Tag: Last Second Escape

Last Second Escape – Dragon’s Keep (Review)

~ EscapeAdventurer ~ 1 Comment

Location: Richmond, VA

Price: $25 per person

Players: 2-6 (We Recommend 2-3)

Time to Escape: 60 Minutes

Locks aren’t Magical.

Theme:

We landed ourselves a great find, a trove of dragon’s eggs! Like pure idiots, however, we decided to show the king, who has locked them away in a wizard’s tower. We’ve only 60 minutes to take them back before the King’s wizard returns to steal them away forever.

First Impressions:

Like Project 00, we were given a mumbled story about a Dragon and how we needed to recover dragon eggs we had found that were taken by the king. We told we were wizards, but instead of being able to wield magic during our quest like we did within Quest for Honor, I could see that we were going to be relegated to solving spin dials and directional locks like mere mortals.

High Points:

Entering the room, Dragon’s Keep had a lovely set design, similar to the polish of Mine Shift, evoking the spirit of an ancient castle keep. There were a few technological puzzles that began to evoke the feeling of magic that we were told they were going for, but unfortunately there were also several basic locks to muddle through as well, killing the magical mood. The ideas of the room, like most of Last Second Escape’s experiences, are great, but as can be seen below, the execution is lacking.

Low Points:

In a room that we were told was supposed to evoke a sense of magic, there were far too many modern locks, the likes of which you’d find in a high school or in a gym locker room. One puzzle that seemed to rely on correct placement triggered randomly, becoming a room-long joke for our group, and ending by falling completely flat when the tech shorted out, which was, according to an employee, due to pieces falling off of one of the props, which is inexcusable for a new room. Of course, this was noted as “interesting” by said employee, and no apology was offered. Another thing noted as unapologetically “interesting” by this employee was that a certain puzzle within the room had two valid solutions as presented, though only one worked, which caused us extreme frustration. Connective tissue throughout game flow was non-existent, leading to incredible confusion and random solutions. Another puzzle within the room was based on colors, which were difficult to see within the dim room, and adding insult to injury, the light sources given did nothing to help illuminate the parts of the puzzle we needed to see. The design of this game was extremely poorly thought out, presenting a nice looking package, but failing to deliver on all other fronts. Because of these many game issues, we needed to call out for a hint on multiple occasions. The first time we did so, we were greeted with two full minutes of silence, wasting our time until we finally grabbed the attention of the game master. This experience was a disaster on multiple levels.

Verdict:

Dragon’s Keep is a beautiful set that is mired in so many basic problems. All facets of our experience were in some way flawed, and we were just happy for it to end. Unfortunate breakdowns in game design and technological interactions leads me to caution against booking this room until it is fixed on multiple levels. If you’d like to check it out anyway, you can do so here.

3/10 (Poor)

Full Disclosure: Last Second Escape provided discounted tickets for our group.

Last Second Escape – Project 00 (Review)

~ EscapeAdventurer ~ 4 Comments

Location: Richmond, VA

Price: $25 per person

Players: 4-8 (We Recommend 2-4)

Time to Escape: 60 Minutes

It’s not The Bomb.

Theme:

This one is dicey. The website (as of this writing,) says that we’re a team of elite agents who, after taking out a cell of terrorists, need to shut down the launch of nuclear warheads. The Gamemaster said we were spies who needed to break into a hideout and disarm some bombs. The game itself made it out to be a training exercise. What’s the real theme here? Your guess is as good as mine, honestly.

First Impressions:

We’d had a couple of average to poor experiences so far with Dark Carnival and Mine Shift, respectively, but these could be chalked up to newness of the room or unfortunate errors, and both rooms seemed to have potential. Since Project 00 was an older room that Last Second Escape had more time to make adjustments with, I was cautiously optimistic that this might be a better experience.

High Points:

I really liked the laser maze. These are fairly ubiquitous within a lot of escape rooms, but I always have fun doing them. At the beginning of the room, one of us was handcuffed to a briefcase, which was an interesting start, but that spot of interest was short lived.

Low Points:

This room was an absolute train wreck for the most part. At the beginning, the gamemaster mumbled a mostly incoherent story to us, which did nothing to excite us for the mission. Once we found a black light, we were supposed to use it in several uninspired shine-the-black-light-everywhere “puzzles.” To reiterate my thoughts on black light over-reliance, when there are no clues to direct you, which was the case here, it’s just lazy game design. Unfortunately, this was one of the most egregious examples of black light abuse I’ve ever seen, and it showed within the already choppy game flow. Another broken puzzle revealed itself to us almost immediately, but we were assured we’d be able to use it properly later in the game. However, the puzzle never worked due to it being completely worn away in most spots. At no point was an attempt made to correct this severe error, nor was an apology given while we were there. Randomly placed solutions were presented as puzzles, which did nothing to dissuade us from our thought that this game was even more poorly crafted than the others we’d experienced at Last Second Escape. Set design was also incredibly uninspired, feeling sparse and nonsensical in one particular area. The room felt like a converted office space, and was not immersive in the slightest. There were no puzzles we had not seen before implemented more interestingly, and by the time we reached the half way point of the room, I wanted nothing more than to finish up so it could be over. This is, by far, the worst room of the eight we did during our Richmond trip. In fact, I’d put it in my bottom 10 as well.

Verdict:

There is so much that needs to be overhauled to make this room recommendable that I would advise scrapping the whole thing. Whereas the other rooms at Last Second Escape were good ideas with somewhat flawed implementation, this room was just horrible throughout. You can definitely do better, but if you would like to book Project 00, you can do so here.

2/10 (Bad)

Full Disclosure: Last Second Escape provided discounted tickets for our group.

Last Second Escape – Mine Shift (Review)

~ EscapeAdventurer ~ 3 Comments

Location: Richmond, VA

Price: $25 per person

Players: 4-8 (We Recommend 2-4)

Time to Escape: 60 Minutes

Willy’s a moron, do we really want to save him?

Theme:

Old Willy’s been working at the old mine for a good long while, and though it’s hard work, he’s always been cheerful and upbeat! In fact, he thinks he’s found what could be his ticket to retirement, so he’s gotten a head start on the day, sneaking into the mine early to get a jump on extracting some gold! Unfortunately, he’s caused a cave-in, trapping himself inside. It’s up to you to save him, but you’ll only get an hour since Willy’s rigged some dynamite to explode!

First Impressions:

Mine Shift was another interesting theme, and the set looked very much like the mine it was supposed to represent, but we were given two extremely poor lights, both of which needed new batteries. We were eventually given said batteries reluctantly after being told they were, “supposed to be dim,” but one still had a short, making our experience immediately frustrating. Not a great start.

High Points:

The technological interactions provide good feedback letting you know when an item is in place and tend to work smoothly. Set design, for what we could see, was well done, feeling like an old prospector’s mine, but at the same time was not overly claustrophobic. The theme was original, and bits of story could be found, accompanied by Willy’s commentary. When puzzles were good, they were very well implemented, but as we came to find out, the bad really started to compound upon itself as we got further into the game.

Low Points:

Reset errors in this room really tanked our experience, and had we not been able to use props to “glitch” past the roadblock, this room would have been rendered unsolvable at best. What really irked us about this is that when it was noticed that a critical piece we needed was located behind the lock it was intended to open, the staff member simply mentioned that that was, “interesting,” failing to offer any sort of recompense or, at the very least, an apology for the blunder. Funnily enough, the room was technically “won” one minute in when I found the box that contained our goal already open. I was initially confused as to why I needed this item until upon a second look at the box, the reset failure became clear. Puzzles made little sense thematically because, as one teammate mentioned, “If Willy is such a weapons-grade idiot, how is he setting up all these logic and math puzzles?” Though there are several technological interactions, a lot of puzzling is presented via laminated handouts, which was highly uninteresting. One of these aforementioned puzzles has two possible solutions, with no way to rule out which is correct, causing an unnecessary guess and check element. Last Second’s love affair with black light overuse became wholly apparent beginning in this room, leading to groan-worthy “puzzles” and smacked foreheads. Some puzzles within had obvious clues towards solutions, but did not have a way to suss out their order, creating even more guess and check nonsense. A lot of puzzles had audio cues that repeated if you moved or removed the items, which slowly eroded our sanity.

Verdict:

Mine Shift really should be Last Second Escape’s best room, but our experience was absolutely destroyed through a combination of reset failures, finicky puzzles, and staff indifference. Though there are some puzzles that would count as a minor groan here and there, these issues magnified the problems within the room and conspired to deliver one of the most subpar experiences we had in Richmond. Until these problems are fixed at a basic level, I’d give this one a miss. You can book your time with Willy here.

3.5/10 (Poor)

Full Disclosure: Last Second Escape provided discounted tickets for our group.

Last Second Escape – Dark Carnival (Review)

~ EscapeAdventurer ~ 1 Comment

Location: Richmond, VA

Price: $25 per person

Players: 4-8 (We Recommend 2-4)

Time to Escape: 60 Minutes

Carn-evil!

Theme:

Once a year, the Carnival comes to town, bringing games, rides, and popcorn to the people of Richmond! It also brings a shadowy ringmaster, who steals away children, disappearing them from this world forever. With the vanishings always happening around the time of the carnival, you’d think you’d have the sense to keep away, but for whatever reason, you’ve come to this Dark Carnival and now you must escape before the ringmaster comes for you!

First Impressions:

The set here was simple, but a nice set up of carnival-like games and bright colored lights, and the theme of a bleak, sinister carnival appealed to our team greatly. We were definitely excited to see what dark secrets were hiding just beneath this cheery exterior as we began our adventure!

High Points:

The initial part of the game involves many great carnival game themed puzzles, which are a delight to figure out and execute, with physical interactions mixed within the intellectual ones, varying the game well. The bright designs bring the carnival to life within a simpler set, still bringing a sense of immersion to the theme. Technological interactions are interesting, and bring the room to life in an interesting way.

Low Points:

Unfortunately, the Dark Carnival never really got that dark. We were expecting a sinister horror theme, but it never manifested, instead presenting the bright carnival and what felt like a back office rather than the lair of an evil, mysterious ringmaster. If this had been more of an Escape the Carnival theme rather than a Dark Carnival one, it would’ve fit the room better. One puzzle relied on color and positioning, but two of the colors were extremely similar to the point we could not tell the difference, taking what was originally a fairly interesting puzzle and making it a game of guess and check. A puzzle that was presented soon thereafter had a standard method of solving, but the presentation was banal and even worse, it did not work properly at all, forcing the GM to enter the room and give us the code. The sensors for what could’ve been an incredibly fun carnival interaction were jostled out of place, and when we brought this up to the Gamemaster as an issue, we were told that they were aware, but there wasn’t really anything they could do about it. The connective tissue of the rooms is very sparse at times, leading puzzles to become guessing games of degrees. In these cases, the addition of a simple clue could have solidified solutions instead of leading to vague approximations. There was also an intentional red herring, which did nothing to make a completely bland final puzzle any more interesting, further highlighting that this particular puzzle didn’t have much going on for it, ending the room anti-climatically.

Verdict:

Dark Carnival promises an interesting theme and doesn’t quite deliver what is expected. Though there are a fair bit of great carnival puzzles in the beginning, mishaps and messed up props marred the experience throughout. Last Second Escape has a great idea, and a good foundation to build an excellent game upon, but right now, there is still a good bit of work to be done. This is definitely their best game so far, but I can’t recommend checking it out quite yet, as it is an average disappointment for now. Fixing the issues, connecting the game flow more smoothly, and adding a more sinister air to the room would do this room a huge service however, and I hope they can improve it in the future! You can book your escape from the Dark Carnival here.

5/10 (Mediocre)

Full Disclosure: Last Second Escape provided discounted tickets for our group.