Escape Room Zone — Attraction in Chesterfield Township

UPDATE: We've gone to the Escape Room Zone in Madison Heights and it was the complete opposite experience -- well organized, fun and engaged staff, and the room themes were well executed, challenging, but also fun and well-organized. Definitely recommend that branch. Also, I did email the owner/manager who commented on my review and he replied back saying they've made some changes to address the things I commented on and had a staff retraining session, but I have not been back to that location to verify if anything is different. My group is talking about trying another one of their rooms at the Chesterfield location and if we do, I'll update then.

Original Review: Everyone in our group except one had done escape rooms before and we all found this place incredibly disappointing and poorly run. The staff wasn't very friendly or helpful at all, and they clearly weren't watching us in the rooms like other places do as they had to ask what we'd done or hadn't done when we did eventually ask for a clue. They also provided no story or setup for the room which was disappointing, as part of the fun is getting immersed in the story.

The room itself had a lot of things to open and find, which was great, but the puzzles weren't that involved, the room was poorly orchestrated, and they really need to work on their labeling system. We did the Bank Heist room and there were things marked "don't enter" or "don't touch" as part of the story line, and things that were marked "don't touch" that were meant to not be touched. There was no clear way to tell which was which and it really slowed our group down as both clues we eventually asked for were basically telling us we needed to touch something labeled "don't touch" or that we needed to break the "two fingers to remove" rule to get it out. We all don't mind the moment you ask for a clue and you're like "Oh, of course!" but when you get a clue and your response is, "but it says don't touch!?" it's frustrating and you feel like the game is cheating by breaking its own rules.

All they needed was some kind of clear way to distinguish signs that were part of the game and signs that weren't (or even a quick explanation in the beginning), but there wasn't really any way to tell and the girl didn't explain anything to us before we began. They also need to fix that item you have to break the two-finger rule on as every person in my group touched it but stopped because of that rule because it did not work. No guarantee we would have escaped with these things being changed as there was a lot to go through (which we did enjoy) -- but we wouldn't have minded that because we love solving the puzzles. We just hated wasting 15 minutes not moving something because it said "don't touch." I mean, it can't be that hard to make legit "don't touch" signs a different color or something as every other escape room any of the 5 of us had been in we had no trouble distinguishing things.

This Chesterfield Escape Room Zone has several other rooms we were eager to do, but after this experience my group as a whole decided we'd not want to do this location again as long as we had other places to go because we didn't want to deal with the poor setup. Maybe we'll try a different location for this company to see if that was better organized and to give them another chance, but probably not anytime soon as there are plenty of other places to check out. There are definitely better ones out there like Breakout Room in Royal Oak or Ideal Escape Rooms in Oxford that are much more involved as far as puzzles, have better staff, and that have a more immersive experience. I just can't recommend this one after our experience and the way it was setup with forcing you to break...

Had 7 people do Stabbin Cabin and had a lot of fun. Tony, our host, was fantastic. Very enthusiastic! Gave us the back story and what we had to do for the room all while in character. When we escaped, he greeted us in costume and in character. He made it a lot of fun! Would recommend Tony all the time. And I could kick myself that we didn't request him when we came back a week later. My review would have been 5 stars, but it is combined with the review of the Wizards room, done a week later.

Came back on 1/5, and had a girl as a hostess. She never introduced herself, and never gave us a back story for the room (Wizard's Escape) or what our end goal was. She just put us in the room. We solved all the puzzles, but could not get the final door to open. We asked for a clue and she told us to "add up the points." Which is what we were doing (Had 17 minutes left at this point). We asked her to clarify, she came in and looked at the numbers we had vs. her master sheet. Her master sheet had a different number than what was displayed in the room (she was going to change the number in the room after we left so it would match her master sheet). We used her number and still didn't escape. We asked her for a clue again (so three times, she gave the exact same clue-to add the numbers, which we were doing.). Time ran out and she came in and then told us we were missing one number (because we misread one of the sentences), but she didn't tell us that as a hint so we could escape. Funny thing, when she added up her numbers and tried to enter the code, it still didn't work. She go flustered and told us what the number was supposed to be, but never explained how she got it. On our way home, we realized that her master form was wrong, and the number she changed on the wall when we left was actually right. Now, that will throw off the code number, so anyone doing this room going forward will not be successful because the hostess changed the number on the wall. In addition to this unenthusiastic hostess who obviously doesn't enjoy her job, there were two clues broken in the room and signs posted to skip them. That is always disappointing. Overall, I think this room would have been a much better experience if our hostess understood her job better and could actually give proper clues rather than the same, incorrect clue over and over. It's no wonder this room has a low success rate. (If the manager wants to reach out to me so he can correct the clue on the wall, I'd be more than...

I’ve only been to one other escape room (plan to go to many more) and this one in comparison was a bit mediocre and because of this - I would definitely lower the price. This escape room is moreso just something to do on a boring day rather amazing escape room fun! I’d say 15/person would be a fair price. Not $25. We were in the room captive. I expected it to be bigger for starters (the room is pretty tiny) but even though it wasn’t big we made it work and had a good time. My boyfriend and i were the only ones in the room (thankfully - we heard going into captive sometimes it can be overcrowded which sounds horrible and like ppl wouldn’t be able to be apart of the action since the room is SO tiny) And we’re three clues away from making it out. However, I really disliked a couple things:

1. the set up of the room relied WAY too heavily on the employee to explain the scenario - which takes you out of character a lot (the other escape room we went to has a video pop up on the screen with characters and a scenario and theme and everything really making the situation come to life) the reality of it is, your employee may not be the best at giving explanations or getting into character and getting everyone pumped, so management should take some time out to make a video giving your customers some context. small way to effect big change.

2. the employee usually did not know what we had accomplished and what we hadn’t - which took time to explain when it came to getting a clue (time we didn’t have being that it is a time sensitive activity) in the other escape room - there was an employee mandating each room, able to give one room full attention and help when necessary.

3. which leads me to my third point - i don’t own a business and maybe this location is slower than others but there was literally one employee there, working several rooms at once. Setting up/taking down, working with other rooms. it seemed overwhelming for him. Our room still had a couple things from the last group that was already figured out. there was a math problem - that was basically already done (I’m sure he just forgot to reset and erase the problem from the puzzle which i don’t blame him since he was the only employee)

Overall - I’m glad my boyfriend and I had fun and had a good time despite some of the challenges with this location, but if i want a REAL amazing escape room experience I am not certain I’ll be returning here. i may return if prices drop though! It’ll be...