Escape Room Kingsport — Attraction in Kingsport

First, we have done over 7 escape rooms at multiple locations. This was our first time at this place. So I booked this escape room for 5:55 Taken on Sunday 5/19/19. We arrived at 5:25. No one was there and all the lights were out. I called to see what the hours were and double checked to make sure I made the reservation for the right day and time. The phone number had an option to hear the hours of operation and for Sunday said they open at 5pm. Finally someone arrived and saw us sitting out front but they took at least 10 mins before they came up to the door, unlocked it then immediately ran off without greeting us or anything. We walked in and met Gary who I asked about the hours and he told me that they usually don’t show up until 5:40 and I mentioned that I called and it said 5. He then said “I don’t know who told you that” he then told us to fill out the waivers and we have 20 mins to hang out then he disappeared. We kept busy with the puzzles they had set out then Gary finally showed back up and took us to our room. The room overall is very cluttered. He made sure to tell us a couple times that there’s a lot of things that weren’t important in there. Then told us a few rules and let us begin. We ended up using our 3 clues but found Gary hard to get ahold of when we were asking for him some which is aggravating when you’re against the clock. I’m not sure how or if he watches us but multiple times he would come on and be like “oh I didn’t hear you”. What was very unhelpful and honestly wouldn’t see it at any other escape room was that when we were doing a letter lock and were 100% sure we had the word right but it wouldn’t open we asked Gary multiple times if we had the right word just to make sure since it wasn’t opening. He didn’t reply to us until finally the 8th time we asked (keep in mind this was only in a few minutes. I’m not sure why he was ignoring us) he said he couldn’t tell us. We finally gave up with it then started looking around the room again he came over the speakers to try and get us to unlock the letter lock again. We expressed that we tried and the word we were sure it was he wouldn’t tell us if it was right or not and then he proceeds to tell us that you have to pull very hard on it. So once we did that with the word that we already had on it, it opened. I just don’t get why he didn’t tell us that yes the word we thought it was was right and to pull hard because it would’ve saved us so much time. We ended up getting out at 49 mins but we weren’t even excited and were more happy to be done and not have to deal with Gary anymore. He was not energetic, unenthusiastic, not helpful, not friendly... basically everything you don’t want a game master to be at all. It honestly felt like Gary didn’t want to be there at all. We won’t be going back for fear of having to work...

My experience doing the game ‘Taken’ at Escape Room Kingsport left me disappointed. As frequent escape room goers (8 to be exact), this room has been the only escape room so far that we have agreed is not worth the price. Employees did not greet us when we walked in; in fact, they looked like they’d rather be anywhere but there. I guess that same attitude continued throughout our game. When our clue sign was held up, it took quite a while to get a reply (especially when the clock is ticking). Even once our time ran out, we let ourselves out of the room as no one came to see us out. We were left just standing in the hall for what felt like forever. Now, back to the clues. Every other escape room we’ve attended has had some sort of policy allowing free clues or extra clues beyond the number allotted that simply add to your time. No such luck here. If you’re stuck, be ready to just walk around aimlessly. (At least you’re getting your steps in for the day!) Now, to the room itself - Let’s start with a disclaimer: don’t book this room if you’re not into looking at a bunch of dead animal props. As far as the other props in the room go, there were lots of useless, unnecessary and misleading props that didn’t add much to the setting. There were parts where there was inadequate lighting that made it difficult to do what was necessary to move on. In general, the clues were muddled and hard to understand. Needless to say, we were frustrated. We drove half an hour for this escape room hoping for something fun and wound up being disappointed. This experience left us not wanting to try any of the other rooms offered at Escape...

We did 2 escape rooms this past weekend and the first room (Taken) was alot of fun and we had a great time. The 2nd room (Virus X) was frustrating because we got to a clue in the room that we were stuck on and come to find out the clue was missing an item and that is why we were stuck and getting the wrong number. Then towards the end of our time we were entering and code on a keypad that the num lock had been turned off, so it didn't accept any entry. When we did ask for assistance in both rooms we had to wait 30-60 seconds each time and then we had to explain what clue we had done last. All of the other escape rooms we have done (Elizabethton, Johnson City, Bristol, Pigeon Forge, and Knoxville) have been very responsive and monitored your progress rather than you having to waste more time explaining where you were each time you asked for help. It would have been a better experience if they kept up with your progress, and had made sure the room...