This was our first time at Escape Emporium. When I entered the lobby, I thought it looked like my orthodontist’s lobby, complete with granite walls and office-y furniture. It was very tidy–perhaps too tidy.

The staff that helped us came across as earnest; they wanted feedback about the room after we escaped so that they can constantly improve. Some of the jokes that they made though were a miss, mainly due to a mild language barrier. I’m sure they were just trying to build rapport but some people might find their sense of humor inappropriate.

I really liked the people here! They were incredibly friendly throughout our time at Escape Emporium, chatting a little bit about future rooms and their process for testing.

The lobby was also very nice. There were chocolates that (I assumed) were free, which is always great!

There was a lot to do in this room in terms of puzzles, but most of them failed in execution. The first main puzzle involving a book was convoluted and involved too many red herrings; even after several hints, we still didn’t know what to do.

Then there was the rest of the puzzles, which, granted, weren’t bad in terms of innovativeness, but the execution was horrendous. One example was a puzzle that involved using a device to get the answer. Because of how the puzzle was physically set up (and how cheap the device was), we were not able to obtain the answer the way it was intended. We ended up trying all possible combinations until we eventually got the answer.

Overall, there were some unique things about the puzzles in terms of concept. However, if I were to base my rating of the puzzles solely on the execution, I would rate them even a point lower.

Some of the puzzles in this room were actually really creative! Unfortunately, the execution was really off, in all the ways that Paulie already talked about (quite exhaustively) above. One other thing I wanted to mention was how we were able to skip several puzzles, which, to me, is not very good puzzle design. Connections between clues were also a bit off at times – it wasn’t exactly certain how two things were connected, all you knew was that they were.

I’m usually the more visual person between Ben and I whenever we do escape rooms. Escape rooms are meant to take you to another world, and, for the most part, the look of a room is what makes that happen.

Maybe we’ve been spoiled, but I really thought this room looked cheap. To start, we were given post-it notes to write on. Then there was the back story, which was printed on a white piece of paper. Then the clues were made out of letter stickers you would buy from Wal-Mart to bribe your little nieces and nephews. Then there was a cardboard cutout hanging on the wall that you would normally see at the dollar store around Halloween time. I could go on and on, but the look of the room just felt cheap and lacked effort.

This room felt very bare to me. Some rooms manage to pull of the “everything is a part of something” look, but I think this room was a bit less successful with that. Everything did indeed become a part of something, but it was very obvious that that would be the case because of how empty the room felt.

I won’t repeat what Paulie said about the prop quality, but I also feel the same way.

The soundtrack to this room was appropriately ocean-y, and every once in awhile we would hear waves crashing onto the shore. However, the lighting was too bright (when we were supposed to be in a dingy ship). Also, the puzzles didn’t suck me in, so I was moving lackadaisically throughout the time period.

I was really not feeling this room, and I think that was because of the puzzles that weren’t executed too well and the less-than-impressive visuals.

The theme wasn’t anything new, but I appreciated that the puzzles and decor were consistent.

What Mr. P said.

After having done quite a few escape rooms, I would give this room a #coal. I hesitated, but the more I thought about it, the more committed I am to not being able to recommend this room. Seasoned players will be disappointed, and inexperienced players will get dissuaded from doing any other escape rooms.

I would have to give this a #coal. Thinking about my previous experiences, this room seemed very unpolished and was not on par with other rooms that we have done. Too many things went wrong for us in this room.