Tag: Ready Set Escape

Ready Set Escape – Monopoly Mania (Review)

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Location: Smithfield, NC

Players:  1-8 (We recommend 3-5)

Price: $23 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Can the world’s worst board game become a great escape room?

Theme:

Your boss is an enormous fan of board games, but he likes none more than Monopoly! You’ve been tasked with breaking into his most recent Monopoly night, and escaping with whatever cash you can find! Just hope it isn’t Monopoly money.

First Impressions:

Monopoly is my mortal enemy, a blight upon the world which is banned from my game table, but escape rooms are the purest form of entertainment, a light in the darkness. It’s not that dramatic, but you get my point. How would these two opposing forces meet? Pretty fantastically, actually.

High Points:

Funnily enough, despite my disdain for Monopoly, this was my personal favorite room at Ready Set Escape! There were a lot of cool ideas overall in this first generation escape room that incorporated many different types of board games, some of which were very original! The game flow wove non-linearly around, giving us all a good amount to puzzle through and keeping us all engaged for the whole adventure. The items for the meta-puzzle were fun finds, tying into the Monopoly theme well, and providing a enjoyable climax to the room. Scavenging was present, but was presented in an intuitive way, keeping certain things well hidden, but not in such a way as to become frustrating to discover. A few favorite puzzles were hand crafted well, and created some great tactile interactions to enjoy. The whole flow of the game tied back into the theme, and nothing felt out of place at any point. Overall, Monopoly Mania was an excellently challenging room as well, but never felt unfair to work through. All puzzles remained intuitive and the moments of revelation were highly satisfying.

Low Points:

For the fun of Monopoly Mania’s game flow, the set is rather basic. It does fit the theme of your boss’s office, but it isn’t too stunning to behold overall. The scenery does pick up in the second half, but the puzzles are definitely the star here, which I don’t mind. There are a couple of points of lockception, in which locked boxes are all to be discovered when solving a puzzle, which is disappointing due to the sense of stunted progression, but it isn’t especially egregious like other examples we’ve seen. Story wise, it seemed like we were robbing the boss, but I wasn’t sure of the impetus behind our heist. I would’ve liked to see a little more about the why, but I’m happy to assume it is because as enormous fans of cooperative gaming, a Monopoly lover is our mortal enemy.

Verdict:

For a room themed after a highly divisive game, Ready Set Escape has created an experience that encourages teamwork and engaging puzzling. I had a lot of fun with this one, and recommend anyone who enjoys a good game flow try it out. Though it doesn’t offer as much for scenery enthusiasts, this room remains really good fun for those looking to give their little gray cells a workout. Newcomers will still have an enjoyable time as well, as although this room is challenging, it is never obtuse, and the great game masters at Ready Set Escape can always provide a choice hint if needed. Book your time in Monopoly Mania here, and don’t forget to try out the Free Parking!

7/10 (Good)

Full Disclosure: Ready Set Escape provided our team with comped tickets.

Ready Set Escape – Hollywood Heist (Review)

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Location: Smithfield, NC

Players:  1-6 (We recommend 2-4)

Price: $23 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

I’d like to thank the Academy…

Theme:

Tom Hank’s Oscar has gone missing! Luckily, everyone who entered the room where it has disappeared did not exit with the statue, so it must still be stashed inside, waiting for the would be thief to pick it up at a more convenient time with lighter security around. Your group must find the Oscar in an hour, or it might be lost forever!

First Impressions:

After having a great time in the first generation Pirate’s Plunder, it was time to leave the pirate ship and jump into Hollywood! As Ready Set Escape’s newest room, we were excited to see what innovations appeared within!

High Points:

As a fan of film, there is a lot of fun references made within this room. Presumably a small museum of props and Tom Hank’s Oscar, the room is chock full of movie memorabilia, a lot of which ties well into the puzzling game flow. The flow is non-linear and supports a medium to large group well, ensuring that pairs of players can remain engaged for the entirety of the experience. A couple technical puzzles make this experience a bit more varied, solution wise, than Ready Set Escape’s other rooms, and it works smoothly, creating some exciting moments during the game. A couple great puzzles are seemingly simple on the surface, but once we’d dug a little deeper and found more clues, they revealed themselves to be more involved, satisfying solves. Though the story is fairly light, the room works very well as a puzzle room. The climax is exciting, if somewhat out of left field, but still an enjoyable way to end out the room and claim back our friend Oscar!

Low Points:

The intro video is certainly a creative idea, but the execution felt a bit off. Some strange graphics and uncanny movements were definitely an unsettling way to begin the room. Set design here was a step down from Pirate’s Plunder, as the room definitely felt more like an office than that one did. Some creative touches definitely helped sell the theme better, but there wasn’t a palpable sense of immersion. On a couple of occasions, the order of inputs were necessary, but the puzzle did not provide a clear method of devising the order. On the first occasion, our GM helped out, and on the second, we didn’t have too many different disambiguations to try so we moved past it fairly quickly, but the order did not make clear sense via the game’s signposting. One of the more noticeable puzzles did not line up in the most intuitive way either, and presented a very confusing logical leap to determine what it was trying to tell us. The game flow noticeably came to a halt on these occasions, but a bit of iteration should definitely solve these issues.

Verdict:

Though there are some hiccups in the overall game flow here and there, Hollywood Heist is an overall entertaining escape room with a few nice technical touches. Definitely fair bit more challenging, I’d recommend new players start with Pirate’s Plunder before checking out this room, but the great GMs at Ready Set Escape can definitely help with a choice hint here or there if you have your heart set on this theme! Book your search for the missing Oscar here!

6.5/10 (Alright)

Full Disclosure: Ready Set Escape provided our team with comped tickets.

Ready Set Escape – Pirate’s Plunder (Review)

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Location: Smithfield, NC

Players:  1-8 (We recommend 2-4)

Price: $23 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Plunder the Treasure or You’ll be Plundering the Depths!

Theme:

You’ve made your way onto Captain Jack’s pirate ship, and there looks to be a chest full of treasure waiting for your crew’s greedy hands to claim it. The only problem is that it’s been locked up tight, and there’s no way to pry it open stealthily! Captain Jack is running on a skeleton crew right now, so you have some time to figure out how to get the chest open, but you’ll need to do so before he returns from shore and throws you in the brig!

First Impressions:

We’d been trying to make our way out to Ready Set Escape for a while, but our travels hadn’t quite gotten us there. Eventually, we were able to get the scheduling stars to align, and we were ready to take on all three of their rooms. Though it’s a pretty common theme, I do enjoy a good pirate adventure, so we were excited to storm the decks of Captain Jack’s ship.

High Points:

The owners of Ready Set Escape were incredibly hospitable, and we had a lot of fun trading stories with them about our escape adventures. It’s very obvious that they are passionate about the hobby, and that’s always a good sign. Pirate’s Plunder is a first generation escape room, using locks and keys during the entire experience, but this is not a knock against the room. This room is great fun even without any fancy tech. The game flow works very non-linearly, and with six players, we all still remained engaged for the whole experience. Early puzzles provide easy wins to get everything going, and the difficulty curve ramps up smoothly from there. This is definitely the easiest room at Ready Set Escape, and though we escaped quickly, it did not feel as though we did as we puzzled through a dense amount of fun enigmas and interactions. There were loads of props to work through, and it was a lot of fun to work through the mysteries and derive the purpose of each part. The puzzle threads intertwined well with each other, and contained a few great surprises along the way. The set is competent, converting the room into a wooden pirate ship, making sure the area doesn’t just feel like an office.

Low Points:

One puzzle felt out of place on the pirate ship, adding a small head scratching element theme-wise, but fit well with the light hearted, family friendly nature of the game. Once a solution has been derived there are usually several locks in which the answer will fit, so there is a fair amount of guess and check that could be fixed with some small cluing to add some connective tissue to the experience. One puzzle requires a small bit of outside knowledge in order to make the most sense of it, but can be solved another way, so it isn’t too egregious. Cluing for a couple interactions could be beefed up in order to turn some scavenger hunt sections into more robust puzzles.

Verdict:

Pirate’s Plunder was a lot of fun, and a great starter room for beginning escapists. Veterans may break out a bit more quickly, but it is still a good time, and a fun way to introduce friends new to the hobby to escape rooms. I recommend giving it a go if you’re in the area, especially if you’re a newer player or looking to have a fun outing with the family. Experienced players who would like more of a challenge will probably want to seek out Monopoly Mania instead, but we still very much enjoyed this experience. Book your siege of Captain Jack’s ship here!

7.5/10 (Good)

Full Disclosure: Ready Set Escape provided our team with comped tickets.