Escape or Die - Las Vegas

The Next Civilization: Disease and sickness have winnowed the world's population. A new civilization is recruiting a select few  members worthy of creating a new world order. Our group had to prove our intelligence by escaping the room in order to be selected to be members of the elite new world.

Biohazard: Suspected of being infected by a zombie virus, our group was sent into quarantine. We had to bide our time and find a way to escape without being infected by the virus along the way.

Pros: This room escape has an AWESOME waiting room with a cool introductory video, a fog machine, props and the general ambience that the zombie apocalypse is in progress. The storyline was compelling and generated lots of enthusiasm preceding our game play. The owners were friendly and enthusiastic. We love the work they have put into creating the mood. 

Cons: As much as we enjoyed the zombie theme and the spooky set-up of the place, we felt that the puzzles largely failed in design and function. The Next Civilization was set in a basic office that did not live up to the general ambience of the waiting room and the promotional material. The puzzles in this room were extremely complex and at times completely illogical. Hints were not allowed which essentially left us stuck for the majority of the game. Biohazard had a much better setup but since we spent over 30 minutes in complete darkness with one member of our team locked in a room incapable of assisting in any way, we quickly grew frustrated. Help from the game moderators came too little too late. We were able to move forward in the game but because of the delay we did not successfully escape. Part of the issue was mistakes we made in searching for clues, but mostly the general set-up of the room made locating items difficult. Oftentimes items were located in places that were less logical especially for frequent players of escape rooms. By the time we were able to reunite some of the missing members of our team, everyone was generally annoyed with the unnecessary complexity of the room.

We really wanted to love this place, but in the end we left disappointed. We failed to pass the test for the Next Civilization and died in Biohazard. Maybe The Zombie Virus is a better game, if we ever rise from the dead to play again, we will let you know. 

http://www.escapeordielv.com