Trivium Games — Attraction in Emeryville

DISCLAIMER: Our team was invited to beta test Ghost Squad. A few assets in the room were not complete (mainly small decorations. All puzzles were 100% functional and complete) and the cost was covered by Trivium. The final state of the room could be different from what we experienced.

Having done over 60 rooms, our team had the opportunity to visit Trivium Escape. I had high expectations for the room give the website used custom graphics and did not rely on stock photos and after seeing the delightfully cheesy intro video, I knew our time was going to be well spent

Ghost Patrol has the unique advantage of being one of the very few "spooky house" themes in the Bay Area. As stated in my EDscapade review of "Hostage" spooky/scary themes are few and far between and while enthusiasts can name off a number of well made haunted house rooms in general, given the location the theme is a breath of fresh air.

"Ghost Patrol" has you playing a team of investigators tasked with trying to figure out, the cause to why a certain spirit is haunting a given location. Unlike other rooms where the spirit needs to be defeated or a counter spell needs to be made in "Ghost Patrol you're tasked with trying to resolve the spirit's issues.

Right from the start the set design of the room was impressive, with the house itself being well represented and lighting and sound used masterfully to set the mood. More "Haunted Mansion" than "Amityville Horror" the room has a charming sense of playfulness and whimsy behind it. Those worried about any jump scares or being too scared to continue can rest assured that not violent scenes will come out to startle you.

It took a whooping 5 minutes for me to not only be taken in by the game world but for me to verbally exclaim "this room is going to be good" these high expectations were smashed time and time again as our team moved from puzzle to puzzle, flowing as swiftly as if we were spirits of our own. Clues and puzzles were hidden in the room's subtle design with nothing standing out in an obnoxious fashion. The house always looked like a house and did not have the escape room trope of very obvious clues being blatantly painted on the walls

Trivium Escape made sure to include small details to make the puzzle solving experience frustration free. Clever lighting and sound cues let us know if we were putting items in the proper place and subtle sign posting highlighted our objectives. There were no red herrings and the puzzle flow was neat and tidy without being too restrictive. I count at least 2 to 3 puzzle chains going off at the same time giving everyone involved something to do making it idea for groups of 4/5,

Did I mention the Ghost Device you get to carry around with you? Much like an episode of "Spirit Hunter" its common for the investigators to carry some sort of neat electrical gadget and this is no exception. I won't reveal too much but I can safely say this device worked really well during the beta test and did not overstay its welcome.

As cheeky as the room was, what really impressed our team was the story told throughout the room which lead to a very satisfying and memorable ending. It's certainly a sequence of events that I will not forget and will be hard to top in...

I've done over 150 escape rooms in Seattle, LA, New Orleans, Orlando, and the Bay Area. I actively travel and seek out the best escape rooms in the US, so this review is catered specifically to enthusiasts looking for unique, high quality rooms.

Ghost Patrol - High 5 / 5 (Rank 9 / 160 - Excellent and memorable room where we came out of it impressed. Enthusiasts should put this on their itinerary, likely the highlight of a trip.)

Ghost Patrol doesn’t do anything crazy, but does everything on a high enough level that it’s hard to find flaws when comparing it to other traditional escape rooms. Every aspect of this game (set, story, puzzles) just felt very well thought out and executed with care, precision, and creativity. As a result, this game places at 9th best out of the 160 I’ve done, and second best escape room for me in the Bay Area, placing just below Omescape’s Chaos in the Galleria, which is very high praise given how I generally only go to good escape rooms, and love Chaos in the Galleria. Really excited for what they come up with next, and glad to see the Bay Area getting another great game so that we can start to become a top tier US escape room destination.

I don’t think I need to say much more about how good the room is given the plethora of other reviews out there, so to give you a change of pace from the other gushing reviews, I’ll spend the rest of this review complaining about the games minor flaws instead. While the game is excellent, the room’s main flaw is that it doesn’t have any killer moments that blow your mind, which when you get to the level of roomrank 5s, are what is needed to propel it up to a top 5 room. There isn’t anything super crazy here that is pushing the needle forward for best (or most unique) escape rooms in the US, so try to temper your expectations if you are expecting something unreasonable like say, Cutthroat Cavern’s ridiculous set. Furthermore, I thought that while the story/immersion were good, they could have done a better job transitioning from the first half of the game to the second half and adding more obvious story context there. These flaws are probably unreasonable to attempt to fix, so consider these more ramblings than actual...

TLDR: is it worth it? Helllls yeah especially with more than 4 people makes it cheaper. Great set design. Challenging but doable puzzles. Fun times working as a team. Lovely staff. 10/10 would go again.

The Real Review: My boss had been asking me to plan a day for my coworkers to do team bonding for a while now, all I gotta say and this was the perfect way for us to hang out, have fun, and work together as mini teams/ a team, all on the company’s dime! Don’t tell my boss I said that.

Upon arrival we were greeted by Brad, who made the experience from start to finish a very pleasant one. In the waiting room there were little puzzles and also merch you can look at or buy. Then eventually the escape room commences!

The room itself felt like a Disneyland ride, specifically tower of terror (rip) but not terrifying even though there’s a ghost theme. Every thing looked so real so we felt very immersed. The puzzles were challenging but once you complete the first two puzzles, you’ll have no trouble figuring out the rest. Every time a puzzle was completed there’s little sound effects and lighting that plays, which reassured me that we were on the right track. We had a team of 8, so we’d split into two or three groups to simultaneously work on puzzles to not waste any time. I feel like that works best vs everyone staring at the same thing not knowing what to do. We also switched puzzles or asked people from the other mini team for help if needed.

Once we completed the escape room, Brad greeted us at the exit and took a group photo for us. He gave us an outro and thanked us for our time.

Overall, my coworkers had an amazing time together. We laughed, we yelled, we danced. If you and your coworkers or friends/family are looking for an activity to do together, I highly recommend Trivium! Thank you again Brad hope to come back...