Perplexity Games Escape Room - Cleveland — Attraction in Cleveland

First, if you insist on trying Perplexity Games, don't give them your primary email. They will continue to spam emails asking for a review. Even after I got an email with them saying, "I swear this is the last time I'll try to get your feedback." I still got another follow up email asking me to write a review.

You really want that review, huh? You win.

I fall under the mindset, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything. I was being polite by not rating or reviewing but it was clear I'd keep getting emails so on the above mentioned email, I thought I'd just be polite and rate them an 8 so they'd be satisfied and move on. They didn't so here we are.

Sorry for a long intro, and I promise my review will be fair judging on the whole experience and not just the email spams.

Booking I booked my room over the phone 1 day before the event. Overall it went alright. I got all the information I needed and was prepared to book. That's when I found out in order to complete the booking process I'd have to give out my debit card details over the phone. I guess this is where I'd suggest if you go with perplexity games, you should book online if you are like me and feel uncomfortable giving debit/credit card details over the phone.

I booked two rooms for A Christmas Escape Room. It was a versus escape room challenge with 2 teams of 4.

What followed was me getting 6 separate emails of confirmations/reminders/receipts, it seems 1 or 2 would have sufficed.

Arrival Upon arriving on schedule, we found a place that was still heavily under construction, quite an eyesore, but looks aren't everything. What was an issue was after meeting with one of the staff and confirming our two booked rooms, I was told they had only prepared 1 room. They seemed to not have remembered the booking over the phone or the booking confirmations they sent me confirming 2 booked rooms for the event.

Thankfully they were able to prep the 2nd room last minute for us to continue.

The Game This is where has most of the good and the bad. Overall, the puzzles were fun, engaging, and even challenging. I won't go into too many details as not to spoil them. I will, however, state all the issues during the escape itself which can all be summed up as unprofessional.

-Our teams told the hosts before the game which they agreed to not give out any hints to either team for the first 30 mins. And, if the other team did ask for hints, to inform the other team. None of this happened. They gave out clues like candy to both teams when neither asked for any and they never told us about them giving out clues to the other team.

-After all teams talking together after the event, we found out a major puzzle went unsolved for one of the teams yet the key was given to them anyways.

-One puzzle we solved gave us two keys which should have only given us one as confirmed by the other team.

-One puzzle we did correctly, but our host didn't trigger the next unlock, possibly they weren't paying attention. We thought we might have missed something until one of us finally decided to try the same method again which the 2nd time unlocked the next step.

A major puzzle at the end involved us using remote controlled trains. They mixed up the rooms' remotes. Our remote controlled the other team's train and theirs controlled ours. After much confusion the let us both skip that part.

-Finally, when my team finished, they told us it was a tie with the other team. However, the other team confirmed they finished a few minutes after us. Just an odd thing to lie about.

-In terms of equality, the rooms are not. The are different sizes and shapes making certain puzzles easier/harder.

The Christmas theme itself was fine for the most part.

In summary. Perplexity Games bills itself as a premium escape room experience with a premium price tag of $30 a head, 240 for my group. For that price, I expect some more, especially during the game. If the cost were lower I'd set my standards lower. If they want to improve the experience, they need to improve their consistency and...

My wife and I completed the "Quest of Valoria" escape challenge on Saturday, November 5th. In an attempt to review without getting too spoiler-y, I will say it was a lot of fun. The pluses: This was the first escape room we've done that did not have a TV screen or even audio communication with the host in the "locked" room(s). This did make things more interesting, immersion-wise. You can still get clues, but in...alternative ways. I also appreciated there was not a single physical (combination, key, etc) lock in this one, as one gets one's fill of those in other escape rooms. There was even one element of fluid puzzle-solving that I appreciated, having not seen it used yet in the few escapes we've done so far. Because there is no screen on the walls, there is also not a constantly-displayed reminder of how much of your hour has passed/is remaining. This could be a good thing, if the ticking clock only adds to your anxiety! If you prefer keeping track of your minutes for time management purposes, be sure to have your watch/phone handy (with the stopwatch feature, for example). The minuses: In the waiting room, one of the hosts enthusiastically greeted the group before us, making lighthearted and friendly jokes. Then, since we had signed up online, the host spotted the two of us and asked "You're Quest of Valoria?" and we said, "Yeah," and they got the next host for us. We weren't asked for our names or to show anything to prove we signed up or anything like that. I guess it's a good thing we didn't happen to be running late and have another couple walk in and dishonestly take our spot, as unlikely as that hypothetical scenario I made up may be! Our host then greets us as they take a seat on the waiting room sofa with a disposable coffee cup in hand. From the way they started talking - nowhere near as upbeat as the previous group's host - I initially thought they had bad news for us, like our room had to be cancelled or the credit card was declined. There's something about someone sitting down before they tell you something that makes me feel like I should be ... concerned. But no, they were just giving a run-down of the premise and rules of the escape room. It would have been super-appropriate had the theme been "The Steven Wright Escape Room,"* but for RPG/medieval fantasy, not so much. I will mention that our time at the room was 6:45p.m., so that may have be a factor here. Maybe it...was just a long day, you know?

*Not an actual room provided by Perplexity Games, but if anyone from P.G. is reading this, feel free to...

I don't understand how our experience differs so much from others that have already reviewed Perplexity. Maybe because I've been spoiled by Escape Hunt? I was highly disappointed and felt ripped off. My group did the T.I.T.U.S room, and we did make it out, so that has no bearing on my review. The room was so....basic. It was like someone went to home depot, bought some wood, put a few tablets in them, added a few magnets, put some gray paint on it, and called it an escape room. I even found a screw on the floor and though "hey, that's out of place, maybe that has some role in the game". Nope, it was just a loose screw.

When we first arrived, no one was at the desk. We waited about 15 minutes, and eventually a group came out with a gentleman who appeared to work there. However, he never acknowledged us (even to say hi). We were very confused, but eventually our guide arrived and greeted us. I thought it was very strange that we were the only ones there, and that our guide arrived after us. Our room was booked at 730pm, and apparently we were the last group of the night, because our guide locked the place up and took off.

The difficulty level was advanced, and although we were told that there were no hints, our guide did drop a piece of paper under the door once for us, which was nice, because otherwise we would have never made it out of the first part of the room. I agree with others that say that their "technology" is lacking. I get that they had tablets and stuff, but they do not have a timer to tell you how long you have to go, nor does anyone come in to tell you. We joked that we may not have actually made it through the puzzle, but that our guide just wanted to leave. There was no indication that we won. We were just standing there confused until our guide came it to tell us that we solved it.

I cannot stress enough that if you have already been to Escape Hunt, DO NOT go here. You will be so disappointed. Maybe we just went to the wrong room, but we'll never find out. We can't justify the cost for...