Time Escape Richmond — Attraction in Richmond

In comparison to other escape rooms we’ve been to, this was quite disappointing (for a number of reasons).

The staff were not warm/welcoming from the moment we walked in the door. The staff working the front desk had no enthusiasm and made for an awkward initial engagement. The explanation of the game was also dismal with again no enthusiasm. Half of the fun is the time and hype leading up to beginning the room. In addition the staff walked into the room unannounced numerous times without us asking for hints. Not sure why this was, but it was very distracting. When we finished the room, one staff began resetting the room immediately. The other staff sat far away at the desk, and then in an unenthusiastic/monotone voice said “congrats”. That’s the last we heard from them. No offer to take photos, no further discussion about our experience. We emptied our locker and quietly left out the back door. We will not be returning. Tourists beware: This escape room had openings available for a reason.

The room we did was their “most difficult”, but we found the difficulty came from the puzzles being illogical. Most escape rooms will give you little hints or things to lead you in the right direction on the puzzles. This room did not do that. We were expected to know niche details of their puzzles without anyway to know them. As experienced and successful escape room enthusiasts this was quite annoying as we had to use hints on puzzles that we could easily have solved otherwise. Maybe this is nitpicking, but it overall felt poorly organized/thought through. Some of the mechanisms and puzzles were clever, but it was not a consistent and enjoyable experience.

This company also includes “bonus puzzles” in their rooms. Apparently they have bonus experiences that are continuations to the story of the room (if a story is even present) which you have to pay to do (and get a discount if you finish the first room fast enough). This is a fine idea, but the bonus puzzles were in the room and are distractions to what you are supposed to be doing. They did warn us about it beforehand, but it just makes everything seem so occluded and clunky. Again, just not thought through effectively in my opinion.

All in all this was a disappointing experience for our group of 4 on holidays. We will not be returning.

EDIT: In speaking to my group members, they reminded me of another issue we had. We solved one of the puzzles and the sound telling us that we completed it was playing. The next clue, though, did not appear like it should have. The staff came in to assist and they also had difficulty...

We came here and did The Sorcerer's Quest with a group of 5. The room itself was pretty fun. The technology worked better than I'm used to, and most of the puzzles were interesting with just a couple of duds. It was also only about $20 USD per person, which felt like a good deal.

There are three reasons I'm only giving 3 stars. Given that the puzzles were quite good, I'd give 4 or even 5 stars if they addressed these issues.

1. The room was intentionally low-lit, and they gave us flashlights, but they only gave us 3 flashlights for 5 people. Maybe the designer thought this was an interesting way to add challenge but it's really just not. Don't get in the way of people's ability to interact with the room. It would be an easy fix to give 1 flashlight per person.

2. The locks and key pads in the room were all different brands from each other. They explained how to use a directional lock at the beginning, which was nice, but having to figure out how 5-10 different models of locks work while under time pressure is just not fun, and also something they could easily fix, either by buying the same brand of lock or by providing info about how each different type of lock works ahead of time. Solving puzzles is fun, figuring out how to enter your results is not.

3. When we finished the room, the last door opened into a deserted hallway. We didn't know if we'd won or lost, or how much time was left, and it was all just very anticlimactic and confusing. Eventually we figured out that we were supposed to walk ourselves back to the lobby, and when we got there the staff weren't engaged or paying attention. There was no feedback or congratulations, or really any of the hospitality I'm used to when finishing a room, it felt like they just wanted us to pay and get out. It should have been an exciting feel good moment and instead it fell flat and left an...

Very bad experience and super shady business practices. PLEASE TAKE THE MOMENT TO READ SOME OF THE LOWER REVIEWS BEFORE BOOKING A ROOM HERE. I have encouraged numerous friends and acquaintances to avoid this place like the plague.

For us, we booked their last open room early in the afternoon. Unbeknownst to us the room was 'cancelled' about 45 minutes prior to our arrival (I was driving so was unable to check the e-mail). When we arrived the employees at the front said someone called to cancel 'last minute.' Then they proceeded to tell me that the room was booked right after it was cancelled ?!?!?

I asked them to verify who called because it wasn't anyone in our group? They didn't bother to even present the information when asked. Additionally, when I asked them if they validated who made the reservation prior to cancelling (e.g., phone number or e-mail) they admitted they didn't???

While looking for another open room to play at a different escape room (we were from out of town and it was late in the evening) we noticed a large group enter. Fast forward they were obviously 'friends' of the one of the employees there given their lack of face-masking and other friendly hand gestures.

If it is this evident that they are willing to screw over parties that place legitimate reservations I'm curious what other things are happening behind the scenes.

Hard to not make assumptions but it was clear someone intentionally cancelled our reservation to make room for their 'friends' group. The employees did not even have the audacity to offer an apology nor any option to help rectify the situation. I would have gladly let this go and would not have posted a review had they even offered a modicum of customer service or even offered...