Getout Games — Attraction in Salt Lake City

We went to Getout Games two times and I'm putting both reviews here. First time- 1 1/2 stars Second time- 5 stars Okay, here are the details- FIRST TIME (in June): I've done many many escape room places all over Utah and this was the first time at Getout Games. My sisters and I were celebrating my birthday and were excited to try this together. We did the Heist room because there were 4 of us and we, mistakenly, assumed from the wording on the website that we'd have our own room (since there were 3 rooms available). This was not the case because there was a group of 8, 6, and 4 people they put the 8 in one room and crammed the rest of us together. When we asked about the other room they said they didn't have the staff to manage the room. We understand that if you want a private room you have to pay for it, but it is really annoying to be put into such a small room with 10 people because that's how many can be fit NOT because that's how many you need to solve the room. 4-5 people would be perfect for that room, but with 10 there was a lot of standing around or some people solving things that had already been solved by other people which is really frustrating. But the worst part was that some people in the other group HAD ALREADY DONE THAT ROOM BEFORE!!! It's seriously NOT fun to just watch someone know exactly what to do because they've done it before. We tried to still make it fun, but after 20 minutes we got so annoyed that we ended up just walking out the room. It wasn't worth staying and watching someone solve everything for us without trying. The game master asked us why we were leaving and we told him. To his credit he wanted to make it better and told us not to leave but to wait up front until they could figure something out. We wish the gamemaster had asked or noticed that the other group had already done it and let them do it themselves- if they want to pay to do the same thing that's their deal, but don't make the rest of us suffer. In the end the staff was super friendly and ended up giving us vouchers to come back hence the second visit. Also, I can't even say how much I liked the puzzles because I didn't really get to see or experience any fully but it looked like there were probably a few things that were cool. Oh, and kind of lame to have to use your own phone for light- invest in a few flashlights for goodness sake! One of the worst escape room experiences I've had and I only gave it 1 1/2 stars because of the awesome staff. SECOND TIME: My sisters and I signed up for the Egypt room and ended up having it to ourselves. It was a completely different experience. The decorations and props were AMAZING! You actually felt like you were in an Egyptian tomb. The puzzles were very clever and different from other rooms I've done (only 3 or 4 locks total!) but really fun. We loved that everything worked and most puzzles you were able to figure out together. 4 people was the PERFECT number for our room (with experienced escape room people). We also loved that you could be working on different puzzles at the same time- not a completely linear puzzle system as some places have. The gamemaster, Heather, was amazing and really delightful to work with. My only small complaints are the intro to the room is WAY too long and the getting out of the room after the mystery was solved was clever, but could be a lot better with a last puzzle instead of just spoken instructions. Other than that we had a great time and 5 stars all the way! Because of our second experience I will definitely try one of the other rooms, but we will come on a Tuesday or Wednesday when there is less likelihood of being shoved into a crowded room...

I can't really give a full five stars because I've just been to so many better escape rooms, and this is in the bottom 25%. This is not to say it's not an enjoyable experience - it's just could have been so much better. Hopefully the crew there can take some constructive criticism because I think there's a lot of good elements they're working with.

My group was specifically in the Egyptian Tomb. Right off the back I love the concept. However, a lot of the props and the room itself was suffering from wear and tear. This is to be expected but it impacted our game. Some examples are the lights with the batteries just keep falling out – a little duct tape and you’re fine, but it got annoying the amount of time we were wasting putting the batteries back in every time we wanted to move a light around. Also missing or damaged elements that were FUNDEMENTAL to solving clues were missing ( a missing face on a statue is pretty important, just like x marks the spot). Game Master was nice and walked us through these issues, but these really should be checked prior to the game start.

That leads to Game Master help. No problem when we ask for clues, but our GM was a little too helpful when we didn’t need it. It might have been compensating since there were so many issue that were slowing us down , but prompts were given without being asked at some points and it’s frustrating when you know you would have figured it out without help.

That leads to following in character. Our GM was nice enough and funny – but we were trying to stick with the theme and it was disappointing they didn’t want to stick with it either. Also, there has to be a more thematic way to let you know you’ve done something right over the clap track that we got. The theme could have been great if little additional elements like that could have been added.

Theme is important because if your elements are not all there you can still have an immersive experience. Clearly the team here has spent a lot of design effort on the rooms - and the experience should reflect that! I've been to escape rooms that were nothing more than an office room with superb elements and a lot of thought put into the puzzles- they get by without all the detailed theming because they have just incredible puzzle design creativity. This escape room is pretty weak in puzzle creativity, but could/should make up for it in theme.

Finally, I’m all for decoding – but there is a limit and this room felt like a decoding adventure more than puzzle solving. Point in fact we could have decoded the room WITHOUT anything supplied. That in of itself isn’t a problem, but the amount of decoding I thought was tedious. Glad a pen and paper were provided- but it felt like 50% of the time was spent just decoding (not obtaining the key, but just decoding letter by letter) which is kind of boring. After the 3rd sentence to decode I was bored.

Glad we only had 4 people; I can’t see how there is enough elements there for 10 people to work together on it.

Overall we had fun, everyone was nice, and the room wasn’t terrible. It just really could have been better and I think with a little work it could be...

Poor experience. Booked, got an email saying room wasn't confirmed until there was 4 people (not the problem), but then never got a confirmation email or anything stating there were enough people, just got a waiver request email and another stating details already on the site. I called and the rep seemed to misunderstand or forget half of what I was saying, explained things I didn't ask about, and got upset when I tried to get her back on track. Then while making a point about something else just inadvertently states that there's 18 people for it (hmm, the site says min/max 4 – 10) and that it's a "public" game (?!) I honestly don't care if it's a "public" game with lots of people, but that's not what was stated during booking. So, several things now not making sense, and the rep getting upset at me trying to correct the record. Really disconcerting. Thankfully she let us cancel. Note to business owners: Customers can't read your minds. We don't know all of your inner workings when doing business with you. Sometimes we have to ask a question, and we just need a direct answer to move forward.

UPDATE to response: I got no email reply to the problems I emailed them about, just a phone message asking to talk. I already explained the problems. I don't need a phone call. Just fix the problems, stop dodging them and then trying to smooth it all over through phone and review reply. Guess what? ALL Confirmation emails can be automated! Weird right?! Regardless, we still got no notification that the room was ready. Understand what that means?! We have to call so we don't have to drive down and deal with downtown parking or traffic just to find out there's not enough people. Can you see how it is from your customer's perspective?! Maybe that's the problem, they just can't imagine it. Regardless, the site isn't clear on player count: it says "two rooms designed to hold up to 10 people each", but does that mean there's two identical rooms, or each room needs 4 people minimum, or...? It's not clear. That still requires a phone call! Really...