Escapology Escape Rooms — Attraction in Round Rock

I have probably done close to 30 escape rooms over the last few years and this was probably my worst experience. This was my first time at escapology, so did not really know what to expect, but full experience is below.

We showed up right when the game was supposed to start and were greeted by a really nice lady, who told us to quickly fill out the waiver so we could get started. As we were filling it out, a younger gentleman came out from the back and told us some time would be knocked off of our room since we showed up a couple of minutes late, which was understandable.

The guy led us to the room and they started playing the intro video, etc. The puzzles in the rooms are very sequential, so you can't really start on the next puzzle until you've completed the last one. The problem started when one of the first few puzzles did not work properly. I tried for ~5 minutes to get it to work and it would not open what needed to be opened. Not knowing that, I moved over to help my partner, who was working on a different puzzle. We probably spent 10-15 minutes messing around with other stuff, only for the guy managing the room to give us multiple hints that did not do anything because the original puzzle that was supposed to be completed, did not work. Ultimately he realized that and sent in his co-worker (lady at the front desk) to fix it, and she had the same issue making the switches work, until ultimately she got it to work and left our room. She asked the gentleman to add some time back to the game, but he added maybe 3-5 minutes back when in reality this probably wasted 10+ minutes of game time. As other people have stated, the rooms are pretty difficult and not necessarily the most intuitive, so the rest was tough and not sure we would have gotten out had we even had the extra time, but the first mishap definitely killed the positive energy and we ended up not getting out. The part that really rubbed me the wrong way was when the gamemaster guy came in the room and was vaguely explaining how we would have gotten out. I asked him specifically for one of the puzzles if he could do it for me so I could see, and he said "the puzzles don't work after the timer is off" and proceeded to explain it again, to which I said that is exactly what I did. He then did the puzzle after telling me he couldn't and opened some door with the same movement I did (door didn't open for me) and says "obviously not" with a bit of an attitude. My girlfriend and I looked at each other in shock and laughing thinking "did he actually just say that". He then kept talking explaining how to get out and honestly both of us just checked out at this point and wanted to leave.

Walked out the door and will not be back.

To sum it up, some major things in the room did not work properly and the staff was rude / condescending.

EDIT: Under Pressure @ 8:10 PM on Tuesday 11/15. I did not book the room, my girlfriend did. Filled out the waiver with my name, so should be in the...

EDIT: The owner responded to our email with very scathing remarks about our inability to solve the room. Lol that should tell you about the quality of people running this business. They DO NOT like it if you leave them bad reviews and will make personal and snide remarks about your "inability". Calm down, getting a 1 star is not the end of the world and if you are aiming for 5 stars then please be more humble and courteous to your customers giving you feedback. This is one tiny review in a glorious sea of 1000 reviews anyway and nobody cares about it except us and the people we'd be getting and maybe you guys? Maybe?

We went for the The Budapest Express experience and had the worst time. We reached at 7:05 for our 7:10 game and at this point it was being reset so we filled out waivers and use the restrooms/lockers. When we entered the room, and the actual game began, we noticed that the time had shrunk to 50 minutes. Our gamemaster DID NOT inform us that 10 minutes would be taken out, which threw us way off. On arguing that we weren’t informed that our time would be reduced, we were told that we didn’t arrive 15 minutes early and hence they penalized us, apparently they do it all the time when they are fully booked (mind you this was NOT communicated to us while we were getting instructions for the game). They also told us the videos they show initially before the game are long so we got lesser time.

The intercom to communicate with the Gamemaster was also not entirely reliable. At first we were told that we were the ones who “froze” the communication due to constantly pressing the button, but even later on whenever we would hit the intercom button, we would only hear the Gamemaster’s response after atleast a 2-3 minute delay.

There was an escape lock in the end, which would lead us out of the room perhaps? We were trying to break the code but were not successful (we learnt later that our combinations were wrong). However, they failed to even inform us in the beginning that this lock we were trying to decode needs to be reset using a particular button between each try. This was announced over the intercom when we had only a few seconds left. When I spoke about this to the employee in charge, she only told us, “But you had the wrong combination anyway”.

It was probably the worst Escape Room experience we ever had. We brought up our arguments with the employee but were only told that they would let the owners know. We were given a coupon for our next purchase but I doubt we’ll use it. Do not want to be cheated by not being given complete information before the play.

I would recommend that you either not book with them when they are fully booked, as chances are they could be rough and ready or try out some rooms in Escape Hour Austin when they treat their customers better.

This has been the most disappointing experience, and we’ve done over 13 escape...

We went here last weekend and played the Budapest Express room. This was our third time doing an escape room together but our first time at Escapology Round Rock. Its my personal 4th time doing an escape room.

While the experience was "adequate" I think I would more describe it as mediocre. I LOVE escape rooms but there were a few things here that just dampened the experience.

First: The staff came across unfriendly and arrogant. We arrived 10 min before our start time and and right before we walked in we received a very rude phonecall from the staff asking us "WHERE ARE YOU?" The tone of the staff member was off putting to start off our time here.

Second: The game master instructions are too fast. She'd be better suited as an auctioneer not necessarily providing the rules for a fun escape room experience. AND the game master doesn't just watch your game but several games at once. There is no fun banter with the game master as they communicate through text. My advice is be fun and funny (get into it for the sake of your customers experience) and have one game master per game- It is so much more fun and interactive that way.

Now this is just my personal preference but get rid of the timer and the hint penalties- Thats just me but it seemed to take some of the fun out of it and since the majority of your customers are there for a unique experience and not a competition, I'd keep it light. It really did take away some of the fun. Let us ask the game master who should be able to talk immediately back to us how much time is left!

Also the contraptions and locks were finicky! We wasted a lot of time just trying to get locks to work. We'd work on a lock for 2-5 min with the same code just trying to get them working until we finally opened them. it was clear the locks need to be replaced. . It was frustrating. and ONCE AGAIN a live game master that is assigned only to your game would have been able to help with this and would be in tune to the contraption issues a game room is having. It was out first "loss" at an escape room. We were one step away from beating it- but that's not the reason for my 3 star review. The over all experience just needs some tweaking to be more fun and its a shame because the room set up is so cool, the human aspect of the experience needs to match it.

At the end of the day I'd rather wait for the The Escape Hour to have a new room vs just trying this place out again because they do it right at the Escape Hour!

BUT if changes were made I may give them...