Escape Room Cleveland — Attraction in North Olmsted

I encourage anyone to STEER CLEAR. It's advertised as "the best escape rooms in Cleveland" and while I haven't tried any of the other yet, if it has a claim to be the best I truly wouldn't want to see the others. Since when did "meticulous attention to detail" translate into broken items (not just one or two, but most of them) and locks that will not open? Since when did "charismatic staff that set the tone" translate into apathetic staff who could not care if you were there or not and had no actual want to help you when you were stuck on something that was their fault?

We knew the place would be a problem when, in the middle of this "immersive experience" there's a portable AC unit on the floor near the middle of the room that sticks out like a sore thumb and was in the way. They did ask if we wanted that on though, so props to them. Room was still hot since they only set the AC to 73.

You start by watching a 20-inch monitor (and for our group of 5 we had to get really close to even see it) and it gives you directions about not touching things and what not. The "do not touch" is marked by stickers, and my god, they were all over that room. There was maybe a dozen things in the entire room we COULD touch. They also say do not touch the wires, unless its the wires you are supposed to touch (which half of them were broken but still showed the correct next answer when you put them near each other? Immersive, right?). Why do you have exposed wiring that we are not allowed to touch? Would it have been so difficult to hide that exposed wiring that's meant for your security cameras?

We had five in the room and I wish they would've advertised that it should not have more than 4 because they only let you find one singular clue at a time, so we were always stepping over each other. The room is small to say the least, and the break-off rooms are broom closets. We felt like we were useless half of the time because none of the clues are designed for more than two people.

We attempted the Mad Scientist Room and probably would have finished it if the lock was not broken to the point they had to bring in a bolt cutter immediately after we left. The room looked as though they bought all of the supplies at the Spirit Halloween End-Of-Season sale, and reminded me of an abandoned grocery store that's been transformed into a haunted house. The room was challenging, sure, but not as challenging and trying to determine if two things that look identical are different colors without being able to touch it. Even still, we had the correct combination for the lock with 25 minutes left on the clock, and the staff was (im assuming) just watching us in the control room lose our minds trying to determine new combination lock colors when it really was as simple as our first answer. They gave us 10 minutes back, so again, props to them.

Their claim is that their "Charismatic Staff that sets the tone" for the experience, and it did set a tone alright. They were rude, tried placing the blame for the lock on us and then brought in 3 different people to try to fix the lock and were completely unsuccessful. So they just begrudgingly said "ok well the next answer is..." and pointed us to the next lock and started the 10 minutes. We asked for a clue one time, and yet somehow all of our clues were used with them giving us answers to things we solved. They say "please wait 20-30 seconds for a clue" which translated into about 6 minutes. During the first clue, we were looking for coordinates and a clue popped up and all it said was "its on the __". No theming, no engagement, just a "hey stupids, it's there".

There was one singular animation in this room that spoke so Hush whisper we could not hear him over the portable AC they parked immediately next to him. This was how we lost the game, we had him repeat himself like six times and still did not hear the correct words for the...

Did this escape room back in August 2016 as my first escape room ever. I purchased a groupon and was emailing back and forth with the owner who was very helpful. My group consisted of four adults. It was incredibly difficult and there would have been no way we’d be able to figure out some of the clues. The room was mad scientist. The staff member was friendly but did not explain anything other than “do not touch” we would wave to the camera to get clues and it would take her 5 min or so to get to our room so we lost more time on the clock. We solved 3 clues and got hints on two of them. There were 7+ clues to solve. Very disappointed with the staff member and her lack of explanation.

This past summer I decided to purchase vouchers as a birthday gift. I emailed the owner to see if there were any specials. He got back to me quickly and told me I could book online or stop in. I decided to stop in thinking I could pick up an actual gift card to include with the birthday card. I recognized the girl behind the counter as the one we had last summer. I mentioned we had done the mad scientist room the year before and it was extremely difficult and she said they completely changed the room. I informed her I had spoke with the owner about a special and she told me she was unable to give it to me and asked if I wanted to talk to him (on the phone). This made me uncomfortable. I declined calling him and showed her our emails. She told me she still couldn’t do it on their system so offered me a different package that was $5-10 more. I said fine. We went through all the prompts. I told her what to write on the voucher and how to sign the names. She put indentations where they didn’t belong, did not capitalize names, puncuatio was wrong etc. (She was using the website to do everything - had I known this I would have just done this at home) She then told me she had to do two separate transactions because she rung it up wrong. So now instead of one gift voucher for four people I was going to have (2)two people vouchers. She then missed that up. I ended up with (1) two people vouchers and (2)one person vouchers. She went to laminate the paper and gave them back to me. At this point I had been here for an hour. When she gave them back one of the vouchers lamination was all messed up and she said she wasn’t able to reprint. I left and immediately emailed the owner. I was bothered that the price I was offered was not honored and all the issues I had with the girl. I was embarassed by these vouchers and how I had to gift them. I let the owner know and he apologized and offered to refund me the difference.

The only reason why I give this place 3 stars is because the owner was good to work with. The staff member should be let go. I can’t say I would...

Some of my references are vague so we don't ruin the game for others.

The staff and overall game design was fine. They seemed attentive enough during the game play. However the maintenance and setup of the room prior to starting our 60 minutes was lacking. We had two 'clues/devices' that were not in the room, but apparently should have been. Solving a puzzle to find a compartment empty and being at a dead end is a bit frustrating. We asked for clues but were not charged since the next clue/article to proceed in the game was not present.

However it did require somebody to come into the room, confirm the item was not present, and subsequently unlock the next compartment which really seemed to disrupt the game flow. We also ran into a point where a battery operated device was not charged and we were given an extra 10 minutes on the clock for the amount of time we fussed over trying to get an uncharged device to turn on.

Our final clue to get out of the game had been worn to the point that it was unreadable. So rather than escape, we just exited the room with about 5 minutes left. Had the props been in better condition, I don't think this would have been the case and we could have exited within our allotted time. However the other issues with the room compounded and by that point we were just done.

Given the issues we ran into, we probably won't be back. The rooms really need to be setup accurately and the props need to be better maintained. Again, the staff were helpful when we needed them, but the room condition is what...