Escape the Room Chicago (Oak Brook) — Attraction in Oak Brook

If I could give it no stars, I would. This was an awful experience for nearly $300. My family and I do a LOT of escape rooms together. The 6 of us have over 50 under our belt, and my brother and sister both work at Chicago area escape rooms. We know what we're talking about with these games. This was AWFUL.

We listened to the rules breakdown, and then the door closed. We turned around, looking for some kind of screen that would tell us what the story is, and got nothing. The game master didn't tell us anything about the game, we were just locked in a submarine, lol. Okay, that's fine. Rough start to the game, whatever.

We noticed right at the start that there was a drawer open. So we looked at it, realized it wasn't supposed to be like that, and shut it. We realized the puzzle had never been reset, so the answer was right there for us the whole time. Not very fun at all.

The game was so linear. There was nothing for the rest of us to do. Two of us on each puzzle, maybe three, but we had four people sitting around. I personally didn't solve a single puzzle in the entire hour we were locked in that god awful room. We managed to get to the second room with 40 minutes left, okay cool.

Then we got stuck on what I'll call the SUB puzzle. We spent 40 minutes trying to figure out what to do. We waved our arms to get a clue, got a clue, went back at it. Again, it was such a linear room style that we didn't have anything else to do. My mom and I sat down on the floor for 20 minutes while the others kept at it, still nothing happened.

So we asked for another clue for the SUB puzzle-- and got a very similar (reworded) clue for the same puzzle that we were on already (trying to avoid spoilers so I'm staying vague). So we didn't have anything else to do, the time ran out, we didn't have fun.

A very nice guy came in and started explaining the rest of the puzzles to us, it all made sense, but we were missing some key things that would have guided us in the puzzles because we didn't know the context or the story. We had no clue that we were treasure hunting and had to escape the cave our submarine was trapped in. That would have helped us with the SUB puzzle.

At one point, he showed us a puzzle that we had been so close to solving, but were missing one key clue. I'll call this clue COLOR clue. They didn't give us that COLOR clue, instead they gave us two clues for the SUB puzzle that we couldn't even solve, because we hadn't solved the Color puzzle. So those two clues that we asked for were irrelevant because they would never work without this other thing that we were missing because we hadn't gotten the COLOR puzzle. We were on step 5, and they were giving us clues for step 6, when you can't complete step 6 without step 5 being done.

the nice guy who came in at the end and was very apologetic, said they were understaffed and two different people gave the hints, not realizing which hints we needed, and what we had/hadn't solved, and explained the lack of intro by saying the guy was probably new and didn't know.

When we expressed how much money we paid for such a bad, flawed, careless experience, they said there was nothing they could do but offer us 20% off the NEXT game. As if we'd come back?

-Part of the room wasn't properly reset -Wasn't given a story introduction that was vital to the mission -was given two clues that were basically the same, for a puzzle we couldn't even solve yet -incredibly linear game. If you have a full group like we did, expect more than half to be standing around doing nothing at any one moment.

Very, very disappointed. We drove out from the city because we've run out of escape rooms within city limits, but I can assure you, with the kind of crap game experience we had, we won't be going back, and will probably be actively telling people not to come here. Paniq room is good, Fox in a box is also good, the great escape room is also good. Go to any of those three instead of wasting...

Before you read this…please note that my review is coming from a person who is super competitive and hates to leave things unresolved/unsolved…so keep that in mind as you read.

Overall it was a good experience and had some fun moments. It possessed some good team building opportunities as well. I was able to team with my co-workers and strengthen our communication as well. I also felt that all of my team members had a chance to contribute to the experience which is extremely important to me.

As for the experience…It started out really fun. My team struggled, but were able to solve many of the items needed to progress. The clues and problems had some difficulty to them, but at least you were able to “assess” your progress with real visible cues. Ex: The action impacted something tangible and the result was noticeable. Then, it went “sideways” in the next room and left my team feeling demoralized. The items needing to be solved started to become extremely random and unrealistic. I mean, did you not feel a small breeze coming out of a vent and think…let me stick my arm in and feel around…what??? really??? Heck no! Some of the tasks didn’t allow you to even ascertain if you were solving them either - since they included a series of steps needing to be completed in a specific order. In my opinion…when you “destroyed an item”. It should create a noticeable change…. It would have made sense at least to put a GREEN light on each item that changed to RED to simulate it was destroyed. Just saying….

Unfortunately, It was at this point that we reached our frustration level…We decided to ask for a lot of help, but to no avail.

(Dramatic ending)

With time running out and our success diminishing…we started handing out arsenic pills. As TAPS played in the background, we gave each hugs and told each other how much each member meant to us. As time ran out we chose our own fate versus succumbing to terror that awaited us. (Wait- I am just kidding. The young man walked in and told us time ran out. He then showed us what we missed and let us know this escape room was extremely difficult- like I am sure he tells all of his clients. We headed out and took a group photo…and headed back to the hotel in defeat. BUT at least I was with my team….

Ok…In closing, it was a fun experience, but I don’t know if it would be my JAM. The staff were nice and the facility was well kept. I would definitely recommend you try it at least once. Just make sure to ask for the difficulty level on the room…unless you want to leave feeling dumber than...

So I did the “Dig” Escape room. Before the game, the worker tells me that I am mourning my old professor’s death and am going to try to find a treasure for him right after the funeral. Fine. Story makes absolutely no sense as you move along though. They appear to have been trying to copy National Treasure. Instead of cryptic clues, we had to translate random signals. The purpose of the room was to find an Egyptian relic (in a secret room attached to a church, strange right) and then escape said Church. We needed like 6 hints to escape. I don’t actually think you can do it without hints. Kind of a bummer. Also, the timer provided no suspense whatsoever. It would have been fun if there had been warnings or something. The only timer was in the first room, and whenever we needed a clue it would disappear. Escape rooms are supposed to be suspenseful, but this one was a bore. We also wasted like 5 minutes because we heard that song that plays at the start of a disney movie and started thinking that was a clue. Haha right. Apparently all the rooms are connected, so half the time we heard music from the nearby theater room. Kinda took away from the whole treasure hunt vibe. Experience: 3/10 So now my main complaint: the price. We paid 259 dollars for a one hour escape room for 7 people. 37 a person, even for a nine year old who really didn’t understand any of the clues. I walked in there expecting something super innovative, but it was poorly thought out. The technology was subpar. Probably cost less than three dollars to run the room for an hour. Assuming this place is open ~360 days a year and the average game is half-full, this place takes in about 2.6 mil a year. But apparently they can only employ two employees?! Both the employees were really nice, but I think this place being understaffed negatively affected our experience. So bottom line, this place isn’t worth it. If you enjoy puzzles, maybe try it out. I guess. It’s not completely horrible. But still. The price is ridiculous. Just go to PuttShack or AMC instead. Much more affordable and also a better experience. IF THE OWNER IS READING THIS: PLEASE UPGRADE THE ROOM AND STORYTELLING AND LOWER THE PRICE. It would make this place so much better. Change the stories up a little bit. People are going to catch...