Escapology Escape Rooms McKinney — Attraction in McKinney

We have been to multiple escape rooms and this was one of the poorest experiences we’ve had. We won’t return to this location. From the amount of different rooms we’ve been to, I can definitely say the game master is one of the biggest determinants of the customer experience, from the beginning it didn’t go well. Starting at the front desk questions were answered hesitantly. We asked about a riddle on the wall in the bathroom-lots of hesitation, no personality and no answer… I believe she legitimately said that bathroom doesn’t work well so we don’t go in there much. 😳 Upon entering the actual escape room (Under Pressure) we got a quick talk, but any questions we asked, had really vague answers. We asked if hints were unlimited and she said they would “go at our pace,” whatever that means…. But then the video started and it said beyond 3 hints, we would get a two minute penalty each. We were busy trying to get out, not watching the clock, so if that is what was happening, that’s absolutely ridiculous when we’re paying almost $300 to be there for our group. All the other escape rooms we’ve been to, have done away with that in recent years. Hints were very upsetting. We would ask for a hint and just get a random math problem, but it wouldn’t tell us where to look for those numbers or how to find anything ourselves. We weren’t asking for it to just be given to us, so we would be back-tracking trying to figure out where the heck the hint came from. If they were paying any attention to us, they would have seen that. We finally made it to the last puzzle and we felt like we were so close to having it, but the hints we were getting at that point were just information that we already had. When she came in the room after time ran out, it genuinely seemed like she didn’t know the answer to the last puzzle. (This won’t make sense unless you know the room or work there) It was uncomfortable, and went on for several minutes of us asking questions and she couldn’t answer them. We had followed the rankings and organized the oxygen canisters according to those and then we had turned them so that arrows faced the code. And we saw the numbers that became visible in the little windows. We had tried putting that in the keypad and pushed the star key. It was the most frustrating experience. We really wanted to have that “ah-ha” moment where it made sense, but she didn’t seem to care about making that happen for us. I wish I knew her name, best I can tell you is she had short black hair...

My husband and I did three rooms here: Scooby Doo, Under Pressure, and Narc which felt like a good sampling of their rooms. We've done 60+ rooms so we have seen our share of escape rooms. Scooby Doo was our favorite. It was fun, designed well and had a good flow. It'd be fun with kids too. We got out in 44 minutes. The gamemaster was attentive and gave a couple little nudges when he saw we missed little things that were required for what we were working on. They were the perfect little hints. No real complaints for Scooby Doo!

Under Pressure wasn't as fun. First of all, the gamemaster was different and wasn't really watching our progress as they had to ask what we had done so far to give us clues. Then when they helped us it was usually to just tell us exactly how to get the answer not just a hint. There were some really clever puzzles, but also really obnoxious ones. There was one "puzzle" in particular where they gave you multiple items and most of them were red herrings and the answer made no sense. Another puzzle we asked for help and the gamemaster told us how to get the answer and there was zero chance I would ever think to do that. It made no sense. One thing was broken in the room and they just had a sticky note with handwritten information on it to make up for the broken prop, though we realized that only after finishing the room. In the room it was just made it a little more confusing. Overall it was an okay room. We got out in 46 minutes.

The last room was Narc and was supposedly their hardest room. We got out with only 2 minutes left, but that was mostly because they again had puzzles with annoying red herrings and 3-4 steps that were not intuitive. Once we solved a puzzle early and when we couldn't see where to use it we asked for help, and the gamemaster spelled out exactly how to do a different puzzle including the first number as an example. We needed to solve that to use the answer we had, but it was annoying again to just receive an answer completely spelled out when we didn't really ask for it. They used some technology at the end that we figured out, but I could see not everyone knowing how to work it since it didn't have instructions and wasn't intuitive. Overall it was a more frustrating room.

If we had stopped at just the Scooby Doo room I would say this place was great. The other two rooms showed some real flaws in their game design and lack of quality in their gamemasters such that I'm not sure I'd want to do any more of...

I bought the celebration package, which included 8 people, the escape room, a room to rent after for cake, and also they were to provide plates, utensils, and water. We also were to get a group photo. Also the birthday guest was to also get a t-shirt and our guests get bracelets.

Everyone was very nice we interacted with but the experience of this package was very disorganized...

The escape room experience itself was very fun!! It was our first and we were so close to solving it for it being one of the hardest ones. I really enjoyed that experience.

When we finished, the guy provided us bracelets. I politely informed him that we got the birthday/celebration package and my husband should be getting a t-shirt. He told him to go ahead and pick one off the rack. Okay cool... I then told him that we were suppose to get a group picture. Well, I mean we did but he took the picture with our own phones... I figured we would've gotten a printed picture...

After that, I mentioned that the cake was in the fridge. He grabbed the cake and gave it to me and stated, "I would offer utensils and plates but I don't have access to them." ....okay... but I told him to not worry about it as I did bring my own because I forgot they offered them.

I mentioned where we should go for the cake. He then told me, "well you can eat in our lobby or we can go in the party room. I need to see if it's occupied though because if it is, we wouldn't be able to use it."

I was starting to get frustrated. I PAID for these services. I booked this event at least a month in advance. The room should be mine, no matter what. Luckily, no one was in the room although it was kind of weird as the room was also connected to their sister/shared location Urban Air so the theme changed and also you can see into the urban air playground.

I also had to ask for the water, which apparently they didn't have enough on their side so they had to go to Urban Air to get enough water bottles.

Again, everyone was very nice and the escape room experience was great. But I'm very disappointed in the organization of this...