Hoodwink — Attraction in Winchester

My family and I visited HeadUp Vegas recently to play some of their escape rooms after seeing pictures and reading reviews online. We're enthusiasts and have played roughly 100 rooms, and we're also owners, so or expectations can be pretty high, but we also understand the limitations places might have given their location etc.

First, the positives! These guys were really accommodating when we got there. We played the Smokin' Gun and The Inside Job and they were able to reverse the order for us so that we could play the easier if the two first. The Smokin' Gun was, visually and atmospherically, incredible. They nailed it. The life actor was great, the introduction was great, the way they handled hints was great. The puzzles made sense, the flow was good and each section tired together with the next. We had a blast in this room. It is not particularly difficult for experienced players - we escaped with almost 30m left and were only 3rd place for the week and didn't even make the big leaderboard, which isn't great - but it was still a lot of fun. The Inside Job was, again, visually great. The introduction was a lot of fun and the room feet like you were in a real, albeit smaller, casino. The ending was a lot of fun, and satisfying to complete.

If there is a single criticism for The Smokin' Gun, it's that it is very linear. All office of us were working on the same puzzle most of the room which, even with 5 people isn't great, but with 10 would be awesome. Being able to split up and scour the town would make this room even better than it already is. Still a lot of fun to play.

The Inside Job, again, is visually excellent. While visuals and atmosphere can go a long way, ultimately the puzzles are what makes or breaks a room, and it's here that, in our opinion, The Inside Job struggles. The 5th member of our team, who is fairly new to escape rooms, nailed the problem I think. He said it was as if there were two escape rooms jammed into one. And I think he's right. HeadzUp had this amazing casino room that they want everyone to see - and rightfully so - but a story and puzzles that don't make any sense within the context of the room. The idea is that you're robbing the Casino, but you spend a fair amount of time doing things that have nothing to do with ROBBING a casino, and a lot to do with GAMBLING at a casino. I understand why, but it makes for a very disjointed experience especially because your role in the room send to change arbitrarily. This room has so much potential and could be a top tier room with some reworking. Some tweaking of the story and puzzles would go a long, long way, and also provide an ending that everyone could complete and/or enjoy.

The one other issue in this room is the use of walkie-talkies for the hint system. We generally dislike them in rooms to begin with, but especially in this room - which has so much going for it - they feel like a clunky afterthought. I'm not sure if it is an issue with the use of them, or another issue with the room, but when we asked for hints our GM always seemed confused as to where we were in the room and what we needed to solve the puzzle we were on.

Regardless of the negatives I've mentioned, were still giving HeadzUp 4-stars. We were tempted to go try some of their other rooms, and I'm likely to try them again if I come back to Vegas...

I've been here 3 times now. First time the room we were in had a broken task. Pretty disappointing when we had almost finished the room. We were given another room which we failed miserably but I thought the place was cool. So I purchased a Groupon for my daughters birthday and we went again on Monday. I got the car heist. Unfortunately they also booked a group of 6 others to do the room with us. 6!!! So total 8 people. I paid $42 for that Groupon. I didn't care for that so I asked for another room and I would pay the difference. Well I paid for a full ticket for me and my daughter $56 for the casino room. 90 min. We were right in the middle of solving the second room when the room went dark. Bummed and disappointed how fast 90 min just went by. We come out and both employees looked at me sideways and said "what happened" well apparently they set the timer for 60 min. Ya. I just wasted my time and $100 on a room I didn't get or didn't get to finish do to a time error. I'm upset. They say that they can set the room up and I can try again. It was 8 pm. I can't have my kid there til almost 10 pm on a school night so that was gonna work. I planned ahead for that and made my appt at 630 pm. So I was offered trick art ticket. Now If I was interested in trick art that would've been something I had purchased. I had no desire for those tickets and truthfully extremely disappointed that was what they offered. I should been able to come back and try the room again on a different day. Technically I didn't do anything wrong and wasted my time and money to be short changed like that. We tossed the art tickets in the trash and I will...

Came here last weekend for my birthday and did a couple of rooms back to back. Overall, we had a blast. Their rooms are very large, fun and elaborate, especially when compared to a place like Escapeology. Also, the host in the western room was awesome. Unfortunately, our experience was ruined because the employees did not think to let us know that their AC was down during a time when the weather is about 105 degrees outside. We finished the first room (garage), thinking it was supposed to be hot to fit the garage theme of the room. Come to find out when we then asked about the heat, the employee just said the AC has been having issues since the heat wave. Welp, wish we would’ve been told that prior to starting the rooms. We didn’t pass out or anything luckily, but we were literally all sweating for 60 minutes in a room that had to be at least 80 degrees. We had already paid for the second room (western) so we went ahead and did it, which was 90 min. Again, while the rooms were awesome, we were left disappointed that the employees didn’t seem to care to tell us about the AC ahead of time or offer any sort of discount. I feel bad for the host / any hosts working in the rooms.

TLDR: great rooms, not so great...