We played this room with my parents. I give this room 5 stars.
Pros
Theming was good except for the tablets, which broke immersion.
Coordination between the two groups in the two rooms was fun.
Game master was attentive and helpful.
In general, most of the puzzles had clear entry and exit points.
Lighting was adequate.
Climate control was good.
Most props and puzzles were functioning and in good repair.
Cons
Since our group was split into two rooms, one side finished very quickly and had a lot of down time waiting for the other side to finish their puzzles. There was nothing for the first side to do while waiting.
There were way too many combination locks.
The tablet system for tracking progress broke immersion.
One of the puzzles triggered a light to turn on, but that light wasn't visible until another puzzle opened a box. So we didn't get the feedback of knowing what the first puzzle triggered.
Pictures
December 15, 2022 Trip Report
By Jeremy Dye
Trip Members
Jeremy Dye, Rodney Mayo, Jacob Crump, Emily Crump, Scott Quigley, Cole Quigley, Levi,
Story
Scrooge's Fate
We played this room with our escape room employees. I give this room 3 stars.
Pros
There was a good physical manipulation puzzle.
There was a good coordination puzzle.
There was a good music puzzle.
In general, most of the puzzles had clear entry and exit points. A couple did not.
Lighting was mostly adequate.
Climate control was good.
Most props and puzzles were functioning and in good repair.
Cons
Our game master didn't know the room very well.
There were mistakes by the person resetting the room.
Even though the room is new, there was painted writing on some props that started peeling off and was impossible to read.
There was a lot of down time where players didn't have anything to solve.
A color-dependent puzzle was hard to make out in the available lighting.
A picture cypher puzzle had inconsistent pictures.
The player experience didn't follow the introduction, rising action, and conclusion sequence typical of a good story. We didn't experience the adrenaline and excitement that comes from a well-designed experience.
There were way too many combination locks.
Although they were fun, the puzzles didn't seem cohesive and didn't add to the story.
We played this room with my parents, my siblings, and their families. It was a Christmas present to each of our families and a good excuse to go together.
Pros
Some of the puzzles were specifically designed for kids and were marked as such so the adults could save those puzzles for the kids to solve.
Room decorating and theming was very well done.
The props were well done.
The puzzles matched the story and didn't break immersion.
There were several very creative puzzles.
The puzzles had clear entry and exit points for the most point, meaning you were able to figure out what was a puzzle, what the objective of the puzzle was, and when you had the right answer.
Lighting was adequate.
The room was large and had plenty of space for our group size. It was nice to not have multiple rooms when playing with kids.
The game master was just the right amount of helpful during the game.
Cons
Because so many things had to do with Santa, it was sometimes hard to figure out which clues went to which puzzles.
Rodney paid for all of us, and we all did the Moriarty's Mishaps room. We cruised through the puzzles and finished in about half an hour. We then had the game master walk us through all the puzzles because we felt like each individual was only able to experience some of the puzzles. Afterward, we met with the owner and discussed some of the aspects of opening and running an escape room. She was very open and helpful.
We took the Nelsons to the Paranormal Parlor room as a thank-you for Jacob helping with our concrete sideyard pad. The room was a lot of fun. The description says that you can have groups of up to 10 people, but I would highly recommend against it. Even with 4 people, we still spent quite a bit of time standing around because there were not enough simultaneous puzzles to solve. Our major complaint was with our game master. He entered the room near the end and did the last, big meta-puzzle for us and didn't give us a chance to even try solving it, even though we were 10-15 minutes under time.
We took Ondy and Jaren to the Crazy Hoarder's Attic room as a thank-you for watching our kids while we were in Hawaii. We really like the room. There were a few props that weren't working, but the game master was fun about it. We also got stuck on a couple of items and needed some help with those. We found the inheritance in time!