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Spellbound: A coven of witches dedicated to the task of keeping a group of vampires subdued needed our help. We had to slay the vampire before her awoke from his sleep. Terminal: An evil mastermind had launched a secret plot in the subway system of New York City. We had to discover the plan before it was too late. Pros: How many ways can we say awesome?! Just when we thought Phoenix couldn't get any better it did! Seriously awesome set design in both Spellbound and Terminal. The storyline for both rooms had us pumped up to play before the game even started. The immersive sets had us truly believing we were in the stories. We especially loved the puzzles in Spellbound that required a different type of thinking than the usual lock-based games. The puzzles in both rooms were all aligned to the theme. The game masters were enthusiastic about their job and about their games. We loved every second at Mindspark! Definitely go check them out. They deserve the escapeologists highest honors. http://mindsparkescape.com/tempe/
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Escape from Alcatraz: The name says it all. The Legend of the 7th Stone: An ancient Egyptian mystery, a missing archaeologist, trapped inside a pyramid: this game had what it takes. But did we? The Great Outdoors: A landslide had trapped us at our camp and we had to find a way to find radio the rescue team. Pros: Wow! Escape from Alcatraz was an awesome escape room experience. First we must note that we did not escape. Still we left happy because of the fantastic experience from start to finish. The set design was top-notch and definitely among the best of the best. The subtle (and not so subtle) sound effects added to the prison ambience. The props further enhanced our game-play experience. The game master kept us on pace, interjecting hints as necessary to move us along. The progression of the game moved flawlessly. Our experience in the Legend of the 7th Stone and the Great Outdoors was equally as rewarding. Cons: The puzzles were difficult. This was not necessarily a bad thing but something to be aware of going into the game. Larger groups of 6 or so will probably do better than smaller groups. Thankfully the puzzles were all very logical and enjoyable to solve despite the difficulty. The game masters hints saved us from ourselves. Congratulations to North Valley Escape Room for earning the Escapeologists Set Design Award.  Wicked Witches Castle: Visiting the land of Oz we had to retrace Dorothy's steps to start the story anew. Runestone: A powerful wizard bent on destruction had to be stopped. But were we the wizards to do it? Case File X: UFOs, aliens, government conspiracies. Just call us Mulder and Scully. Pros: The set for Wicked Witches Castle was totally mind-blowing and by far our favorite set EVER. We will be talking about this one for quite a while.The set of Runestone was likewise pretty awesome. The game masters at Eludesions were very helpful keeping our game moving along with the electronic hint system. We absolutely loved the creative storyline. Cons: There were a few hiccups with the tech that disrupted our games. This seems to always happen in every tech-based room we play so we have come to expect it. For that reason, we often prefer good old-fashioned non-tech puzzles. Kudos though to any escape room owner willing to invest in tech since these puzzles are truly cool when working smoothly. We struggled quite a bit more than we normally do in all of their games and especially in Case File X. Some slight adjustments including signal markers to help guide players could improve overall game flow. The set design alone moves Eludesions to the top of our list and earned them the Escapeologists Set Design Award. The storylines were so unique that they earned the Escapeologists Storyline Award. Add this one to your escape room bucket list.
Spellbound: A coven of witches dedicated to the task of keeping a group of vampires subdued needed our help. We had to slay the vampire before he awoke from his sleep. Terminal: An evil mastermind had launched a secret plot in the subway system of New York City. We had to discover the plan before it was too late. Pros: How many ways can we say AWESOME!? Just when we thought Phoenix couldn't get any better it did! Seriously awesome set design in both Spellbound and Terminal. The storyline for both rooms had us pumped up to play before the game even started. The immersive sets had us truly believing we were in the stories. We especially loved the puzzles in Spellbound that required a different type of thinking than the usual lock-based games. The puzzles in both rooms were all aligned to the theme. The game masters were enthusiastic about their job and about the games. We loved every second at Mindspark! Definitely go check them out. They deserve the escapeologists highest honors with our four top awards.
Hyde: The evil Mr. Hyde is about to rear his ugly face again. We were in a race against time to discover the secret antidote in Dr. Jekyll's lab.
Pros: The lab set was very cool and really helped set the tone of the game. The game master was in the room and ever willing to assist us. We asked for no hints and received none throughout the game. The puzzles were logically and flowed from one to the next. We split up the work of solving the puzzles and proceeded at a fast pace. We especially appreciated that the puzzles were themed to the game, helping to complete the storyline. Cons: Normally, we do not like the game master in the room with us, mostly because there is a tendency to slow down our game play and make us hesitant in expressing thoughts and searching all corners of the room. This did impede us a bit but in the end did not prevent us from escaping in record time. We were lucky to be able to play with just our group. Most escape rooms in Portland group you with strangers and this would have reduced our enjoyment of the game in this case. The Labyrinth is a top-notch escape room in Portland. Our favorite experience all weekend. We hope to return to Portland soon and play the rest of their games. Portlandia: Our crazy roommate is up to his nonsense again and we needed to find the rent money he's hidden away and pay the rent before the landlord arrived.
Prison Break: Locked away in a prison cell, our group of fellow felons had to fly the coop. Pros: The game masters were very kind and gave us a quick orientation to the process before starting each of our games. The set in Portlandia was decorated to look like an apartment room . We enjoyed the puzzles throughout the game all of which were very logical. Prison Break's set was very realistic and the puzzles mostly straight-forward though communication was an issue because of the larger numbers of players stuffed into the room. Cons: We struggled a bit with the sheer number of puzzles in both rooms. That coupled with a major fail in completing the final puzzle led to our inability to make the escape in Portlandia before time ran out. We encountered the same problem in Prison Break with a large number of puzzles to solve and in this case too many people in one room. We did finally escape with only minutes to spare but only by encouraging our newbie playing partners to hurry it along. The concept of a clicking clock is sometimes lost on new players. The immersive set had us feeling a little too trapped perhaps. In the end, a great time was had by all. We would definitely return to Escape Games PDX to play more games next time we are in Portland. Revolution: Taken prisoner by the British army, our band of patriots had one hour to make our escape before we would be executed for treason.
Pros: Our gamemaster greeted us decked out in a red coat and faux British accent. We were introduced to the storyline via a video message from British soldiers informing us of our capture and impending execution. Our leader was escorted into the tent first to face "interrogation." Once we were all locked away in the tent we had one hour to make our escape. The Revolutionary War-themed puzzles were logical and mostly interesting to solve. Cons: Our progress and ultimate escape victory was hampered by the presence of five exuberant and enthusiastic to the extreme pre-teens who though exceedingly jubilant lacked the patience or resilience to focus long enough to be of any help in the game. They did however raise the volume to a delightfully unbearable level. But we digress . . . The game itself was great fun to play. The set added to the ambience making it appear we were really in a Revolutionary War camp. As history buffs, we appreciated a history-themed escape room and enjoyed that the kids playing with us were prompted to remember their history lessons in the process of looking at the puzzle hints. Huzzah for history escape games. We hope it becomes a trend. We did not escape but we loved the set design and game masters at Portland Escape Rooms. We can hardly wait to head back to Portlandia to try more of their games. |
Cover photo taken at Countdown Live .EscapeologistsWe are escape room fanatics who have played over 300 games in the U.S. and Europe. We love the art of escapology and we wanted to share our adventures in playing room escapes with you! Our StatsRooms Played: 360 Categories
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