The Immersium — Attraction in Reno

This was my 78th Escape Room (full disclosure on experience) and it was probably one of the most fun games I've played to date. I tend to enjoy immersion and story over challenging or difficult puzzles, so take that into consideration as you read on.

If you are looking for a super difficult, pro-puzzler room with complex Meta puzzles requiring massive brain power to solve and you play escape rooms to prove your superior intellect, this isn't that type of game.

But if you play Escape Rooms to be swept off into an alternate reality to be the hero of a story and work with your friends to solve puzzles and tasks to accomplish an heroic goal as a team (like I do), THIS is a great room! We drove about an hour from South Lake Tahoe to play this game and it was totally worth it.

The set is really cool and if you haven't looked at the pictures (this is not really a spoiler), you are playing on an ACTUAL constructed pirate ship (not a former dentist's office dressed up to look like a ships cabin). You actually get to walk around the deck and explore the ship that has sails and ropes and barrels and fish traps and all the things you would expect to see on a pirate ship. If you look overboard you can see the mists of the sea swirling around you. If you are crafty enough you can make your way into the captain’s cabin and continue the adventure.

The set alone makes this game a great Escape Room to play for both newbies and experienced players. I had so much fun walking around the ship and using all of the items you might find on such a vessel to help me solve puzzles and tasks to achieve my goal.

The puzzles were all theme appropriate and tech appropriate (no laser beams or phones or anything like that – everything made sense for the setting and time period). Technology was well utilized so as to not be obvious but still gave you the affects you need to immerse yourself in the adventure.

While their hint system is a little less immersive (I think they are working on this… it’s hard to provide detailed information from the outside without breaking the immersion a bit), their feedback when you complete a task or solve a puzzle is excellent and spot on with the theme. They even use theme appropriate ways of letting you know how much time has expired instead of having a digital countdown clock on a pirate ship (this was really great). Providing feedback and time updates in this manner was really great for maintaining the immersion.

If you are visiting Reno on vacation and have kids, this is a GREAT room to come visit with your family. It is a privately booked room so you won’t play with strangers and you will have the ship all to yourself. Even younger kids who might not understand some of the more difficult puzzles can definitely get involved in this one with various tasks and activities and they will have a blast running around and exploring the ship and searching for clues (What kid wouldn’t love to play on a pirate ship? Myself included.)

In my opinion this game is not meant to put you through the wringer like some escape rooms do, it was designed to maximize your fun and adventure and I think they have accomplished this goal at The Immersium.

And don’t worry, if you don’t complete your adventure in the time provided, they won’t make you walk the plank…. or will they…?...

I was thrilled to find that this escape room was on the path of my family road trip to California. I found Commandeered at The Immersium as currently the highest recommended room on an escape room enthusiast board focusing on escape rooms in Reno. I have attempted 80+ escape rooms, and try to hit up a few of the best in an area every time I travel away from home.

My party was 4 adults in our 30s with our 4 young kids (7, 5, 5, & 2). I contacted the owner in advance of our trip to make sure including our kids in the room was alright and he said it was.

Set - this was incredible, even better than their pictures and video show. The entire game play from start to finish is played on a custom-built ship that takes up much of the space in a 1500 sq ft room. Quality is a major focus for this company, and it shows in the effort and thought they put in to make this whole set amazing and detailed. No screens in the room to keep track of time, instead audio indicators are given every 10 minutes and each minute of the final 5 minutes.

Puzzles - The puzzles, locks, clues, & audio were period appropriate (Locks and boxes were mostly antique-looking). Nothing stood out as an obvious modern distraction. Puzzles were logical and creative. One of my favorite elements of their puzzles was the progression feedback. When you do something right that moves your forward, you get instant auditory feedback, so you know that you're on the right track.

Gamemaster - Jenna was excellent from start to finish. She was very pleasant, explained the rules clearly, set the stage for our goal, all the kids loved her, and when we needed a hint she was very quick to respond with an appropriate nudge. Clues are distributed with the gamemaster entering the room with an appropriate nudge/reminder/hint. We fortunately finished with a good amount of time left so we had a chance to talk with Jenna and the ownership team. They are very warm people that have a clear passion for escape rooms, and for doing them well.

Overall - The ownership team clearly value offering a most excellent experience over the typical corporate models that just want maximum throughput. The price is reflected in this being slightly above average, but it is certainly reasonable for the premium experience offered. I'd absolutely recommend those visiting or passing through Reno with even a hint of interest in escape rooms to try The Immersium; for ER enthusiasts passing through Reno, this...

This place, hands down, has the best escape room experience in Nevada. Probably all of Western America. The Immersium fully lives up to its name, it's the only escape room experience where I actually felt immersed. When I first heard about the concept of escape rooms years ago, I developed a lot of expectations that no rooms have been able to deliver on. Some came close, offering good experiences and fun puzzles, but it wasn't what I imagined up with childlike wonder all that time ago. I wanted to feel like I was actually in the settings the rooms had advertised, but everything seemed to fall short. I began to accept that my expectations were far too outlandish and that I'd never get to physically be on a pirate ship during an escape room, or anything of the sort. But then, my group and I found The Immersium. Someone actually did it. Someone else had the same imagination and passion I felt, and created an escape room that fully realized it's theme and setting, having everything I could want out of it. I can't go into detail because of obvious spoilers, but you are on the genuine deck of an old time ship, with pretty much everything you'd think an old time ship should be able to do. It was absolutely amazing. Everything just worked, and there was never a dull moment. You can feel the owner's passion and excitement from the moment you start speaking with them. My group was the last of the night, and they stayed and chatted with us for over an hour. The Immersium pirate ship escape room was absolutely worth every penny we spent on it, and with the prospect of a space station themed escape room in the works, I can't wait to go back and throw more money at them. 10 outta 10, would...