Hochatown Escape Games — Attraction in Hochatown

My spouse and I have done over 80 escape experiences, and I can solidly say that Hochatown Escape Games is not terribly good. We did their Oval Office room, which they told us is a brand new room. Based on other reviews, it seems like they attempted to up the technology level for this room, and that may have been a very poor decision. Our group was able to quickly assemble clues, but then the tech simply didn't work the way it was supposed to, leaving us without any possible path forward until we summoned a game master for a clue. The game master had to spend minutes messing with equipment and poking things in unintuitive ways to force the room to progress. No time was added back onto the clock for these technical failures of the room either. On top of that, we were clearly instructed that no more force than a single finger would be needed to open anything, and that was also completely untrue (and cost us another clue). The overall design of the room and the theme generally worked, but at least 2 puzzles were also extremely poorly clued, leaving us second guessing what we'd found. The icing on this poor cake was that the game masters were disinterested and not paying attention to the room, so when technical failures were happening, they were oblivious until summoned to the room by the request for a clue. All of this combined to create a room that wasn't fun and whose challenge was more about patience with the tech than solving clues and puzzles. I'd recommend finding another game, or at least avoiding any technologically advanced rooms by Hochatown...

My wife and I have done many escape rooms around the country. We love them! We have gone to some rooms that were excellent, some that were good, and then this one (Cabin Fever). Once finished, we sat in the car and asked each other what the worst escape room we've ever done is. Cabin Fever is it.

The decor was not good. I can accept that. We have been to some excellent low budget escape rooms - one in Bangor, Maine for example. But not only was it not good decor, it was dilapidated. Things were worn out, making puzzling difficult.

The puzzles were all over the place. Esoteric / vague thinking. Bad. The solutions were oftentimes a let down. And there was no flow in how they went. You may get a 3-digit code for example. Which 3-digit lock do you put it in? Might as well put it in all of them. If the code is incorrect, you'll spend quality time trying the same digits all over the place. The things to "throw you off" were cheap and un-fun.

The staff was nice. But everything was VERY analog, including the timer. There are no speakers in the room. The staff had no idea if we had even escaped. When you're done, you just leave the building. You're not met by anyone.

It is possible to have alow budget room that is fun. This was not fun. The fun came in us discussing how bad it was.

If this is your first escape room, don't let it turn you off! If you are a...

Honestly a weird vibe. Did the Lakehouse at the location that’s further outside of Hochatown. Have done several of these in different cities/states and this was the least favorite of our group. These rooms are all about the ambiance, decoration and attitude of the people working them to get people excited. We walked in and four teens behind the desk just kind of stared at us. We told them we had a reservation and they all looked at each other, and the group told one of the girls it was “her turn” and she was audibly and visibly bummed she had to get up and help us. Not a great start. But she got up and told us to follow her into the room, which was very minimally decorated and not very appealing/inspiring. We asked for a couple of clues and she was sweet when she’d come in and help. It turned out at the end it hadn’t been set up properly and the last piece didn’t fall as it was supposed to so she had to reach in and jostle things around for it to work. So technically we escaped but only after we had to get her to make the last piece work. At the end no one congratulated us, no pics, nothing, we just walked out. About the least fun we’ve had at one of these, they really need to step up the ambiance, maybe play a little music, employ some folks who...