THE BASEMENT: A Live Escape Room Experience — Attraction in Paradise

Played “The Study” on 8/18/18. Group entered enthusiastic for the experience, couldn’t have been more disappointed. Each of us have done close to 20 escape rooms from multiple cities/states, this was the worst experience so far.

TLDR – Playing with strangers can completely ruin the experience. Don’t play this room at max capacity (10). Also questionable business practices as the room’s design isn’t conducive to 10 players or multiple groups, a strong indication that the company chooses to prioritize profit at the expense of experience.

We played “The Basement” the day prior, finished it with six people from a single group. It was one of the best escape rooms we've done. Our poor experience form “The Study” stems from a couple fundamental flaws in the implementation. They allow you to be paired with strangers and they allow far too many people to participate. An accurate and more descriptive explanation of the flaws would include spoilers so you’ll have to infer. My review is also limited to only a portion of the experience as we didn’t get the opportunity to progress beyond the first area for most of the allotted time, due to the reasons below.

We were an experienced group of 6 paired with 2 other inexperienced couples (referred to as add-ons henceforth since we had the majority) for a total of 10 players. One of the primary puzzle mechanics is isolating players and requiring them to be freed in order to progress. Most of our time was wasted, waiting for one of the isolated add-ons to fumble their way through a puzzle. This even include an instance of an isolated add-on refusing to open a door for the rest of the group, opting instead to explore and interact with the room at their leisure (one of the employees should have intervened and facilitated/forced the progression).

Most of the puzzles are linear so there isn’t a lot puzzles that can be solved simultaneously. The areas are also small, providing enough content and space for 4-6 people. Anything beyond that detracts from the experience. 10 people from a single group can become quite cumbersome. 10 people from multiple groups is unreasonable and is contrary to the room’s mechanics. Our add-ons didn’t understand the potential importance of seemingly mundane objects, even to the point of discarding clues that were required to solve a puzzle (several instances that were severe enough to warrant employee intervention to recover the experience). If you have a casual group that doesn’t mind not progressing through the experience, 10 people is workable. Otherwise, more people does not equal more fun.

This is in no way intended to bash the add-ons, inexperienced players, or players that take a more casual approach to the experience. There is no right or best way to experience an escape room. However, forcing too many people from multiple groups together in an escape room that is not designed for this type of collaboration is wrong and a bad way to experience an...

As an experienced escape room fan, I’m torn in how to rate this experience.

On one hand, the setup and story are great. You enter the room in a unique way and it sets the mood instantly. The atmosphere is perfect - low lighting, creepy props, and scary sounds. You then tear the room apart looking for clues as you try to advance. Eventually, you’ll be stuck and very frustrated not knowing what to do or how to proceed.

Once this happens, good luck! The mood quickly shifts and you become increasingly frustrated. The staff are watching your every move on camera(s) and there’s a live actor in the room with you, but neither provide ANY hints! Instead, you continue to search and try to figure out what your missing, all while you’re 45 min timer ticks down.

At the end of 45 mins, the game is over. The staff don’t tell you how you’ve done, where you were stuck, or what puzzles were left. NOTHING.

Of all the escape rooms I’ve played, this was a first! I’ve always been told SOMETHING, leaving me walking away feeling satisfied with the experience, win or lose. If you think not saying anything and offering a 20% discount to try again, is sufficient, you are sadly mistaken. What is your re-purchase rate? Less than 1% I’d bet.

Also, I need to mention that we attempted the room with only 2 people and we weren’t local. What’s the harm in helping us out and ensuring we had a good time? We won’t be back and we won’t be recommending your room to others. (Also as a note to mgmt, we were your second to last booking of the night and there was no group booked after us. What’s the harm in giving us a few more minutes to try or walk us through the solution? Most rooms do this and especially in a tourist town.)

This easily could have been a 5/5, but because of everything listed above, I can not recommend The...

Let me start by saying the theming and atmosphere of this escape room are great. In the dozen or so escape rooms I've done this is on par with the best of them in terms of theme and feel.

THEMING AND ATMOSPHERE: 5/5

Additionally, the puzzles were difficult but fair and able to be completed within the 45 minute time limit on the room. The layout of the room is engaging and requires and good amount of traversing and searching to find hints and clues.

PUZZLES AND DIFFICULTY: 5/5

However... Our group was not able to clear the room because we were unable to find a puzzle piece necessary to escape the room. Going through the room with the staff afterwards, they pointed out where the puzzle piece should have been and... it wasn't there.

I get it, during the resets between games something doesn't get placed back where it should or gets forgotten outright. I'm very understanding of the human element involved and the occasional mistakes that come with that.

What really ruined the experience for me was the staff INSISTING that we "must've dropped it somewhere" or still had it on us. The staff fumbling awkwardly after the 45 minutes unable to find the puzzle piece in front of us (while also having the audacity to try to pin the blame on us) is, unfortunately, the one memory I'll have of "The Basement".

A real shame that will keep me from coming back or recommending an otherwise fun experience.

STAFF AND...