Escape Plan Columbia - Escape Room — Attraction in Lexington

I happened to be in Columbia during my birthday and my family insisted that we do something.

Our original brunch option was canceled so I suggested an escape room. Looking for an option online that had a room that would accommodate all the people in my party. I came across the Escape Plan Columbia and their "What Happened to Detective Magnum"

The description seemed fun and interesting. We arrived early for our 11:30 appt. There was plenty of parking and the staff was pleasant. We introduced to a few different employees as our room was being set-up but our actual host was someone totally different. I booked privately for a group of six, but we ended up being a party of 5. Of my group I am the only one that has done escape rooms previously.

I would like to say the idea of the "What Happened to Detective Magnum" room was good and our host Hailey was very sweet and impressionable.

However, I was disappointed in the overall experience. The room itself is 80's theme and dated, that is fine because it goes with the whole premise, but lighting is extremely poor. As well as many of the clues and locks for the safes are unreadable. The numbers are extremely worn. Without giving away any clues for the room, one important clue was incomplete (pieces were missing) and our host Hailey had to come in and actually complete that section for us. As a result we lost time and honestly our excitement was deflated.

I enjoyed the idea of the room and Hailey as our host because she really tried to salvage the experience but I think it's unfortunate that minor details that are vital to the game are overlooked and not properly maintained. I mean you need complete clues and the ability to read the numbers on the safe (a marker or polish can replace missing numbers on safe dials) to advance in the room. One of our clues was missing a whole part that was required to spell a word needed to get a code.

I had fun with my group but the overall experience fell flat and was a little disappointing. It was not a good first impression for all those who never experienced and escape.

Just A Note:

Hailey was great and...

We went to Escape Plan for our first escape room experience, and they did not disappoint! We did the 'Mutiny' room. The ambiance was amazing, the clues and puzzles we're challenging yet fun, and all the secrets revealed in tremendously cool ways! It's very apparent that lots of time and effort was put into the flow and feel of this experience. Daniel was our host/guide, and he was awesome! He did a great job explaining the rules and objectives, and was very attentive. We will most certainly be back!

UPDATE: My wife and I went back for date night and did 'Floor 23'. This room was tremendously challenging, but really cool! Andrew was our game master this time, and was fantastic! We can't wait to come back and try another one!

UPDATE 2: My wife and I went back for date night and did 'Espionage'. As always, Escape Plan did not disappoint! The clues were really cool, and there were some very fun and challenging things to figure out! Peter and Rachel were awesome game masters! We seriously can't recommend Escape Plan enough! Very much looking forward to coming back!

UPDATE 3: We came back and took on the last room we hadn't done yet, 'The Wizard'. This time, we brought our kids (8 & 6), and they had an absolute BLAST! Kerri was so awesome at setting up the story, and really got the kids immersed into the escape room from the get-go. Of course, the room and overall experience was amazing as always! We LOVE Escape Plan, and seriously cannot recommend it enough. We had such a great time with the kids, we're probably going to go re-do...

Escape plan has some solid rooms if your Game Master (GM) is attentive. We have done all of their rooms at this point.

We played two over the past weekend. The first was "Who killed Detective Magnum?" and we had Carter as a GM. He was solid. His characters were great and how GM hints were delivered helped to keep the room immersive, he paid attention well and provided small nudges as needed without us having to get frustrated and beg for hints. The light level was good and the theme was spot on from start to finish. This was our 89th escape room. A+ (Leaving five stars for THIS room.)

The next day we went back for the holiday room for our 90th escape room. The GM was lackluster and that can make or break a room for our group (we were hoping we'd have Carter again - he was great!). The GM wasn't paying great attention and provided no nudges without them being requested - and seemed to take quite some time for them to respond to (even when the question was "this lock doesn't seem to be working"). (To be fair, he may have been the only staff there and had to deal with people up front?) The light was LOW in this room, which is a mark against ANY escape room. We had trouble seeing locks to input codes and were told not to pull out phones, so didn't feel like we could use them for a flashlight when we needed them. C- (Not five stars, but with a better GM it...