REAL ESCAPE

Let me open this review by explaining that I played the Bootleggers Warehouse & Wizards Lair during the soft open, but wasn’t really aware that it was the soft open. We paid regular price for the Wizards Lair and the owner kindly comped our Bootlegger experience. 

Aside from a bad experience I had with a bottle full of ink that apparently wasn’t supposed to have been in the room and was removed after our game, I thought the props were well done in both rooms. The decor was okay. The mood lighting was a little dark for my taste. The stories and themes were creative. The owner I spoke with was very nice and seemed quite passionate about his rooms. 

The thing that makes this company stand out the most to me is that they take time away from game play when you use hints. 

My major disappointment came from the puzzles. I expected much more from the Wizard room because of the theme. I wanted a Magical experience and I felt the room fell short. The manual style puzzles and lack of special effects in the room were a disappointment. I felt the puzzles lended themselves more to a prison breakout theme than a wizard room. The Bootlegger puzzles were more coherent to the theme, however I’ve never done a room where if you move something in the room you may prevent yourself from solving a lock. I found that discouraging. I didn’t actually get that far anyway because the game master wasn’t really watching and gave us a hint for puzzles we’d already solved and since the room wasn’t a logical natural progression for us, we didn’t realize it. 

I want to go back and give them another chance when they open their next room. They expressed that they plan to open several new rooms soon.