The Great Xcape — Attraction in Manassas Park

My friend and I have participated in a couple dozen escape rooms in several facilities all around Northern Virginia and DC and overall rate this one a 6/10 with the discounted price. (I would rate this a 3/10 if paid at the full price). We were fortunate enough to have a half off coupon, which definitely made the visit worth it. We both would have been very disappointed though if we had paid full price for the quality of the room and puzzles. We had a group of two and did two rooms - Mad Scientist and Missing Millions.

If I lived within a few minutes of this escape room, I would probably return with a half off coupon because I do love escape rooms so much. However, I would not recommend for full price or even for half price if the trip is more than 30 minutes until the rooms improve.

PROS: The room design was very nice with good props. We enjoyed the maze puzzles and magnetic locks. The room actually gives a full 60 minutes, as opposed to some escape rooms that only allow 45 minutes to escape. The rooms had a nice size and were well lit. There were a couple of puzzles that were challenging and also had a logic to it that made them solvable without hints. The tv introductions were a very nice touch. The $15 price after the discount makes the room well worth to try if you're in the area.

CONS: For the full price, the room is too simplistic with the locks and puzzles. If I'm paying $30 a ticket, I would want Escape Room Live quality props that include elaborate sets with computer technology. These rooms were mostly old fashioned locks. I love old fashioned rooms, but not at the price of advanced rooms.

The puzzles did not flow well. One clue did not lead to the next, which resulted in a lack of direction in the game. Most of the puzzles were also rather convoluted to solve and required real jumps in thought. In other rooms when a puzzle is inherently convoluted, there is some sort of clue hidden that offers a hint on how to solve. Though we try to avoid asking for clues in rooms, the puzzles did not offer enough direction to solve, stopping all progress and leaving no option but to ask. Because of this, the minute penalty for a clue seems harsh. No other room we have ever been in has penalized time for a clue. The clues were not even always clues, but just the actual combination.

The word searches had so many letters with words in all directions, that it required a good chunk of time for two people. In a room where you are paying for time to work on puzzles that require thought and logic, I resented having to spend a fair chunk of that time doing multiple word searches. Word searches are not difficult and don't require thought, they are just time intensive. The same effect could have been achieved with words that were a bit easier to find.

There were too many locks for one room. Off the top of my head, I can count about 20 locks in one room. With 60 minutes, that is averaging 3 minutes a lock, which does not seem feasible. Because the game lacked flow, we had a difficult time figuring out which lock went with each clue, the order in solving the locks, and what areas to focus on. Having multiple locks on one case also takes the joy and excitement out of solving that particular lock. There is no satisfaction of taking off a lock when there is no reward of a clue in return. Considering how many locks there were in the room, the multiple locks on one box was not necessary.

One of the locks was not properly set. We used two clues to receive the combination that we had figured out on our own. In the end, time had run out without us opening the box because the lock had been reset with the wrong combination.

OVERALL: The escape rooms were worth the cost of $15, but not much more than that. Hopefully future rooms here will improve and streamline the...

I recently visited here with a friend who had never done an escape room before. He seemed to enjoy it, but it was not impressive in comparison to other escape rooms. First, the website made it look like it was $38 dollars total. The default booking was 2 people and it said $38 on the date and time we picked. On the payment screen, it was $38 a person. We had already made the plans though, so we went through with it. They were unable to give us the room we signed up for, after trying to reset it for about half an hour. Instead of the room we chose, Alice in Wonderland, we were given Time Machine instead. We were offered an extra half hour for free, but did not end up needing it. The puzzles itself were not challenging, they were impossible. You had to already know how to do them in order to solve them. There were few hints, and when present they were nonsensical. As the other reviews said, there was no ceiling. Frankly, I felt like I was doing an escape room in someone's garage. Instead of explaining hints over the radio, a crew member would come into our room. This broke the immersion and was honestly pretty weird. There was no story line, only vaguely themed puzzles. I would recommend this to parents with kids maybe, but if you need more challenge then I would skip. Not worth the price. I recommend Bond's escape room for a better experience for a...

I've been to quite a few escape rooms, and honestly, I misjudged this one. The pirate room - labeled as the easiest - was not at all a waste of time. The puzzles were very sophisticated and much deeper than they looked. Without spoiling anything, there were quite a few "interact with the room decor" moments that I was stumped by for a bit.

We went as a group of 3 despite the recommended larger numbers, and used nearly every minute. This is the kind of room that benefits from multiple persons, able to stand in several places and call back and forth or work on multiple puzzles at once, but still has a level of challenge.

The puzzles varied vastly in complexity and uniqueness, which really did create an experience that made the hour fly by and occupied us the entire time.

One member of our group offhandedly mentioned that it was his birthday, and the staff showed us a murder mystery dinner room they have. It seems like a good room for parties, and the varied difficulties of the escape rooms allow for multiple age ranges, so its possible to do quite a few things in one visit or over time.

It was a fantastic escape room, and we will definitely be going back...