Jacksonville – Escape Room Adventurer

Location: Jacksonville, NC

Players: 2-8 (We recommend 4-5)

Price: $25 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Burn with me!

Theme:

There’s a haunted house out in Jacksonville that is said to contain the vengeful spirit of a little girl. This malevolent specter possesses it’s victims, leaving them cursed and doomed to a shockingly violent end. For whatever foolish reason, you and your friends have decided to give this place a visit, and are now trapped inside with the creepy little hauntling and her many, many dolls. It seems you may have some time, (read: one hour), to figure out how to lay the ghost girl to rest for good, but if you can’t, who knows what will become of you!

First Impressions:

We had escaped Jasper the Great fairly quickly, leaving us with a fair amount of time to kill, so we were more than happy to continue chatting with The Escape Trials’ amazing staff! I cannot express how great this group was, and how at home they made us feel while we loitered in their lobby. Once we’d come up to our escape time, we met our GM, Jennifer, who exuded enthusiasm, and were led into the room!

High Points:

When Lost Souls got creepy, it was very, very creepy, especially during the latter half of the game. I can think of at least three specific set pieces that gave our group pause or startled one of our players, and several moments at which the staff added in some spooky interactions that were great fun. Also, when the puzzles were great, they were amazing! I noticed quite a few impressive bits of technology or well hidden interactions that brought us a lot of enjoyment and added to the immersion flawlessly. The storyline brought small revelations as we moved through the adventure, which brought the story to life excellently, even if the finale was a bit more anticlimactic than we were expecting. GM involvement in the room was excellent, and reached beyond basic clue giving. Tactile interactions were well implemented, and were enjoyable to work through.

Low Points:

Lighting played a creepy part early on, adding to the ambiance, but once the room was fully lit, it lost a lot of the mystery. Décor was better balanced overall than Jasper the Great, but didn’t quite give off that old haunted home vibe. At several points, the puzzles felt overly obtuse, requiring a fair amount of guesswork to arrive at the solution, especially at one point where we had done what we needed to in order to trigger the next part of the game, but were just off with our placement, making us think we were incorrect. A later puzzle provided a clue that didn’t quite jive with the solution, leading to more unnecessary fumbling. Game flow was, therefore, fairly disjointed when we hit these moments. One particular part of the game was cumbersome to interact with, to say the least. As I was the only one who was willing (or able) to interact with it as well, it became very tiring to keep going back to it. Ouch, my back!

Verdict:

Lost Souls was a fun, supernatural adventure, and while it could get particularly obtuse at times, still provided a enjoyable challenge. I would definitely recommend trying it out for the brilliant moments of spooky puzzling, and the wonderful GMing work that the staff provides. You can book your time quelling the dark spirit here!

7/10 (Good)

Full disclosure: The Escape Trials provided a media discount for our group.

Location: Jacksonville, NC

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

Price: $25 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

I just want to do wizard stuff with my friends.

Theme:

Jasper the Great has been imprisoned within a mystical mirror world! The spell is working towards sealing him away from our reality forever, and the magic, as we’ve come to expect, will finish it’s work in just an hour! It is up to you to enter the reflected tower, work some groovy spells, and bust Jasper out before his time is up! Don’t worry, your game master Hagrid is going to be a blast!*

*Game Master Hagrid may be subject to change. While Escape Room Adventurer loved Game Master Hagrid, his glorious beard unfortunately may not run the room at all times. We also believe Game Master Hagrid should be given a raise and no less than six high fives.

First Impressions:

The Escape Trials greeted us warmly, happy to see us even though we were so very early due to how quickly we escaped at DefCon 1. We enjoyed talking to them about escape rooms, recommending some, and hearing about their favorites in the area, as well as chatting about Dungeons & Dragons! (The Escape Trials runs D&D game nights, which is only the coolest crossover!) Their lobby is quite cozy, and boasts several fun ways to pass the time while you wait for your room.

High Points:

Game Master Hagrid,(who’s real name we totally forgot, sorry Hagrid!), was a blast from start to finish. Game Mastery seems to be The Escape Trial’s strongest point, which makes sense due to their experience with D&D game nights! The room itself had an interesting theme and game mechanic that I enjoyed following the logic of. This allowed for new an interesting puzzles to be revealed while we were working through the adventure. The technical interactions involved were excellently hidden, and popped off in unexpected ways. Several non-linear puzzle threads wove through the game, keeping us all involved with the solving, and once we were able to wrap our heads around the logic of the room, the game flow worked smoothly throughout. Several props were surprising in their utility, and made for involved puzzles that had us hopping from point to point around the room.

For the purposes of representing our House, Keyed Up temporarily changed our team name to “50 Points to Gryffindor” in celebration of our 2 second victory over Ravenclaw. Not pictured: Hufflepuff or Slytherin.

Low Points:

While the room itself had magical elements, it didn’t capture the fully immersive magical feel overall. It’s a hard to explain feeling, but the best way I can put it is that there were great technical interactions that evoked a magical feeling, but did not quite cross the line into total immersion. The set itself was nice, but still felt more like an office than the lair of a great wizard. I think this may be partially due to the open nature of the room, which feels empty at times. The mirrored theme of the room is a great idea that leads to some interesting puzzle solving, but we didn’t notice what the mirror was meant to be straight away, and I feel like that could be better incorporated with the room. There were several points where more cluing would be preferred, as certain things go in certain places without a real direction that we could determine without guess and check. The finale was overall anticlimactic, as the room felt like more of a puzzle room on the whole, with the story taking a backseat.

Verdict:

This room definitely felt like a really great, family friendly introductory room. While we did have a few critiques overall, it was still a lot of fun. What really helped the room shine was the attention of the staff and Game Masters who we could definitely tell are very excited to perform their duties! I’d definitely recommend giving it a try as a starter room, or to bring newcomers to the hobby to. Book your time in Jasper’s tower here!

7/10 (Good)

Full disclosure: The Escape Trials provided a media discount for our group.

Tag: Jacksonville

The Escape Trials – Lost Souls (Review)

The Escape Trials – Jasper the Great (Review)