Tag: Escapology

Escapology Columbia – Mansion Murder (Review)

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Location: Columbia, SC

Players: 2-6 (We recommend 3-5)

Price: $29.99 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Keyed Up, Consulting Detectives

Theme:

From the Escapology Columbia website:

Scottish Highlands; New Year’s Eve, 1999.

You are Robert Montgomerie, the only remaining direct heir to the Kildermorie Estate and the Montgomerie family fortune. You’re attending a family gathering, hosted by your Grandfather, Hugh ‘Monty’ Montgomerie, the 9th Earl of Kildermorie to celebrate the dawn of the new Millennium.

As the guests raise a toast, a scream fills the air…Your Grandfather is found dead in the library – and it looks like MURDER!

Suddenly, you’re bundled into the Drawing Room and the door is locked. Confused, you bang on the door and call for help until it dawns on you… that as the direct heir, all fingers are pointed at you! You realize you’ve been framed! But who would want to kill your Grandfather… and why?

 

First Impressions:

Our final room at Escapology Columbia was Mansion Murder, and we were still jazzed to solve the mystery after five straight rooms! There’s not much more to be said that we haven’t already in our five other reviews, (which you can read here,) so let’s jump right in!

High Points:

The room itself was very well designed, boasting perhaps the best set we’d seen at Escapology, and the décor kept up to that standard throughout. There were several great surprises held within this Scottish mansion, with several points at which triggering a puzzle solution opened up a seamless door or prop. The game flow is an excellent mix of tactile interactions, clever puzzling, and intuitive searching. The mostly non linear game kept our group of four very entertained, with multiple puzzles and interactions available at any given time.

We also enjoyed that there was a particular puzzle that could be solved in a couple different ways, allowing us to stretch our brains a little more than usual. Of course, this came at the expense of us doing it the easier way, and was most likely not the intended way to solve this conundrum, but it was a fun solve in any case. The storyline that evolved throughout the room was a great touch, and continued to evoke an Agatha Christie-esque feel, which if you’ve read our review of Budapest Express, you know we love! It’s so sadly rare for an escape room to remain on theme throughout the experience and truly deliver an immersive story, so it was fantastic that Mansion Murder was able to do so!

Low Points:

One puzzle involves math, which is always a bummer, but this particular one was also entirely too vague for something that demanded such a specific answer. It was one of those that makes sense only after you’ve solved the puzzle as other, more straightforward answers tend to be more reasonable. There was also the issue of a red herring appearing during this puzzle that further threw the flow out of whack, leading to more frustration than enjoyment. We were also able to accidentally trigger the solution to one puzzle from idly playing with one of the larger props, but it’s very unlikely to happen, and was more a result of sheer, ridiculous luck.

Verdict:

Easily one of the best rooms at Escapology Columbia, I highly recommend trying out Mansion Murder for a story based mystery that will keep you immersed until the end! Boasting an excellently built set, mostly smooth puzzling flow, and some great hidden surprises, it’s definitely an excellent time for beginners and enthusiasts alike! Book your time in Grandpa Monty’s manor here!

8/10 (Great)

Full Disclosure: Escapology Columbia provided comped tickets for our team.

Escapology Columbia – Th3 C0d3 (Review)

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Location: Columbia, SC

Players: 2-6 (We recommend 2-4)

Price: $29.99 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Hack the World!

Theme:

The notorious hacker Nitr0 is plotting something big, and as a team of rookie FBI agents assigned to the case, you’re looking to bring him down! You’ve recently stumbled across what you believe to be his current location, and in a mad rush to make a name for yourself, you rush to the scene in order to take him down! Unfortunately, this was all an elaborate ruse, and you’ve been locked inside by Nitr0, who tells you that he has alerted your office to “Nitr0’s” whereabouts and will be framing you for his crimes! With only an hour to escape, you’ll have to beat the hacker at his own game and escape!

First Impressions:

We were jazzed for a high tech hacker themed room, and couldn’t wait to see what was in store within Th3 C0d3, leetspeak aside. Other rooms promising high tech themes had ranged from disappointing to awesome, so I was eager to see what Escapology could do with this theme. Imagine my surprise when we entered Nitr0’s lair and it was… a dorm room with Dorito wrappers strewn about. Obviously we’d yet to reach the inner sanctum, so we got to puzzling immediately!

High Points:

It was super obvious that Nitr0 was evil, due to his University of South Carolina Gamecock decorations! (Go Tigers!) Kidding aside, it was fun to see that an evolving, if light, story was told through our timer. Every so often, we were interrupted by our hacker “friend” for a nice round of taunting, reminding us of how little time we had left, and how close the FBI was to finding us. It was an interesting twist on a basic item you’ll find in almost every escape room. A couple of puzzles stood out from the norm, with one excellent tactile one surprising us with its simple, yet elegant conveyance of a code. The puzzling itself was fine, if a little basic, and tended to work well for the most part. The use of a news broadcast also added a fair amount of flavor to the room, and kept us immersed in tension!

Low Points:

There was a distinct absence of many tech based puzzles, which is ok in general but for a hacker themed escape room, this feels like a missed opportunity. I understand that a hacker might be distrustful of utilizing too much technology in his lair, but the theme would be better served with more ubiquitous technical wizardry about. The set was ok, but was a far cry from what we expected, since our foe’s lair was a college dorm room. The set itself really improved as we progressed, but unfortunately, when it got really cool, we were moments away from the end. Quite a few logical leaps abounded, with tenuous connections stalling the game flow and leaving us wondering how we were supposed to intuitively come up with some of the answers. Overall, the game flow would’ve benefitted from more robust connective tissue between puzzles. There were moments of nonlinearity, but overall, there just wasn’t quite enough for all four of us to keep entertained for the full experience, and by the end, one person was responsible for halting the evil schemes of Nitr0. This ended up being a very bland climax, which could’ve been made so much better if the choice that seems to be presented through audio clips was a true one, or if the puzzle itself wasn’t so very banal.

Verdict:

Th3 C0d3 has an interesting theme, but unfortunately the puzzles and set don’t quite do it justice. Still, the room is competently made, and newcomers will more than likely  find it engaging. Enthusiasts will have seen a lot of the challenges inside before, so I recommend trying out Mayday or Budapest Express instead. You can book your time matching wits with Nitr0 here!

6/10 (Alright)

Full Disclosure: Escapology Columbia provided comped tickets for our team.

Escapology Columbia – Antidote (Review)

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Location: Columbia, SC

Players: 2-6 (We recommend 2-4)

Price: $29.99 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Not quite the cure for boredom

Theme:

It’s a tale as old as escape rooms. Mad scientist meets deadly toxin. Mad scientist falls in love with deadly toxin, and devises a way to trigger the apocalypse with deadly toxin. Mad scientist sets a plan in motion, but accidentally tips off the authorities. You are said authorities, stop the deadly toxin! It’s not a terrible theme, but it isn’t overly imaginative, and as we’ve seen recently with Room 5280’s The Experiment, there are ways to implement a scientific theme while creating something wholly new and exciting!

First Impressions:

We’d had a fun time in Escapology’s three previous rooms, so even though the theme here wasn’t the most original, we were excited to see how they approached it. After turning down the option to play this one as a competitive room, (Our team sticks together no matter what! Keyed Up for Life!) we were led into the lab and set upon our goal of stopping the virus!

High Points:

There is one enjoyable interaction that involves performing specific actions to sterilize the room before moving on, and with just a bit more theatrics, could help this room stand out a little more. The game flow makes sense on the whole, and though the room does have a couple points at which it becomes non-linear, the mostly narrow path through the room’s puzzles is a good start for beginner groups, which we were advised Antidote was designed for as it is Escapology’s easiest room. The props are fun to play around with, and a couple of highly tactile interactions make for a satisfying few moments.

Low Points:

Unfortunately, the experience on the whole is very basic. The set looks like your run of the mill lab, and doesn’t do much to excite, executing the bare minimum to qualify as a mad scientist’s lair. After the elaborate first rooms of Budapest Express, Under Pressure, and Mayday, it was a bit of a let down to enter what felt ultimately like a repurposed office space. One puzzle demands teamwork, but is next to impossible to line up correctly due to the way it is set up, and though we had our tallest member manipulate the half of the puzzle that seemed to demand height, we never quite got it to work properly. It’s a good idea, but a lot of adjustment needs to be made, as we eventually puzzled out the answer via different means than what was intended. Overall, almost none of the puzzles stand out, with one seeming to correlate to a different solution due to the vagary of its cluing, and so many relying on laminated pages in a notebook to present the riddles. It’s never really that bad of a room, just overall stark and plain, with puzzles all but the newest escapees will have seen before.

Verdict:

Antidote isn’t a bad room, but it never really becomes good, with a banal run of puzzles that lead toward the escape. Very new players might have a good time with it, but any level of experience will more than likely make it a paint by numbers experience. Sadly, Antidote is the most average experience I’ve had with an escape room, which isn’t necessarily horrible, but very forgettable. If you’d like to check it out, though, you can book your time stopping the deadly toxin here!

5.5/10 (Mediocre)

Full Disclosure: Escapology Columbia provided comped tickets for our team.

Escapology Columbia – Budapest Express (Review)

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Location: Columbia, SC

Players: 2-6 (We recommend 3-5)

Price: $29.99 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

I am Hercule Poirot and I am, perhaps, the greatest detective alive.

Theme:

You’ve been enjoying a delightful holiday aboard the luxrious Budapest Express, but sadly, your trip has almost reached it’s close. Suddenly, only an hour before it is time for you to arrive at your destination, a body is discovered! The conductor refuses to stop the train, as he has a reputation for timeliness to uphold and enlists your help in solving the mystery. You only have one hour to find your suspect, otherwise, they’ll be free to leave the train and disappear forever! The only (other) problem is that it seems everyone has the means and motive to have done in the dearly departed!

First Impressions:

My second favorite Agatha Christie mystery is Murder on the Orient Express, and Budapest Express immediately jumped out at me as one of my most anticipated rooms at Escapology due to the simple fact that it seemed to share more than a few similarities to that venerable novel. (My favorite, for the curious, is And Then There Were None.) The second we stepped into the dining car of the Budapest Express, I knew this one would either be a great mystery worthy of its obvious inspiration, or it was going to break my heart. Luckily, the mystery within this room was great fun!

High Points:

The Budapest Express really does wow with its initial car, delivering a very convincing luxury dining car from the era. Searching around reveals more than meets the eye, and an emphasis on careful observation and some old fashioned sleuthing really help this experience to shine. The game flow centers around solving the mystery just as Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple would, paying a great homage to the greatest detectives in literary history, (Sorry Sherlock, but you’re vastly played out!) The style and ambiance are a breath of fresh air in the jam packed genre of mystery themed rooms. Anything can be important, but as the room evolves, it becomes clearer what is and isn’t a clue, and it all culminates with a climactic meta-puzzle that we really enjoyed solving in order to find our murderer!

The game flow has a few hiccups, but the largely non-linear nature of the initial parts of the room quickly engaged our group, as there was definitely a lot to open and sort through at the start. As the progression narrowed, we still had plenty of sleuthing to do, and with the exception of a couple instances where only a couple players could solve a particular puzzle, that engagement held throughout the adventure. Immersion was excellent, and barring the set becoming a bit bare by the end of the mystery, the train itself was very convincing. In fact, opening the windows on the train was a fun surprise, opening up to the “outside” rather than a bare wall as we’ve seen in other experiences.

Low Points:

Like Under Pressure, the cars of the Budapest Express unfortunately become less and less detailed as you move along through the game. The effect is not as jarring as within the submarine, however, as there other cars are still fairly well done, but the end result is a flashy start and a somewhat anticlimactic reveal to subsequent rooms. There is a very small amount of destructible state puzzling involved, though not as severe as we first thought when we came across one of the main puzzles near the end of the game. It would’ve been nice to know that it behooved us to keep things together, but luckily, this wasn’t much of an issue overall. A fairly basic puzzle type that we’d seen before in another Escapology room showed up again, and the interaction itself wasn’t too interesting, save for the method of finding it being more involved.

Verdict:

The Budapest Express delivered an excellent train ride through a mysterious and rollicking adventure! The overarching story’s build toward the engaging meta-puzzle was an enjoyable experience that I definitely recommend checking out. It is definitely a breath of fresh air to solve a mystery as part of the room rather than just escape as quickly as possible, so I think enthusiasts and beginners alike will have a lot of fun with this one, minor bugs aside. You can purchase your tickets on the Budapest Express here!

8/10 (Great)

Full Disclosure: Escapology Columbia provided comped tickets for our team.

Escapology Columbia – Under Pressure (Review)

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Location: Columbia, SC

Players: 2-6 (We recommend 3-5)

Price: $29.99 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Pressure, Pushing down on me, pressing down on you, no man asked for…

Theme:

You and your team are sailors aboard the Steel Shark, a submarine tactically important to the United States Navy. You’re holed up in your bunks when suddenly, an alarm sounds and you notice that the oxygen levels are dropping at a dramatic rate! Luckily, there’s about an hour of air left for you and the crew. On the other hand, the whole area seems to be on lockdown! It’s up to you to discover the saboteur, find the oxygen tanks that have been removed, and return them to their proper place before you all sink to a watery grave!

First Impressions:

Entering the (possibly) doomed submarine was fantastic, as the initial set design of the first room presented a convincing bunk area of a submarine. We were disappointed that there was no Queen/Bowie music, but the room itself and our briefing got us excited to begin our escape!

High Points:

As mentioned, the bunk room is highly immersive and uses lighting, tech, and in theme props to transport you to 1944. The puzzling is also up to the task, presenting tactile challenges and historically appropriate interactions that work well within the game flow. Most of the game is linear, with a slow build of collecting various pieces for late game puzzles helping mark your progression organically. Teamwork is crucial within this room, as many puzzles require two or more players to pass information back and forth efficiently. Perception based interactions are fair, and don’t fall into the cliché trap of hiding things in out of the way places just to artificially increase the difficulty. The build to the final meta-puzzle is fantastic, and the ah ha moment we received upon solving it led to an appropriately climactic conclusion.

Low Points:

Though the initial set design is awesome, the further we delved into the submarine, the more basic the environs became. Unfortunately, by the end, the immersion was struck dead as I no longer had the feeling that I was in a submarine, but rather in the final room of a fairly basic escape room.  The solution to one of the codes comes across very strangely, as the method to solve would suggest full words, but we ended up confused for a while before trying what seemed to us to be a random amalgamation of letters. This was a one off deviation from the norm, so it was extra strange to find. One puzzle interaction is one we experienced within another room at Escapology, and it was a fairly basic one we’ve seen several times, so it ended up being a fairly bland interaction overall.

Verdict:

Under Pressure is Escapology’s most difficult game, and it presents an enjoyable, if sometimes flawed, challenge! The historical nature of the room, as well as the initial set design are more than enough to entice anyone interested in the nautical World War II theme. I’d recommend experienced groups giving it a shot, though beginners should do a few rooms first in order to get a feel for how escape rooms work. Book your time in the Steel Shark here!

7.5/10 (Good)

Full Disclosure: Escapology Columbia provided comped tickets for our team.