Category: Uncategorized

ESCAPE ROOMS – Escapism: Art Gallery- California 

ESCAPISM  

This is an average escape game located in San Diego. It’s got an okay story, not particularly strong or interesting. The decor is good. The puzzles are not bad, but not incredibly unique. I must have misunderstood the intro because I thought we were told not to touch the art pieces, yet we had to in order to escape. There were a few moments that seemed a bit unsafe during our game, but nothing too crazy. There is one person singled out to be agent death to do one task alone. I wish they had a good hint system that didn’t break the illusion so drastically. 

We got paired with a group of 3 strangers to make a total of 5 playing the game. That was a good number of people for the size of the game and they were nice ladies.

We escaped.

ESCAPE ROOMS – Bakersfield Escape Room – California 

BAKERSFIELD ESCAPE ROOM

bakersfieldescape

This is a very professional escape room company with top notch staff, desk/lobby, and office building with ample parking. They have their marketing materials and website on point. As a matter of fact it feels a little franchised and doesn’t have the heart and passion that many of the smaller family run companies have.
The room decor is minimal. It is themed, but it feels a bit like they decided to theme the rooms around something that would fit into an office space as to make the space work with the story.

We played both the Winter Fall & Rescue. Neither is really about escaping the room, either.
Winter Fall is significantly easier and it’s a smaller space. However it is way less logical than Rescue. There were logic jumps my husband made to solve puzzles that I still don’t understand. I was much better at finding things this time around. They had one interesting puzzle that I liked, but the rest were lacking creativity. We escaped with time to spare.
Rescue is larger and more difficult. However we got through the first part of the game very quickly and got terribly stuck on one puzzle. I literally asked for a hint to no avail. We got frustrated and kind of gave up. Then we finally got a hint and it wasn’t helpful. Afterward we spoke to the game master and I told her something else would have been more helpful and she said she couldn’t give us a hint like that. It felt like they didn’t really want people to get out of that room. Apparently nobody has.
Now I don’t want you to think that I’m upset because we didn’t get out. We don’t get out of a lot of games and still enjoy them. I was frustrated because I think there is a major flaw in a game if you can’t give a hint when someone asks for one after spending at least 10 minutes on the same frustrating puzzle and NO ONE has escaped. We’ve played over 70 games nationwide at this point and we didn’t escape one of my all time favorite games in Baton Rouge. This location just has some issues with their puzzles in my opinion. I also think they could be more creative overall and also be careful not to have similar puzzles between games.
If you are in Bakersfield and have already played Room of No Return, then check these rooms out.

ESCAPE ROOMS – Great Room Escape – Texas

GREAT ROOM ESCAPE San Antonio, TX

greatescape

My husband & I did the zombie escape room with a group of 6 people we didn’t know that had never done an escape game.
WE ESCAPED WITH 10 MINUTES REMAINING

The zombie & the maid were really great.
The staff member checking us in was not very personable. He quickly told us a few rules and then went into the room for a while to reset the game. Our entire group was 30 minutes early and he still didn’t get us into the game until almost 30 minutes after our start time. Apparently I was the first to check-in on Yelp and claim the hint because he had to call someone to see what that was all about. So remember to check-in and get your hint. When we won he barely acknowledged it and kinda rushed us out not even offering to take a group photo for us.

The game itself is well designed. The stress of the zombie makes fairly easy puzzles much much more difficult to complete. There are a few things red herrings, but it adds to the cool “set design”. I really like the way they handle deaths in this game compared to the Room Escape Adventures Trapped in a room with a zombie we played in LA. (I think there are less puzzles in this game though.)

My biggest complaint about this experience was the lack of excitement or praise from the game master when he came to escort us out after escaping and starting so late. What a let down. Not even a full group picture and we waited around for a while after we got out waiting for him to. He didn’t even know out official escape time. I happened to look at the clock on the way out so I knew within a few seconds. For a game with only 6% escape rate you’d think he could have at least made us feel like it was kind of a big deal, but he didn’t.

ESCAPE ROOMS – Rooms of no Return – California 

ROOMS OF NO RETURN

This is a fun multi-room live escape game. It is well decorated. There is more “stuff” than you need to solve the puzzles, but it adds to the feel of the room. There is both searchinog and puzzles. It’s a bit like a home haunt and an escape room had a baby. I recommend playing if you are in the Bakersfield area. The owners seem quite nice and passionate about the escape game industry. They are sisters and first time business owners.

ESCAPE RROMS – EscapeX MurderManor – California 

ESCAPEX MURDER MANOR

The fun creative backstory is well thought out and connected to the puzzles throughout the escape room. It isn’t linear, so there is a lot to do from searching to solving. We played as a group of two, but there is plenty to keep a large group busy. You have unlimited hints and the hint system is done in a way that allows you to continue in the same mindset of the environment and gameplay, unlike many games where the hint system is disruptive. The game takes place in one rather large room with good decor, lighting and ambience.

Curtus & Kathy are wonderful and passionate about escape games.