Red Door Escape - Sacramento, California

Taken: A woman had been kidnapped and we had to locate and free her. 

Confinement: Trapped in a creepy room in a dreamlike state we had to find a way out. 

Prison Break: Captured by terrorists and thrown into a dark, dank cell we had to find our way out of the torture chamber.

The Gift: Our friend left a gift he bought for his girlfriend in his uncle's antique shop.  We had to break in and recover the gift to help our friend out. 

Once Upon a Time: Trapped in a fairy tale we had to follow the clues to break the spell and find our happily ever after.

Pros: When we walked into Red Door Escape Room, we were only scheduled for one game. Five games later we can definitely say we had the full Red Door experience. We are suckers for a good promotion and couldn’t resist their loyalty program. So we decided to prove our loyalty all in a single weekend in our personal quest to earn elite level and the coveted red key.

The location is ideal and the waiting room looked inviting and fun. Each game begins with a rule video and a storyline video. Wit the exception of Once Upon a Time (which we loved) we found the storylines to be a bit too realistic and less fun (we felt the human trafficking storyline was not appropriate). But the general themes were typical of most rooms. The gamemasters were exceptionally enthusiastic in both the introduction and the celebration at the end of each of our games. We really enjoyed our time with each employee.

The set designs were all aligned to theme. The Gift had some unique and fun set elements. Once Upon a Time had that storybook feel. They were generally well-built adding to the game play experience. 

Cons: In all of our games we were grouped with strangers including children under ten. We have already commented on this issue elsewhere and try to accept this as the increasingly more common reality of escape room play even as we vigorously object to this inevitably. 

With that issue aside, we still found the game flow difficult in all of the rooms. The puzzles were sometimes illogical or counterintuitive frequently leading to our requests for assistance from the gamemaster. In one game alone, we managed to escape with five puzzles left unsolved. This was a reflection of the limits to the game design. We had to request frequent hints in order to escape on time. We prefer games that are designed to flow flawlessly with no hints from gamemasters and guide posts to keep the game flowing.

We really enjoyed our visit to Red Door Escape! Go for the rewards program and earn your own red key!

www.reddoorescape.com