Mission Escape Rooms - Arundel Mills — Attraction in Severn

My sister and I are two out-of-towners who always seek out escape rooms in new cities. We were in Annapolis visiting family, who we also wanted to introduce to escape rooms. Unfortunately Mission Escape Rooms was not a good choice for this introduction.

We did the Casino Room and first impressions were good- it was very nicely decorated! As our game master was explaining things, we got a little concerned. Our only way to communicate with her was to buzz an intercom and talk back and forth. It seems like there were no cameras or microphones in the rooms- something that is standard in other escape rooms (and makes the game play SO much better). There wasn't even a monitor to see how much time we had left- we had to ask to find out. Any time we needed a hint we needed to tell the game master what puzzle we were on, what we had already figured out, and what we were stuck on. SO time consuming compared to the game master following you on cameras the whole times! It really took away from the experience too.

The puzzles started off decent, we needed hints here and there. One of the puzzles required us to stretch farther than we could reach. When we asked our game master, she stated she normally pulls a stool over and stands on it... not very safe or feasible for the shorter fans of escape rooms! Unfortunately we were not able to do about one-third of the whole room because of a malfunctioning lock. Once we talked to our game master numerous times over the intercom to confirm we had the right code, another woman came in to try it herself. After confirming this lock was not going to work, we were given the code for a lock at least 3 puzzles ahead of where we were (since we couldn't do any of the next few parts without what was locked up). The worst part was the employees who had worked the previous night left a note about this lock not working. The employees there the day we went did not say anything about a possible problem in our room. We would have done another theme instead if we knew we couldn't do a third of the room we booked! No apologies or concerns that we didn't get our money's worth from the staff.

So many issues with Mission- there are many better escape rooms in the area. We recommend EscapeTime...

basically paid $120 for 10 minutes of puzzle solving and 50 minutes of confusion. i want a full refund.

genuinely surprised by the great reviews here - bad staff training meant we finished the game in 10 minutes in the wrong manner, but staff who was watching us the whole time didn’t intervene. bad game design meant that even if we had played the game as-is, a part of our team would be sitting ducks doing nothing for most of the game. I’m shocked a game of this level is $120 dollars for 3 people, and can’t recommend it to anyone. i also see similar issues happened over the past 3 years to other reviewers.

BAD COMMUNICATION: (1) the person who laid out the story at the beginning rushed through it, mumbling the whole time, and we could barely hear correctly - management needs to train her on communication. (2) about 10 minutes through we decide to ask for a hint - the telecom was terrible and we could barely hear. we thought they said to exit the current cells we were in by pressing the exit button, and so we did. apparently this was only to be used in emergency. later after the game, they told us they were watching and didn’t understand why we did that - so why didn’t they tell us?? we asked for hints later and they didn’t say anything then either. this meant that we basically finished the game in 10 minutes and didn’t understand why we had to figure out the rest of the puzzles. Why didn’t the script (read by the girl at the beginning) affirmatively state the goal: to break out of the two cells? with no correction from staff, we completely misread the point of the game and spent 50 minutes being completely frustrated. management needs to better establish protocol for handling miscommunications.

BAD GAME DESIGN: the game starts with the gamers choosing who to go into two separate cells. depending on how many you choose to go into one cell, some, or maybe all but one, player may become sitting ducks because there is nothing in that cell to figure out. the majority of the clues are in...

My spouse and I had a great experience at Mission Escape this fall. The staff were friendly and helpful. Special shout out to Taylor for being awesome on the phone when I called to ask a few questions. (We also met the District Manager while we were there, and really enjoyed chatting with him about Forest Haven after we finished.)

If you want to get an idea of what the rooms look like before you go in, there's a promo video of each one on the Mission Escape website. They actually show the interiors so if you're at all nervous, checking out the video might help you feel more comfortable.

We played two of their five rooms: Last Showing, and Forest Haven (their newest room). Both rooms felt thematic and had some puzzles that were more than the usual "open this combination lock". The new Forest Haven room definitely felt more polished. Puzzle variety was good and we didn't run into any technical issues.

We enjoyed both rooms and think they're great for groups of 1-4 with some escape room experience. (You can have up to 8 people, but I'd never play with more than 4. Better to split up into two rooms.) If you're new to escape rooms, I'd ask the staff which room they'd suggest, or go do Legend of Sasquatch at Mission Escape Annapolis.

Hints are unlimited, so definitely ask for guidance if you're feeling stuck. When we asked for hints our game masters did a great job of nudging us in the right direction without spoiling the puzzles for us.

We're looking forward to going back to play the other three rooms!

Side note: the lighting in Last Showing was a bit dim (in keeping with the theme), so if anyone in your group needs bright lighting to read, etc one of their other rooms might be a better fit.

Not-so-fun fact: the Forest Haven Asylum room was named (with permission) after an actual institution that operated in Laurel from 1925-1991. I love the nod to local history, even if it is a...