Escapology Escape Room Fairfax — Attraction in Fairfax

I don’t usually leave reviews, but I had to make an exception this time because of how absolutely legendary this guy was during our escape room experience. You know how every group has that one person who just takes charge in the most respectful, helpful, and genius way possible? That was him. I didn’t catch his name (or maybe I was too stressed to remember), but if you’re reading this: you, sir, are a national treasure.

From the second we walked into that dimly-lit room full of locks, hidden compartments, and cryptic riddles, I could already feel my brain short-circuiting. I was turning in circles looking at random walls pretending to “analyze” things when really I had no idea what was going on. But this guy? He was calm. Cool. Collected. He didn’t just solve puzzles—he dismantled them. Like a combination of Sherlock Holmes and MacGyver with a sprinkle of Tony Stark confidence.

He noticed a tiny seam in the wallpaper that revealed a hidden latch (what?!), figured out the logic behind a ridiculously complicated cipher in like 30 seconds, and when the rest of us were fumbling around trying to figure out how a magnetic box worked, he had already solved the next clue and figured out the code to the final door. It was like watching a speedrunner go through a game while I was still trying to find the “start” button.

But what impressed me even more than his escape room wizardry was how supportive he was. He never made anyone feel dumb, even when we were way off track. He encouraged everyone, asked for input, explained things as he went, and always gave credit when someone noticed something useful, even if he did most of the heavy lifting. His energy wasn’t arrogant—it was uplifting. He made the entire experience 1000x more enjoyable, especially for people like me who would’ve been locked in there forever if it weren’t for him.

I don’t know what he does outside of escape rooms, but I genuinely hope it involves leadership, puzzle-solving, or saving the world—because this man was born for greatness.

If I ever do another escape room, I’m either kidnapping this guy to join my team again or praying to the escape room gods that he magically appears when I get stuck. Thank you for being the GOAT and getting us out with time to spare. You’re...

As a family of 5, we try to complete at least one escape room at every gathering, so we’ve had our fair share of escape room experiences. We were super excited about this one because of the raving reviews. However, this was the only time we have ever been disappointed after coming out of a room (and not the only time we failed). We were 6 people this time and attempted the Pirates Curse room. We were quite disappointed because we felt we lost a lot of time due to the poor setup of the room. One of the “locked boxes” was open and unlocked already as we started, but nobody told us about it… so we closed it trying to play the room properly (thinking it was a mistake in the setup). It turns out it was just broken and they purposely leave it open… so in our “fair playing of the game” it never opened back up — which wasted a lot of time because we were stuck trying to figure out how it was supposed to open. We completed the correct steps to open a bigger door but the door wouldn’t open. We spent another 4-6 minutes trying to look for anything we missed. We ended up asking for a clue and the staff gave us 2 clues for steps we had already completed unrelated to the door (so they were clearly not paying attention to our progress) which wasted another 1.5-2 minutes. Lastly, there was another step required in which the mechanics were incredibly finicky (the staff even said at the end “yeah we’ve been meaning to get that fixed…”) so we wasted another 3 minutes on that. So all in all we wasted more than 10 minutes (which is a lot with only an hour time limit) due to the poor setup of the room and staff’s lack of attention. Unfortunately as we discussed these same issues with the staff, there was no rectification or response, aside from agreeing and mentioning their need to repair… I don’t think this an accurate overall reflection of the business, it just happened to be our unfortunate experience this time. Hopefully the room will get fixed for others to enjoy because if it was working well mechanically, it would have...

My boyfriend and I had reservations for The Code Escape Room at Escapology Fairfax for 7:30 PM. We arrived at 7:20 PM as instructed and checked in promptly. At that time, the lobby was quiet—just a few people leaving and no one waiting. We were told the room needed a few minutes to reset, so we took a seat and waited.

Shortly after, several groups of people arrived and checked in. Over the next 10 minutes, those groups were all taken back for their games—while we were still waiting. By 7:40 PM, we were the only ones left in the waiting area, and our game still hadn’t started. I went to the front desk and was told they were looking for a missing piece and still resetting our room. We were finally called back for our briefing around 7:45 PM.

While I understand that delays happen, a little communication would’ve made a big difference. It was frustrating to be left waiting without updates, especially as multiple groups who arrived after us were taken in first. Thankfully, our dinner reservations (30 minutes away) weren’t until 10 PM, because we didn’t leave Escapology until 9:05 PM.

That said, The Code room was fantastic and absolutely worth the wait! It’s a fun challenge for two people. Ryan gave us a clear and friendly overview, and our game master—Luke (or maybe Lucas?)—was quick and helpful with hints. I’m sure he got a few laughs watching us bump into each other and have a mini-spat over interpreting clues. (I type faster, just saying!)

The space was clean and well-maintained, and we had a great time once the game started. Despite the rough start, we’ll definitely be back to try more rooms. It was a fun night and worth the...