The Escape Effect | Escape Room Orlando — Attraction in Dr. Phillips

I've done around 150 escape rooms and was really curious to try A Knight to Escape, given that it was Escape Effect's newest room, has a castle theme (medieval fantasy is cool), and is 2 hours long (!). My escape room partner and I ended up tacking Encore and Sherlock Studies onto the crawl as well. Escape Effect's games each had its own distinct flavor, and are worth trying out.

A Knight to Escape (4/5): The team is split up into two groups for most of the game, where you're trying to help each other break out of a castle. This room physically requires at least 4 people, though I think that it could reasonably be adapted to accommodate 2 (but still recommended to bring more given the length of the game and sheer amount of content). This game was quite the doozy for our group of two enthusiasts and three beginners. The puzzles were challenging but fair, diverse and on theme with good use of castle props, and required good cooperation between groups. Fitting with the medieval theme, locks were of the key/padlock or dial variety rather than standard combination locks, which was kind of neat. Each of the puzzles had a unique layer that fit with the medieval theming and made them better than standard. The set was great, each side with a distinct feel. Good props and polish, except not a smooth wood finish (I got a splinter or two), so watch out for that. A major area that was lacking was the story--basically nonexistent except the very beginning and very end.

A few things irked me about this game -

1. One group is stuck in very low lighting for their entire split portion. While there are light sources, they're still pretty dim. I generally dislike low lighting like this, since the tradeoff of needless frustration at not being able to see is rarely worth the immersion of a dark environment.
2. There was nothing to write notes on, which would have been quite helpful for multiple puzzles. I don't think giving us a pen and parchment would have ruined the immersion, and I think this would have been worth saving us some frustration.
3. There was a lot of downtime where one side was just waiting for the other side to solve something. I think this could be improved by either parallelizing more of the puzzles or by changing the format of the puzzles to require simultaneous cooperation from both sides rather than mainly passing objects back and forth.

That said, A Knight to Escape had overall good content and polish. I'd recommend people check it out, but mainly for more experienced players rather than beginners.

Encore (3/5): An overall decent room with a unique, polished set, but the lack of interesting story and puzzles kept it from hitting the 4/5 rating benchmark. The set included a really cool lighting system that fit in with the overall theatre setting. Great polish and a fairly unique set. However, the story was pretty weak and forgettable. The puzzles were fairly one-note once we knew what to do, but the interesting bits came from making connections between things we saw in the room and from one of the more complex puzzles in the game. This was a search-heavy room with a bunch of combination locks that involved some amount of trial and error.

Sherlock Studies (3/5): This game is great for those who enjoy logic puzzles and for fans of Sherlock. It's a good game for beginners, but the level of difficulty and lack of noteworthy aspects makes it less interesting for an enthusiast. It had a polished old-time study set with a bunch of Sherlock references around the room, including the signature newspaper clippings. There wasn't so much a story as much as there was a clear objective to solve the major mystery, which was my favorite part of this room. While most of the puzzles in this room were fairly simple and low tech (combination locks), the final puzzle really connected the dots, making Sherlock the most enjoyable out of the Escape Effect games I played. However, given the generally simple puzzles and lack of something spectacular in the set and story, there wasn't enough to bring the...

EDIT: I was invited back to play another game and the owner was kind enough to personally be the master of our game. I cannot express how much better the experience was having someone who was paying attention to us. It made the entire time feel more valued and that the staff wanted us to be there. I will also state that there was a different level of care given by the staff in the morning as opposed to later at night. I still think my points from before are valid, but I have a strong feeling a lot of it had to do with the staff member we had before both times. I’d like to say thank you to the company for trying to help make the situation right and that they went above and beyond to try and make sure I was satisfied. One person doesn’t speak for the entire company and that was apparent from walking in this time. It felt like a brand new venue.

————-————————————————— —————————————— I want to start by saying I don’t want this to sound like I’m bashing the company. I have played quite a few different escape room experiences, and everyone does something a little different.

We played 2 separate games here Sherlock Studies and A Knight to Escape. In both rooms we had similar issues. First and foremost in every other venue I’ve played when you need to ask for a clue the “Game Master” normally has something ready for you before you ask anything. Both times when we asked for help with a puzzle we were met with a “what do you need help with”. It feels as if they aren’t paying attention to anything you are doing while you are in the room.

At both games we played I remember sitting in a corner of the room as just wishing I could leave. I genuinely wasn’t having fun and was upset I had paid money to stand in a room and feel miserable. We did escape out of both rooms so it’s not like the puzzles aren’t solvable, but they are designed to take time and aren’t fun to complete.

Specifically in A Knight To Escape we had an issue with a puzzle. We got a hint to finish it that basically had the game master tell us the answer. Once you finish a room they typically ask of you had any questions. I brought this clue up and the game master explained how it worked. We had figured out the design of the clue, but the clue itself in the room was wrong. I can’t give it away without spoiling the room, but it was straight up wrong, and without a clue it was unsolvable. We brought this up with the game master and she said “the room was haunted”. My mind was blown. It’s one thing to have something wrong, but to refuse that there was a mistake was incredibly unprofessional. Our room was done, and I hope they fix it for the next group, but it felt as if they didn’t care that there was a blatant mistake in the room.

As I said before we have done many rooms and others we know enjoy this company, so feel free to make your own assumptions, but personally for me I didn’t want to come back to the second game but decided to give it a second chance. After that I have zero desire to play anything else they have.

They are more expensive than other rooms, though they tend to be longer rooms so it makes sense, but I’d rather not spend that much money to stand in a room and...

Have completed all of the rooms here, each one became progressively worse, but we wanted to try out a Knight to Escape as it had been so highly recommended. We arrived nearly 20 minutes early with our waivers already signed, so we did begin early.

Our group of four was split, which we were aware of. My group of two chose to complete the darker room. We expected some dark, but we also expected our light sources to work. However, the lanterns provided gleamed yellow dull light, and if you put them down on the ground, they turned off. With us being in the dark and nearly half of the room involving reading and finding things on the wall, holding up low quality lanterns the entire time was not ideal.

Upon entering, the game guide told us half of the props were broken. A box in the first room, and a microphone in a back room, and we were told that if we wanted a hint, we'd have to run back to the first room to get one, as she wouldn't be able to tell us in any other room. I understand things happen, but you'd think they'd be more attentive with us calling for hints considering we were wasting our time running back and forth.

Our game guide changed halfway throughout our game without us being notified, and the second guide seemed confused about everywhere we were at each time we asked for a hint, or took a good minute or two to give us the hint.

The room itself had some decent puzzles. Not a great flow, but nothing unbearable.

We were on the last puzzle of the room when we had about five minutes left. As we had started 20 minutes early and told the game guide we wanted as many clues as possible to escape, we truly expected them to help us, as we did spend $300 and 2 hours on this room. However, they just told us to "keep working on the puzzle", until our time went off. We were clearly disappointed, and our game guide paid no mind.

We asked to have the rest of the room explained to us, as again, we were only minutes away from escaping after spending $300. Instead of showing us anything, our game guide sat outside of the room and explained in the simplest way possible how to complete our last puzzle.

We were not asked if we'd like to take a photo, and simply were told to have a good night.

I have been a game guide in the past. I have extended countless games and spammed plenty of hints to help a group escape if that is their goal, especially when they've arrived early with 20 more minutes before a potential next game and informed the game guide we did not care about the amount of hints we had, as long as we escaped.

I'd suggest finding a different...