Mind Bender Escape Rooms Jacksonville — Attraction in Jacksonville Beach

My girlfriend and I recently visited Mind Bender Escape Rooms in Jacksonville with high hopes, but our experience with the "Mystery in Chinatown" room left us thoroughly disappointed. Given the positive reviews we had seen, we were expecting a challenging yet enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, what we encountered was far from that. Firstly, the game master mentioned that the magnet puzzle in "Mystery in Chinatown" had stumped many previous players. This was somewhat reassuring since we had struggled with it too. However, we were baffled when we saw a response from the management on another review claiming that the puzzle was easy and that even a seven-year-old could solve it. This contradictory information felt like gaslighting, leaving us questioning the integrity of the facility's feedback. Adding to the frustration was the game master’s constant interruptions. Despite supposedly monitoring our progress via cameras, the game master kept asking us if we had completed specific clues. If you are watching, shouldn't you know what we’ve completed? This not only broke our concentration but also made the experience feel disjointed and unprofessional. The lack of thematic coherence in the puzzles was another major letdown. In well-designed escape rooms, even difficult puzzles are tied to the theme and story. Here, many of the puzzles, including the infamous magnet game, felt random and unrelated to the Chinatown mystery narrative. This lack of immersion made it difficult to stay engaged and appreciate the challenge. Ultimately, we decided to walk because we only had 20 seconds left trying to figure it out , sand there was no way in that amount of time we would have completed it. The experience simply was not worth the $80 price tag. We’ve participated in many escape rooms where the puzzles, no matter how difficult, made sense within the context of the story, and the game masters were both helpful and unobtrusive. Unfortunately, this was not the case at Mind Bender. Despite our negative experience, we wish the best of luck to the facility. Hopefully, they will take this feedback constructively and make necessary improvements. However, based on our experience, we cannot recommend Mind Bender Escape Rooms to others looking for a fun and coherent escape room adventure. Save your money and find a venue that offers a more cohesive and professional experience.

Reviews are meant to reflect personal experiences, and it's important to acknowledge and respect each customer's perspective. By diminishing the previous reviewer’s experience and insinuating that their difficulty with the puzzle was unfounded, you effectively made them feel foolish for sharing their honest opinion. This is not a professional way to handle feedback, and it reflects poorly on your customer service. As business owners, it’s essential to accept constructive criticism gracefully and use it as an opportunity to improve. Instead of dismissing valid concerns, consider how you can enhance the experience for future participants. Dismissing or downplaying the challenges faced by your customers only undermines their trust and discourages them from providing...

My girlfriend and I have done A LOT of escape rooms.

If you're new to escape rooms, I think Mind Bender is perfect for you! We've done a couple rooms here and they've been interesting. We did both Jewel Heist and Jack the Ripper. I think if this is your first escape room or you are participating with younger escapees Mind Bender is a great place too start because the puzzles, while entertaining, are not exceptionally challenging.

Pros: great location, easy to find, and easy to get to Unique room concepts The clues and puzzles are more family friendly than any other escape room I've done

Cons: the rooms aren't private, like other reviewers have said. While I saw that they offer discounts for private events, $65 for an hour on date night not including dinner, drinks, etc... is pretty pricey to be stuck with strangers. I haven't found the rooms engaging.

Mind Bender has several other rooms I'm eager to try, hopefully you'll enjoy it too!

• If you're new to escape rooms stop here ***

• If you're seasoned keep going because I think this matter more to you ***

I'm not going to spoil any of the rooms but I do believe criticism without examples is without value.

I think my biggest complaint is that the rooms just haven't been engaging. We did Jack the Ripper and the premise is that you're being hunted by Jack the Ripper because you're investigating him.. the thing is beyond that being said in the intro video, it literally never comes up again. Other than the clock on the wall there is no sense of urgency in the game. The puzzles are simple, especially if you've done rooms before and recognize the familiar patterns. There was little build-up, the room itself was very linear, and the end was anticlimactic. I would highly recommend skipping Jack the Ripper, it was sincerely not worth the money.

Jewel Heist was even less of a challenge. It took longer to complete several puzzles than it took to find the parts and work out how to solve them. The room was slightly more engaging than Jack the Ripper, but only very slightly. The clues and riddles for the puzzles were written at a level that I'd expect middle school age escapees to solve with relative ease; we finished the room in just over a half hour.

When a room is more engaging (not perfectly linear, builds a sense of urgency, gives you something to care about, something to add some suspense...) the puzzles are much...

I have played about 30 different room escape games, all over the world, and Mindbender Escape Room games are awesome! From the moment you walk in, you are greeted by the staff who are friendly and present (no aloof teens snapchatting here!). The lobby is large and there is ample seating. We were escorted to an area where we could secure our valuables and use the restroom before the game. We played Captain Mayhem's Revenge. Before entering the room, we watched a video about the rules and a video about the game itself. I especially liked this because at other room escape places, people just read you the story and it doesn't really seem that special. Here, it really starts to bring you into the theme of the room you are about to enter. The game itself was challenging but fun! There were a lot of really unique features they had using special technology - this for me was a BIG step up from a lot of other games out there. Another thing I really enjoyed was the fact that their items were new / in good condition. It's hard because I know, whether intentionally or not, people can be destructive playing these games and it often shows in the condition of the items in the room. Here, it is very evident that they take pride in the experience they are providing you. And it is an experience. The story, the music, the props - provide an immersive experience which I really enjoyed! We managed to escape with just a few minutes remaining (yay us!) After we escaped, we were sitting in the lobby, talking to the staff and learned that one of their rooms was a horror themed room. Okay, so um, here we go! Let's play another room! And let me just say that after talking up the immersive experience of the pirate themed room - I nearly peed my pants in this horror themed room. I don't want to give away their tricks and the techniques they used to make the room super creepy, but I will say, if your heart is strong enough, definitely try out that room! Unfortunately, we didn't manage to escape but we did have a lot of fun! Mindbender Escape Rooms is a step above the rest. They provide unique, immersive, high quality games. So stop reading my awesome review, and go...