Escape Sooner — Attraction in Norman

Not a bad place, even if a little smaller. My issue had principally to do with the puzzles in our Area 51 themed room. While the final couple of puzzles were fun, they took only a few minutes to complete, before we cleared the room. It would have been nicer if they'd had a little more complexity to them.

On the other hand, the first several puzzles (basically everything other than the last few) were quite the opposite. Rather than following from a sequence of logical clues and notes scattered throughout the room, several (as in 4-5) of the locks/combinations/puzzles had codes/solutions that were just randomly chosen numbers from the pages and decorations around the room. Given that there aren't an enormous number of appropriate length numbers/keywords to choose from (a few dozen) due to the small size of the room, using a brute force method isn't difficult. However, it's also not especially fun. A little more thought and creativity on how to use puzzles to lead the participants to the answers would have gone a long way.

If all of the puzzles had been more like the last few, albeit with some added layers of complexity, the room would have been really fun. As it stands now, however, the room amounted to 40 min of guessing randomly at various tangentially relevant number combinations (the most egregious of these being 1950), and less than 10 min of more engaging puzzles.

I guess they were on the cheaper...

The ladies working the front desk were very nice. They rate more stars than this. My issue is with the rooms.

This was VERY low budget. Minimal props and what they had, looked like it was either from The Dollar Tree or a yard sale. Alone, this would not be an issue and would still rate 3-4 stars. The biggest issue were the clues, the lack of game master and the unimaginative puzzles. The entire game was based on locks. 3 file cabinets, a book and a box, all with locks on them.

The clues were poorly done. For instance, there was a set of 3 double digit numbers that are in bold print (using the term “bold” loosely) in a book.The code it went with was a 4 digit code that did not give a clue to what it went with.

The worst part was the lack of a game master. This was the most unforgivable part. Usually you have someone who is there if you need a clue. They can hear you and speak with you. I’ve even had one who used a walkie and it did the trick. This place gives you an IPad with pre-written clues that come every ten minutes. If you are stuck, and need a clue, you better hope you are stuck where they assume you’re stuck or it’s just too bad. At one point I had a question and called out, assuming they could hear you. Nope.

Until they improve, I would not recommend this place. Baker Street Escape is much better. Go...

Easy to find, lots of parking. The worker talked very fast and didn't seem comfortable interacting with guests. No eye contact or chit chat. We were asked to follow her down a hall where she disappeared and we were left wondering where to go. The tablet was not functioning properly, so she was probably a little stressed. She brought it back and just told us to watch the tablet, which we really couldn't hear. Maybe have it connect to a speaker?

We played the Houdini Room. There didn't seem to be much of a storyline. The tablet is hard to hear and the clues aren't read aloud, you have run to the tablet to read them. It is a small screen. The clues are pretty random, you cannot ask for a clue - they just pop up on a timer. We had already figured out most of the puzzles by the time the clue was given. We solved it with about 15 minutes left and without figuring out one of the clues. Lots of combo locks. Nothing to write on to help figuring things out, like a dry erase board.

After we finished, the worker didn't offer to take a pic of our group - missed social media opportunity, I would think. All in all, we had a good time with each other, but were underwhelmed by the lack of storyline and the amount of...