Lock Chicago Escape Rooms — Attraction in Evanston Township

This was our first trip to Chicago(from Arizona) and we booked several escape rooms in the Chicago area. We booked Malfunction and Sunburn at Lock Chicago on 5/24/17, which was our 46 and 47 games overall. When my family discusses escapes rooms after we play them we think of them with three aspects in mind, Setting, Gameplay, and Mechanics.

As far as the setting goes, well, frankly it was a bit weak and this would be the only thing I think they could improve but we loved the rooms enough to give them both 5-star ratings. The props were ok and there was minimal clutter. In Malfunction, the booking information says it hold ups to 6. We only had 2 and we could have used more so I think they are spot on with the people requirements in that room. Sunburn is rated for up to 8 people. We did it with 2, I think you could have gotten away with 6 but 8 seems a bit much.

If you love puzzles and figuring out things, these rooms are for you! We love puzzles and that is why these rooms are getting a 5-start rating. They are NOT the most immersive but are so very good puzzle wise that we have to give them major kudos for that! They didn't manage to hit any of our pet peeves(red herrings, having to guess, need for prior knowledge and lighting) in Malfunction. In Sunburn they hit only one pet peeve and that was the need to have one bit of prior knowledge for one puzzle. No lighting issue in Malfunction and while Sunburn was very dark, they provided the appropriate flashlights and such and we never had a problem with lighting. Kudos to them! Overall, we enjoyed the games a great deal.

As far as the mechanics go in the room, it had a good game flow, an adequate hint system, an attentive game master, no breakdowns (Yay!), great customer service and a decent website! The owner that was there the night we played the rooms was fantastic, friendly and a sheer pleasure...

I want to write this review because I really feel like this companies’ rating was bought through their donations to local business with reviews by people who didn’t pay. My wife and I have done well over 100 rooms now and play all sorts of easy and challenging rooms all over the country. This escape room is one of the most expensive per person (even more crazy because it’s not even near a city with high rent cost) and definitely top 5 worst rooms I have done. Maybe several years ago when escape rooms were first starting out you could throw some simple homemade puzzles into a room and have zero story to it and consider it a success, but that really just is not a modern escape room. This place is giving many people a really bad impression of cost and value for what one is and likely turning many future fanatics away from the industry before they even try a real one. The malfunction room felt like the type of puzzles you get for free in the lobby of an escape room company who truly loves their craft. Nobody in my group of 6 even had any clue there was any kind of story at all and the puzzles weren’t fulfilling to complete. Honestly go up to Gurnee and play a single room and you will see what I’m...

One of the WORST escape rooms I’ve ever done (and I’ve done a lot, around 30, trying an array of themes, locations, and business). The worker/game master was timid and unenthusiastic, gave unhelpful hints/ hints to puzzles we had already solved. We would gather around the screen while they took multiple minutes to type out a misspelled useless hint.

The decorations were terrible and there was no theme. It was supposed to be in a jungle and It was a concrete and brick room with pvc pipes out the walls and 5 fake vines off that were probably 10 dollars on Amazon strung from the ceiling. It was a big empty room with nothing in the middle just 4 puzzles pushed into the corners and an ikea table against the wall.

Multiple puzzles were broken and prohibited us from making progress. Furthermore the puzzles had no correlation to eachother, it was as you guess where to start, and then just guess what to do next. One thing doesn’t lead to another, so you’re just wandering aimlessly for the most part.

I did this in a group of 8 and the second we exited we all said that we are never coming back and that was a scam.

SAVE YOUR MONEY AND YOUR TIME! Go literally...