Escape Artists — Attraction in Orlando

I've done over 150 escape rooms in Seattle, LA, New Orleans, Houston, and the Bay Area. I actively travel and seek out the best escape rooms in the US, so this review is catered specifically to enthusiasts looking for unique, high quality rooms.

Ninja - high 3 / 5. (Rank 77 / 156, A decent room, and one of the better ones in the Orlando area)

Ninja is a half tech / half locks with some more physical puzzles that make it feel just a little different from your more traditional rooms like Baldwin Manor, and was my preferred room out of the two here. It still feels a bit too familiar though, and though it's still reasonably polished and fun with a decent mix of tech, it doesn't quite stand out for someone who has done a lot of rooms. Still, this is one of the better rooms in the area so feel free give it a shot, especially if you like feeling a bit like a ninja.

Set - The set was reasonable- you're infilitrating a japanese themed house with a bunch of reasonable asian props, and they had a bunch of custom stuff for the game.

Puzzles - Ninja had about half traditional escape room puzzles (including one lengthy logic based one), and half more physical "puzzles" that have some gimmicks attached to them. Gimmicks are good though since its more unique than most rooms, and though these puzzles were fairly simple, they did convey the ninja theme well. One of the physical "puzzles" was completely new to me which was kinda neat - i'm not sure if you'll see it elsewhere due to the logistical (and maybe slightly sketchy safety) concerns with it, but it was fun and on theme.

Story - You're trying to reveal that someone is an evil ninja or something - the story is thin and not too involved. However, even though there isn't a ton of real narrative or progression, the game did a decent job at making you feel like a ninja with the theming of the puzzles and what you actually had to do with some of the puzzles.

Baldwin Manor - high 3 / 5 (Rank 94 / 156, A decent room, but still fairly standard escape room)

Baldwin Manor is your fairly typical half tech / half locks traditional escape room that has a decent set, reasonable puzzles, and some but not a ton of story. This reminds me a lot of the older rooms in one of my favorite companies in the bay area (Omescape): reasonably polished and fun with a decent mix of tech, but nothing that particularly stood for someone who has done a billion of these. Still, this is one of the better rooms in the area so give it a shot.

Set - The set is your fairly typical spooky victorian house theme. There are a couple of unique set pieces that were cool.

Puzzles - The puzzles were your standard affair of association and logic based puzzles without many physical / mechanical puzzles.

Story - You're in a spooky manor trying to figure out how to lift a curse. GM introduction and no outro video, but the props and puzzles did try to world build a little bit. There was one particular, semi-interactive segment that added some appreciated humor to the game.

Personal Stats: Escaped in 43 minutes taking 2ish hints with 2...

I've done over 150 escape rooms, and while in Orlando for a Disney trip, a friend and I decided to check out the Orlando escape room scene. We played both the games at Escape Artists - Orlando. While they're not particularly noteworthy from an enthusiast's perspective, both games were enjoyable and would be great for beginners.

Ninja (3/5): A cute ninja-themed room with fun props and a logical progression throughout the different set environments. There wasn't much story, but there was a clear objective and good theming. The game had a good diversity of puzzles, including logic, physical, and association puzzles, involving a good amount of tech and just a couple combination locks. The puzzles were relatively simple and it was sometimes difficult to tell when a box opened after completing a task, but the puzzles were fair. Nothing stood out to me about this game as an enthusiast, but it was a fun experience nonetheless. [Completed as a pair of enthusiasts with 11 minutes remaining and a couple hints.]

Baldwin Manor (3/5): A dimly lit Victorian house set that had nice polish but evoked less of a feeling of progression than Ninja. There was a mix of combination locks and automatic tech, for which I have a minor complaint that it was often difficult to tell what opened after solving the puzzle (also an issue with Ninja and could be fixed with e.g. lighting). My bigger complaint was the lack of lighting sources, which I think should be remedied by adding some extra flashlights. Less variety in the types of puzzles in this game compared to Ninja, but slightly more bits of story that gets revealed throughout the course of the game despite the less unique cursed house theme. Unfortunately, the end felt a bit anticlimactic and the story weak overall, which I think could be improved by adding more narration such as an outro. I enjoyed this game less than Ninja, but it was still a decent room. [Completed as a pair of enthusiasts with 16:35 remaining and a couple hints.]

Escape Artists' rooms were worthwhile experiences, but not quite up to the level of Doldrick's and some of the other local companies. Though there's nothing mind blowing about the games, still check them out if you're looking for...

Ok I love escape rooms, I’ve done around 30 of them, including Baldwin Manor in the past! However I always do them with a group of super genius escape room savants who have done like 200+, so while I always have fun, I also always fall more into a support role when I play. I decided I wanted to try a solo room just to see what it would be like to rely on me and me alone, even knowing there would be no way I’d actually escape haha. I chose NINJA!

My guide, Ross, was super friendly, engaging, and helpful. He didn’t bat an eye over me being a party of 1, and was obviously pretty engaged in my game because he was great about offering up helpful clues when he noticed I was stuck, but not in a way that took away from my organic discovery and fun.

The room was super cool- the puzzles were intuitive but challenging, there were some really creative puzzles that I hadn’t seen in other rooms, and some really cool physical and/or high tech elements. It was so fun discovering and figuring out these puzzles organically (with some friendly nudges along the way) and getting to actually dictate how the room was done.

And in the end I ESCAPED!!!!!! To be fair, I got a lot of hints, and Ross also really kindly offered me a few extra minutes at the end because I was really close….but what a freaking cool experience. I had a complete blast, it was fun doing this in a different way outside of my comfort zone, and Ross really helped make it a super fun and valuable experience.

I can’t wait to come back (with the crew lmao)...