THE BASEMENT: A Live Escape Room Experience — Attraction in Los Angeles

My group did The Basement & The Study and we left both rooms very disappointed.

Let me begin by saying that we were extremely excited to do these rooms and we had heard so many good things about it. Long story short we don't think we will ever be coming back to this establishment.

Study: The puzzles in the room were fairly basic but then they just became big leaps in logic. There is no direction to this room, and the hint system is at the discretion of the in-room actor. We will admit that one of our players did break a rule by tossing a pillow in the room which ended up making contact with the actors arm. After which we were all reprimanded over the loud speaker which left a sour mood for all of us for the rest of the room. Do not put your actors in positions where there is no visibility and there is a possibly of them get hurt. An easy way to fix this would be to add a low red hue illuminating the space, that way both the actor and the customers have at least some visibility of what is happening. Frightened people will always have exaggerated reactions to elements unknown, so try to make those elements known. In the rules they are very clear about not climbing on any of the furniture however that is quickly thrown out the window as one of the puzzles requires interaction with some furniture. This had us all very confused as why we deliberately had to break a rule in order to solve the room. One of the most awkward parts about the end of the game was when the game master entered and asked us "how did your actor do in the room?". You shouldn't need your customers to give feedback on them while they are in still in the room with you. Because to be honest who is really going to say something bad to the actor when they are right there in the room with you: like "Yeah well you see she could have done a lot more instead of just standing in the corner and yelling at us". Onto the pillow thing: Our player realized their mistake and apologized for their reactions but the way the Game Master handled it was unacceptable and unprofessional. She walked us out the lobby, sat us down while she reprimanded all of us about our actions for about 5 minutes saying that she needed a "verbal confirmation" from our player that they would "behave properly" in the room and that she could have just kicked us out without a refund. Honestly we probably would have been better off with that so that we didn't have to experience not only 1 but 2 terrible rooms.

We all put that whole issue aside and we were now ready for the next room with hopes it would be so much better, spoiler alert, we were wrong, it was even worse. We were brought with our group & 4 other randoms into the waiting area where the game master yet again called us out for the pillow thing by saying "don't throw anything at the actors or anything crazy like that" while looking directly at us. Seriously?! You already spent time treating us like children and scolding us after the player apologized for their actions, be done with it and move on.

The Basement: The entry style to the room was pointless & unnecessary, I guess it adds to the theming & immersion? Felt like a waste to me. The Basement has even less direction than the Study does. Be prepared to turn the whole room upside down in search for things. The puzzles were a stretch, the visual clues were hard to differentiate: imagine 3 of the exact same locks with a 3 try limit on them. (For both rooms) When we feel like we are struggling we should be able to ask for a clue, it shouldn't be up to the actors to decide if we need it. Oh and in the room was an image of our player who tossed the pillow with the words "PILLOW THROWER" on it. Again, with the taunts & belittlement. Not a way to make us feel comfortable or welcome anymore.

Wish I could give this place 0 stars. Only reason I give 1 star is for the decor and windows in the Study but even then it was very sparse.

Based on our experience I wouldn't be surprised if they try to not let you escape so that you come back and spend...

They pride themselves in saying how difficult the rooms are to solve. That would be fine if the reason for such a high failure rate was not due to so many flaws in the game. The lighting is extremely poor. The player are supposed to be able to see colors and details indiscernible in the extremely low lighting. The players are told the game in non-linear, yet after the time was up when we frustrated that we had solved every combination on a particular list we were told we did not do it in the right order. Well then it is very much linear. There is very little provided to propel the game forward. The actor, who is supposed to provide hints when engaged with, told us after the game that we didn't befriend him in the manner that he wanted. No one was rude to him, but because of heavy warnings some of felt limited in the amount of interaction that was allowable. Apparently, he was put off by our direct questions and felt we were "unfriendly" so not only did he not answer questions but he misled us often and was very insulting, practically calling us stupid and laughing at every mistake we made in efforts to figure out the clues. Clues and hints given at the discretion of an actor diminishes the validity of the game. The actor has a biased control of the outcome. Yet the actor retains information unobtainable by other means within the room. So the game can not be won without the actor's assistance. The group I was with has played dozens of escape rooms in several states. This is the first one we "lost". We have played some with seconds to spare but still always escaped. We did lose 15 mins in this game because of an unexpected traffic issue (our fault), but I don't think this game was winnable for us because the actor did not like the our demeanor. One of the reviews that I read stated that they felt they purposely let players fail to induce them into wanting to play it again in order to have the sense of achievement. That would not surprise me because we left this game feeling very frustrated and ultimately still wanted to find...

Game was a good intro to the story. The game moves fast due to it being 45 min. I did like the actor that was in it, he made the experience more fun and interesting. It was not as scary as I thought it would be. The puzzles were not as difficult but were a lot to do in such little time. If we had one more person, maybe it would have gone more quickly. All in all It was a good and exciting experience. The Gamemasters were cute in trying to do a cute new introduction for us. We appreciated it and they were also very nice. I am excited to try the last two rooms. The second room was exciting; the elevator. Definitely wet experience for one person, be prepared.

Chapters 3/4: Came back to finish off the last two rooms. This room was fun and interesting. I liked the actor and how he gave clues on how to proceed. It was a very interactive room and of course I had to do the scary individual parts. The puzzles were hard to figure out in the beginning but once we got rolling, it fell into place. There was one part with the actor, which was so amusing to us and we hope other people like it. We kind of made it out, the last puzzle stumped us, but they said we technically escaped (haha). The actor was nice and the gamemaster ensured we were safe and provided a fun environment.

This last room was nice because of how the created the ambience. It was very high tech in the room and some puzzles were linear in nature but you could have solved more than one puzzle if the group separated. It was a hard room for sure, we gave the actor a good nap!! We also made it to the last puzzle and the gamemaster stated that we did make it out, just needed a tool to hasten something but we were doing it the slow way. The actor was funny and cute hahaha, glad he enjoyed his short time playing. I really liked how they made it feel like we...