Xcapade Newark — Attraction in Newark

By Far the Worst Escape Room I've Ever Experienced As an escape room enthusiast, I've seen a wide range, but this was, without a doubt, the most disappointing and frustrating experience I have ever had. The issues began before we even entered the room and continued until the very end.

Our experience started poorly when we arrived 10 minutes early to a facility that felt completely neglected—bare windows, dirty surfaces, and an unpleasant smell. There was no one to greet us, and when the Room Operator finally appeared, they seemed surprised we were there and told us to wait outside. When we returned at our scheduled time, the room still wasn't ready, and we were forced to wait an additional 15 minutes. This delay significantly impacted our plans for the rest of the evening. The operator's offer not to deduct their delay from our time felt less like a courtesy and more like a bare minimum expectation.

While the room's concept had potential, the execution was riddled with flaws. There was no introductory video; instead, the operator gave a rushed and underprepared verbal summary of the story. Inside, the room was excessively dark, making it nearly impossible to read the overwhelming number of documents scattered throughout. It was never clear which texts were relevant, forcing us to sift through mountains of reading for a single tiny clue. The puzzles felt illogical and forced, constantly sending us back to the same pile of documents. The story was so disjointed that we eventually had to break character and ask the operator, "What are we even supposed to do now?"—something we never have to do.

The biggest issues, however, stemmed from poor maintenance and broken mechanics. Books were torn, crucial interaction points were scratched and worn, and a key game element was a barely visible hole in a wall. On several occasions, our calls to the operator on the walkie-talkie went unanswered. At one point, we solved a puzzle correctly, but nothing happened. Only after we called for help did the operator seem to realize they had missed their cue to trigger the next step.

The most immersion-shattering moment came during the climax when the operator physically opened our door and entered the room to force open a malfunctioning door, completely destroying the illusion of the game.

We were so behind schedule from the initial delay that we couldn't stay to ask questions afterward. Honestly, this is the first time I have ever considered walking out of a room mid-game and asking for a refund. The only reason we stayed was to avoid completely ruining my wife's birthday celebration, as escape rooms are a special tradition for us.

We will never be going back. I strongly advise others...

Did the Homonculus room. Instructions say to arrive 15 minutes early and so we did that. But we were not helped until about 20 minutes after our meeting time. So we waited for almost 40 minutes.

The experience was overall disappointing and lackluster. There was a "storytelling" part of it that was supposed to be immersive but it just took away so much time and was clearly written by ChatGPT or some kind of ai because it made no sense. We could not progress into the next room until all the dialogue was over. I was low key losing my patience because the story was just so bad. We were given 2 hours to solve the escape room but we could've easily solved it in less than 30 minutes if it weren't for all the storytelling and malfunctions.

In every room we progressed to, something malfunctioned or did not trigger correctly, which was very frustrating because we had to ask for help multiple times after we solved a room, and was told to just push harder, open the door ourself or redo the puzzle. It was either the props in the room were not well maintained, or the design of the puzzle was just not very intuitive.

The recommended amount of people for this escape room was 4-10 people. We had 6 people and it was way too confined and crowded. Can't imagine more than 4 people let alone 10. Anymore than 6 of us, we would probably knock over and break so many things due to lack of space. There's also really only one puzzle in each room so some of us didn't really get to contribute due to not being able to see the puzzle.

Puzzles were also very basic but had a lot of reading as a red herring which was also annoying and a huge time sink. We basically fit shapes into a mold like toddlers but had to read through 5 page essays to do it correctly. It was just not very fulfilling.

Overall, do not recommend. I didn't come to an escape room to read and listen to a fan fiction written by Al, or to test your faulty equipment. I came here to solve puzzles...

We played the room “Alone”, and we did not have a good time.

To give some context, I’ve done over 50 rooms, and have enjoyed most of them (even some that are less enjoyed by others). This is one of the worst experiences I’ve had at an escape room, and this INCLUDES the gen 1 escape rooms where it was basically disassembling IKEA furniture.

This place charges the same price as other premium escape rooms, without the “premium” benefits that other locations provide.

Main gripes: Malfunctioning equipment. A single employee who was clearly tending to another group simultaneously (he was dressed up in some weird costume when he was repairing our equipment). We were at times just completely without assistance because no one was answering the walkie talkie.

I think whoever created the room initially definitely put some love into it, and it has potential, but it has not been maintained and it is not being managed well. Selling an experience like this is downright DISRESPECTFUL.

Save your money and go to… well, literally...