Escape The NetherWorld — Attraction in Mountain Park

I went here yesterday. It was a nice establishment, and the staff were great, but the overall experience was a letdown.

We ran the Nosferatu room. It had a fun theme and story, but as for the problems...

First, they introduced the concept of Roles, and said that one of us was a traitor. They didn't really explain what that meant or what the traitor was supposed to be doing. To make it more confusing, my character was given information that explicitly said who the traitor was, but I didn't know what I was supposed to do with it since their purpose wasn't explained.

Most of the roles involve either "steal an item" or "figure out who is a certain role", with no explanation how. I saw someone grab an item, but the item he took was for a different role than the one I was supposed to find, so I was incorrect. Problem is, we weren't told what item we were supposed to be watching, so figuring out who the "thief" is when 3 people steal objects is a tossup. Also, some of us were so distracted trying to keep an eye out for people taking stuff that they couldn't focus on the puzzles.

Suggestion: Get rid of the roles, they don't add anything.

While the atmosphere from being in a dark spooky room and using candles to see was fun at first, it quickly became a problem because it was so difficult to see things. For example, there's a small, black lock in a corner of the room that the GM told us to look for several times before we saw it. That lock opened up a secret passage, and inside the passage was another lock which we missed completely because it was even darker in there.

Worse, at one point a key was dropped on the floor. The GM was doing his best to help us figure out what happened, but he couldn't see it either. After a while one player accidentally slipped on it, and that's how we found it. Had that not happened, we would have just been fumbling around for 30-40 minutes with a half incomplete room.

Suggestion: Turn up the lighting, or give the players brighter lights. Being unable to see objects in a puzzle room with 10 keys is problematic.

One of the final puzzles before the finale involves putting together pieces that you collected from the boxes you opened along the way, and solving a puzzle with clue sheets you'd also been collecting along the way. It was a cool idea, but there was one big problem; the dials you collect have numbers on them, and the riddle clue suggests you put them in order 1-4. It turned out the numbers were for a different step of the puzzle, and they weren't meant to be ordered based on them. After fiddling around with it for a while, the GM just sent in a notecard that told us how to position them, and walked us through the rest of the puzzle so we'd get to the finale because we were low on time. From what he told us afterward, there were no clues as to the correct order; you had to do it through trial and error.

Suggestion: Add a clue as to how the dials are meant to be placed on the board, or change the riddle to make the numbers' purpose more clear. Numbering the pegs on the pedestal or a diagram with the numbers would have helped immensely.

Lastly, our group ran with 9 players, and it was too many. When the GM was giving us hints, it took several repeats for us to hear him, and a bit more questioning for us to figure out which one of us he was talking to. Everyone was doing their own thing, so it was difficult to keep track of what had been used and what progress was being made on other puzzles. At the finale of the run, we literally couldn't fit everyone into the final area so a couple of us didn't even get to see it, myself included. I felt robbed of the payoff because I just stood in the main room while a few people finished up the run.

Suggestion: Cap the run at 4-5 players so that everyone is better involved, and so that everyone can see the ending.

Between having to be walked through the entire last puzzle and not even getting to see the final room, it bothered me enough to write this out in the hopes that they might improve the...

My group and I were extremely excited to play Alien Encounter, however we extremely disappointed by our experience. To preface, our game master was very helpful and gave us great clues, and the front desk hostess was extremely kind. We arrived 15 min early to our escape room and by the time we started our game it was 15 min late bc the staff was behind. We were progressing through our room just fine until the last 10-15 of the room. We got to one of the last puzzles of the room, 90% completed with the room, and we had a puzzle that was not working, we entered the numbers in correctly because we eventually got to the third sequence of the puzzle. However, because the puzzle was not working properly, we wasted 7-10 minutes of game time and could not finish the room because of the technical flaw of that puzzle. The escape room manager confirmed that we had completed 90% of the room and that we realistically finished the room with the additional time that was wasted on the puzzle. I have played over between 30-40 escape rooms across many states and have never had an instance where the game master or staff could not add additional time due to an issue that was due to a game flaw or staff. The manager said that they could not add additional time due to how the system is set up, I believe him, but if that is actually the case, then the owner or mgmt need to look into that bc I have never seen that in any of the over 30 games I have played, when it was a game flaw, staff at any other escape room were able to adjust our time. I asked if the last third of the game could he reset, or if we could be complimentary rescheduled to replay the game or the last 10 min of the game again at a later time due to the technical game flaw, but the manager said that there was nothing he could do. He offered me a discount, if we booked another room, however, I would need to spend more money to play another game in which I could be screwed over by a puzzle not working again and then not be able to have time added. I completely felt like I wasted my money bc of this, and though I think that the staff was truthful and limited by the policy or system currently in place, it's inexcusable that nothing could be done for us to save our experience. My party and I play all the games at a place we find and like and we're intending to come back and play all the rooms; however, unless the owner can make up for this and provide us a free replay of the alien room or a significant discount for a room, we will never be planning on coming back. I am a very popular escape room game reviewer and travel all across the country to play them, and will be leaving a negative review on Morty as well as on my social media platforms if nothing can be done to fix our...

Alien Terror has upgraded Escape the Netherworld to an entirely new level. We have always adored the escape rooms here because of the incredible set dressing and have given them a pass on less thought-provoking puzzles. Alien Terror has it all. I have never been so stressed during an escape room, haunted house, etc. Escape the Netherworld has absolutely perfected the formula for horror escape rooms. More detailed review of the location below!

𝗜𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Every room here excels at immersion, with honorable mentions of Tiki Island and Sasquatch. Netherworld taps into its rich history and unbelievable collection of stationary and animatronic props to cover every inch of every room with immersive content. No screens or walkie talkies, and they make a valiant effort at theme-appropriate locks. Rooms have enough lore to keep you interested but not so much that you become distracted from the task at hand.

𝗣𝘂𝘇𝘇𝗹𝗲𝘀 Many puzzles may fall into the "locks and boxes" trope or become repetitive. Nosferatu and Tiki Island are probably the most lacking in this area. Alien Terror stands apart as a lifeform of its own with stellar puzzles, incredibly cohesive flow, and several puzzles that invoked reactions of "No way!" and "Are you **ing serious?" They're that cool.

𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 We have always had fabulous experiences with game masters here and appreciate the flexible clues. Hint delivery is built into Haunted in a creative way - other rooms may have an omniscient GM but the great ones do make an effort to stylize their delivery so that it isn't immersion-breaking.

𝙒𝘼𝙍𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙂 While many escape room locations may tout rooms as "scary" or "horror" themed, Escape the Netherworld has achieved mastery in the art of terrifying its guests. Expect to sweat, jump, tremble, and scream, MORE than in your average scary movie or haunted house. Prepare yourself that you may enter thinking you're a bad* and leave with your...