Locked 460 Escape Rooms — Attraction in Grand Rapids

I would love to leave 4.5 stars if it were possible. My husband and I are escape room tourists and have done rooms all over the world. We brought my teenage cousins just before Christmas (it was their first time) and we did the saloon-themed room. We escaped with a little less than 10 minutes on the clock.

Locked 460 does a lot of things right. First, the staff are great and have a good sense of humor. Each room has a designated game master who follows your progress and gives you hints. (Ours was Victoria.)

Second, the puzzles are fun and fit the theme with few red herrings. It seemed like there were a lot of combination padlocks, however — maybe these could be switched out for different kinds of padlocks? (Directional, etc?) It felt like we were hunting for numbers all the time. It wasn’t horrible by any standard, but would’ve been refreshing to vary the mechanics a bit. (Like the chess puzzle! That was awesome!) The difficulty level of this room of 6/10 was accurate, in my view. None of the puzzles were super challenging — the real challenge was finding all the stuff to figure out the padlock combinations.

The production value of the room is quite high — it’s clear that thought was put into the construction and there was custom work involved. Being in a room that feels less homespun adds to the immersion.

We did experience a significant error in our game, which is the reason for the star deduction: due to an oversight when the room was being reset, the box containing the means of escaping the room was unlocked when we found it. We surmised the mistake and locked it so we could keep playing, but this would’ve been very confusing to a first-time player. If we’d have left it open and simply used the clue to escape, it likely would’ve shaved 20+ minutes off our time. Unfortunately, this felt like a “C’mon, you had one job to do!” moment. But I don’t believe this happens often, and it’s probably unlikely to happen again, as we reported it after finishing the room.

In all, our experience was superb and provided great value compared to other GR-based companies. Definitely...

I have done 3 of their rooms over the past few years and would say Locked 460 escape rooms are just ok. There are better Escape Room venues in Grand Rapids and worse ones. I've done almost 40 escape rooms.

My group made it out of the Apartment in 30 minutes. There wasn't much to do in the room so we sped through it quickly. It was very basic astetically and puzzle wise. I wish there was more to do and more techy cool stuff.

I also played the Jail Break Imprisoned room (can't remember exact name), it was a few years ago. They start by locking 2 of your players in a cell. Well within the first 2 or 3 minutes we already had solved the puzzle to get them out of that cell. There was also a clue written on a random pen in the room which no one in my group could see. I asked the room guide after if that happens with a lot of groups and he said pretty much every group he runs. The puzzles weren't very creative and again there wasn't much to do in the room. A lot of the people in my group just stood around watching because there wasn't enough to do.

The Garage was a step up tech-wise from their other rooms but was also their newest room replacing the Jail Break Imprisoned room. There were some clever puzzles but also a few puzzles that seemed far fetched. We also were able to trigger a door opening with 3 of the 4 parts to it unlocked which was odd. This room was much more decorated than the other 2 rooms were.

The staff was nice. I just think their other rooms need an update to keep up with the industry that is going more immersive and techy and each room needs more puzzles to fill the hour and to have more of the group...

Positives Very good themes for escape rooms Large rooms with lots of space that can fit large parties. There TV is loud and is easy to hear if a clue is given What puzzles they have are interesting

Negatives LOTS and lots red herring The better escape rooms I have been in have had variety of puzzles to engage the group, including a basic search for numbers to open locks. At 460 they have very few puzzles and the entire time is searching papers for numbers to open locks. That is not bad when it is part of the escape room, but a serious drawback when it is the primary activity available in the escape room. Sparsely decorated- It means if you are stuck, there is no sense of direction of what you should do next. It feels like you have looked through the few items again and again and again and what else is there to look at? The game master- I feel the goal of a game master is to help the group have a positive experience and refocus when they have been stuck for a very long time (not a few minutes, but a while) Our game master gave us almost no help. A different game master who would give us some basic direction would have created a better...