which I really enjoyed reading through. I’ve never read an escape room blog run by a business that is quite this varied or interesting to peruse, so I definitely recommend checking it out! You can find it here.

Precinct’s set is very well done, with some cool touches to add immersion, and an awesome old style phone booth that was great fun to play around in. The introduction video and the soundtrack of the room keep energy high without being overly loud or intrusive, and helped tie the story in as we progressed. The video that ended the room was also a fitting dénouement, and tied up all the loose ends neatly. The experience is ever evolving throughout the room, and several surprises popped up regularly to keep us saying “wow!” The whole room is really awesome, design-wise, and the owners let me know they were going to further iterate the set to make it even more immersive, which is great to hear!

Challenging rooms, I find, come in two different varieties. Those which are difficult for the sake of difficulty, and those that weave the challenge throughout the room in an engaging, but fair way. Precinct is definitely the latter version. The difficulty of this room comes not from a puzzle designer that wants to “beat” the players, but from one that really understands how to create a fun challenge, packing the room with creative puzzles that force your group to act as a team; engaging keen perception and out of the box thinking to succeed! So much within this room was a thrill to interact with and the puzzle density was just right to keep all three of us fully entertained. The non-linear set up could definitely handle a maximum of eight players, and no one would ever feel like they were just standing around. The game flow is almost perfect, with all props and puzzles having a purpose and integrating into the theme fantastically. The signposting of clues and astounding gating that can be found here is just top notch all around. The climax of the room was an absolute blast, and caught us all by surprise! It added an excellent twist to the room and ended it on an exceedingly high note after a run of already excellent puzzles.

Low Points:

One particular puzzle is rather onerous, as it requires a fair amount of guess and check. It isn’t the most egregious version of guess and check, as you’re able to develop somewhat of a framework to work off of, but it still was a bit too much for our liking. There was a quicker way to solve this puzzle that was a small hack, so that was a relief. One prop activates with some experimentation, but didn’t give us feedback that our experimentation led to a wrong answer, leading us to believe that the green lights we had found were placed correctly. Our GM was quick to redirect our thinking regarding this, but a small bit more feedback would’ve helped.

Verdict:

Precinct was my absolute favorite room at Timed Out, and one of my favorites during our most recent trip to Charlotte! I absolutely recommend giving it a go, though newer players might want to give one of their easier games a shot first to get a feel for escape rooms. The game masters here are excellent, however, and I’m sure they’d be happy to tailor the difficulty for you if investigating an abandoned police station is your jam. Book your time in the Precinct here!

9/10 (Excellent)

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

No Da Escapes – Dracula’s Lair (Review)

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Location: Charlotte, NC

Players: 2-6 (We recommend 2-3)

Price: $25 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

I’m being strong, and not going for the low hanging fruit on this one.

Theme:

From the No Da Escapes website:

The long history of Dracula has burdened a small town in Romania for centuries. Time and time again, people have tried to slay him and have been unsuccessful. You and your team of vampire hunters have been given a slim chance of success by none other than Van Helsing himself. Can you help the small town in Romania finally finish the long blood feud or shall you perish like the ones before you?

First Impressions:

No Da Escapes has a couple of interesting concepts on their website, including a room that takes place underground, so we were definitely interested to see how well they executed these grand ideas! Dracula’s Lair was also set to be my fiancée’s 100th room, so I was hoping it’d be a great one to celebrate this milestone!

High Points:

The room has an interesting idea for the climax, which ultimately falls flat, but if it were iterated on, I think it would be a cool ending. The fact that I have to jump immediately to the end in order to think of a high point is definitely telling. I suppose one prop we used at the start was interesting, from a design standpoint, but that was the first and last clever puzzle we encountered here.

Low Points:

Everything about the experience felt like an alpha test. So much of the room gave the impression that it was unfinished; very much in the early stages of the design. To start, we were in a dark room, with the maximum six players, and were given one flashlight total. The set was incredibly sparse, and there was even a large leak in the ceiling that apparently had been there for a while. The room was dirty, (and not in a set design “dirty” way,) and cobbled together with several random props which all, save for one, were pretty low rent. The immersion factor was severely absent via the room’s décor. Puzzles and game flow were also scant, with only a few highly linear puzzles mostly presented via paper clues. There was also one clue hidden within a mostly blank journal, which seemed a huge waste of a prop.

A couple of the puzzles were half baked, with built in logical leaps that made little sense, and clues that just vaguely hinted at the answer. One such puzzle even presented several numbers that had to be input randomly until they clicked; there was no in game way to figure out the order properly. Not helping matters was a random jump scare that didn’t even feel like it belonged, triggering for the sake of being there. Instead of causing us to jump, it was just a loud annoyance that added little to the experience. The ending was an interesting idea, but the way the idea was delivered fell completely flat, wrapping up the experience completely anticlimactically. All in all, the set, and gameplay, are much too minimal to entertain a group of three, much less a full complement of six players.

Verdict:

Dracula’s Lair just isn’t worthy of the legendary vampire. There is one or two interesting ideas, but the room is already in disrepair, and there really isn’t much here to salvage. It would take a large overhaul to become recommendable, and at that point, it’d be a whole new room. Not the worst in the area, but it ventures pretty close. I would advise skipping it, but if you want to satisfy your curiosity, you can do so here.

2/10 (Bad)

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

The Box – Predestined (Review)

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Location: Charlotte, NC

Players: 2-6 (We recommend 3-4)

Price: $27 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Seize your destiny!

Theme:

Several artifacts have been taken from important moments in history, throwing off the time stream, and causing a ripple effect that could cause massive damage to our existence! Even worse, the perpetrator is most likely a traitor within your organization, a secret group that is sworn to protect the time stream! You only have a short amount of time to get everything back to where it needs to be and unmask the traitor before the damage becomes irreversible!

First Impressions:

It’s been a while since we visited The Box, but we’ve definitely been anticipating our return for quite some time! Predestined is one of our most highly anticipated rooms, especially after the amazing time we had in Cold Case Killer, which remains one of our top rooms ever. When I received the email that Predestined had gone live, I knew it was time, once again, to make our way down to Charlotte, NC for another marathon!

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The Box knocks it out of the park with their excellent movie posters again!

High Points:

Our experience started off fantastically, as the always amazing Andy greeted us in character and explained the story as he led us towards the temporal paradox we were meant to resolve. He always does a great job bouncing between his host persona and the characters who lead us towards our missions, and this trip was no exception. The room itself was themed excellently, and the sense of immersion was bolstered immediately by the lighting effects. The story is also superb; as we have come to expect from The Box, small details were hidden around the room that tied into the overarching story, cluing us in to what has been going on, while still leaving a fair amount of mystery to keep us intrigued. The storyline and room also ties into Cold Case Killer and The Ventriloquist amazingly, setting up an interconnected Box universe that teases something grander.

The game flow itself is great as well, tying incredibly created and hand crafted puzzles into the theme seamlessly. Nothing feels out of place, and everything is important to the game. There was plenty to keep our group, who had maxed out the room, engaged and puzzling for the full experience. One particular favorite puzzle spanned the entire room and encouraged us to use props in interactive and satisfying ways. Perception really is key to this room, but nothing is unfair or unduly difficult to find, ensuring that the interactions are the star of the show, rather than becoming a glorified scavenger hunt. The whole experiences culminates in a rather exciting climax, and once we had completed the room, we were jazzed and ready for more!

Low Points:

The room felt a little smaller than the other experiences, and while the story feels as though it takes place on a grander scale, the area itself feels more confined. The room itself is comfortable for the maximum of six, however.

Verdict:

After completing Predestined, my only disappointment is that there wasn’t yet another room at The Box to escape from! This business remains one of our top favorites, and we cannot wait to see what they come up with next. I recommend trying this room, but strongly urge you to complete Cold Case Killer and The Ventriloquist first! Though you can still enjoy Predestined without doing so, you’ll get the full experience if you complete those rooms prior. Book your trek(s) through The Box’s amazing adventures here!

9/10 (Excellent)

Full Disclosure: The Box provided our group with Media Discounted tickets.