EscapeWorks Denver — Attraction in Denver

The only escape rooms I'd done prior to these were crazy high quality ones at Universal Orlando, so I was worried that I'd set the bar too high for myself to ever enjoy other escape rooms. This experience proved that worry completely wrong though!

This escape room was the first result to come up on a Google search for escape rooms in the Denver area, their website had a number of room themes that looked fun, and their location was walking distance to a number of great food options downtown so we gave it a go. We went in mid afternoon on a Monday with no appointment and was able to book a private room for the 3 of us at no extra cost, to start ASAP since they have special processes for weekdays I guess. Huge plus for customer service there!

We did the Speakeasy room with 3 people and had a great time with it (I don't know if I would enjoy it with any more than 4 people). The room was immersive and our game master Sierra gave clues on the screens at appropriate times as we were getting stuck. I appreciated that the clues felt more like nudges to focus on something we might have overlooked as opposed to direct answers or directions to look at certain places. We had so much fun with this room that my girlfriend and I decided to book another session for later that night after we dropped her sister off at the airport. Booking this second session as a public room made the rate almost 50% off which we thought was a great deal.

Our second room was the Casino Heist ran by Harmony and Kai, and they did a great job at setting the mood for the room and giving us appropriately timed hints, but I think the room itself was definitely more difficult than Speakeasy, and definitely more intimate than Speakeasy (I probably would cap this one at 3 people). There were multiple points in the room where the process felt like trial and error as opposed to actual puzzle solving, a few game master hints that felt necessary as there was no indication the room to look at certain clues, and more red herrings than speakeasy had. We also didn't receive a time for this one even though we completed it, unsure if we were just on the cusp of not completing it or if the hosts forgot to record it - a bit of a bummer but it didn't ruin the experience by any means.

Overall I think this place has a great selection of rooms and themes, very personable and helpful staff, great pricing, and a...

Our actual experience was a lot of fun. We did the Vampire Hunter room (our group all grew up watching Buffy together) and though we weren’t successful in escaping, we all had a lot of fun. Our game master was Kelsey, and Kelsey was delightful. The product and service provided were great and deserving of a 5-star review. I do think parts of the puzzle were set to stall the group, there is one puzzle that we had solved for a solid 10 minutes but did not trigger the next event, and one puzzle that was basically unsolvable. I did appreciate that we were shown the rest of the room and what we would’ve experienced if we had won.

Unfortunately, I have to knock off a couple of stars for the management’s ridiculous scheduling policy. The morning of our event, I realized I had bought tickets for the wrong time. I called immediately when I discovered it, about 9 hours before our time on a Tuesday night. To shift my ticket to 90 minutes later cost me $35, the amount of a new ticket. My options were to go at the time I accidentally scheduled (without my friends because they bought the right ticket and also would’ve been subject to the fee to change times), cancel with no refund, or pay the cost of an entire ticket to move the time. Our group of 4 were the only people participating in our time slot, and the slot I accidentally bought tickets for was also not full. I think a $5-$10 fee would’ve been reasonable and I would’ve left a 5-star review. $35 is appalling and speaks of greed and taking advantage of paying customers.

Because I find this fee beyond unreasonable, and in spite of an amazing game master and a fun experience for our first escape room, I will absolutely be encouraging people to try a different company if they mention escape rooms. I also will not be returning to Escape Works unless I hear that this ridiculous policy has been changed. It’s a shame, because the product and the people we dealt with directly were great, but not worth what ended up being over $100 for the two tickets I bought.

ETA- the response lacks reading comprehension or was meant to twist the words, as it was stated the request was made 9 hours before the event when the mistake was discovered, and the horrible “too bad so sad, you agreed” attitude only solidifies my decision to steer others away and to never return myself. Horrible...

My reviews are mostly about escape rooms, that I do anytime I visit a new city. I don’t review all the ones I visit, just ones that I really enjoyed (I try not to be negative unless I absolutely hated my experience.) First off, Serenity (our game keeper) was an ABSOLUTELY wonderful person. At the end of what seemed to be a really rough day for them, they were so dang pleasant!

Now to the meat and potato, My girlfriend and I solo booked the “Vampire Hunter” room.

Some rooms I have visited and thoroughly enjoyed take place in warehouses where they are able to (more or less) build a sound stage, and the theatrics are crazy. This is not that place, but making use of the space they did have was still VERY top tier. In my head I usually give a negative mental mark for puzzles that are reliant on numeric locks. But given some of the restrictions of building complex lock systems, I think Escape Works did a wonderful job of making the puzzles really fun. Not so analytical to the point of it being boring. And not so low budget that you are removed from the story of the game. They found a really fun balance.

Props wise, top tier. I love a good prop! Many rooms don’t use fun and imaginative props. They just have “built in” stationary puzzles. Not this room, PROPS EVERYWHERE! And really fun ones to boot.

We finished it with 6 minutes left, and a few hints (Not my best time, and the tips are automated based on level of struggle.. but alas it was a date and I had to pee mid puzzle so I accept that it was solved and move on.)

Pros- Really creative use of the space and a fun simple story. OUTSTANDING prop design Budget conscious immersive experience done well.

Cons- A bit of a small space for more than a few players. ONE puzzle was a little less than intuitive, and made for a difficult time to solve (the one that required the hints) this could entirely just be my experience, and my desperate need to pee.

Overall definitely worth the time if you are like me and stay in hotels all weekend for work and like to solve puzzles. Even if you are local to Denver, I am certain it is on the better end of what this city...