PanIQ Escape Room San Francisco — Attraction in San Francisco

UPDATE: Owner actually got in touch with us and refunded our money for the game that physically didn't work. They explained that they were facing several issues in the beginning but their team is working hard to fix things. Maybe give them a few more weeks and then try the games as their original location's games were pretty good when we played them a few years ago.

DO NOT BOOK NEW MISSION ROOMS YET - Just played the two new rooms (Medieval Madness and The Red Wire) and am so disappointed. Medieval Madness is simply not playable and The Red Wire has a code that you are allowed only one try to and if you get it wrong, the game ends, with absolutely no warning that you only get one try or that the game ends if you get it wrong. We've reached out to the owner to try to get a refund and so far, radio silence. To give context to my issue with Medieval Madness, my friends and I have played more than 30 escape rooms and we actually got out of the room, so it's not that we're sore losers, the room is really physically not playable. Every single game we have played has the rule "if something doesn't move/open fairly easily, don't force it". In Medieval Madness, we got to a puzzle that we figured out what it was, but couldn't get it to move and therefore didn't force it. We thought that solving some other puzzle might release it so it could move and we would come back to it then. We had to skip three puzzles in that room before we got back on track, and we only got back on track because one door that shouldn't have opened until we'd solved one of those puzzles was left open when the game was reset. It ends up that you're supposed to force that puzzle that we couldn't get to move. After we got out, we asked the staff what we had missed and they said, it does move, it's just really tough, so we went back to it and tried to get it to move, knowing that it wasn't wrong to put some force into it. I couldn't get it to work with my hands so I ended up standing on it. I still couldn't get it to move. My friend joined me and even with 300 pounds of us, we still couldn't get something to move. My friend ended up jumping on it, and finally got it to wiggle a bit. That's just unacceptable and goes against every opening spiel at every escape room we've ever done. It's a shame because PanIQ's prison game was our first ever escape room and is what what got us hooked on escape games. Fix the room and fix our relationship by refunding...

My wife and I came in and played all three of their rooms on a Saturday afternoon. There's easy parking close by, though that part of town definitely feels like it's more on the sketchy side.

We were greeted by Dylan, who was an awesome game master, being both friendly and attentive. I loved his energy and enthusiasm, and he gave JUST enough help and nudges. 5/5.

The rooms were entertaining. They're not Palace-level, but they also don't charge as much, which is appreciated. If you're the type of person who has played very few escape rooms and you only ever expect to play a few, then you can probably skip this place. However, if you're like myself, and you enjoy playing whatever rooms you can, I think the Medieval and Wizards rooms were both entertaining. Red Wire felt a little more last-generation, and besides the final gadget, it sported puzzles and mechanisms and themes I'd seen several times over - I would skip this one.

Side-tip: I would not recommend this location if you have more than 4 in your group. Most puzzles are quite linear, and I can only think of two instances across the three rooms where I thought to myself, "Man, I really wish we had another teammate".

If you want more analysis/reviews on the rooms specifically, then you should get the Morty app instead - this isn't the greatest platform for it.

Some gripes about the rooms: Malfunction for one of the devices in Wizards Already-broken device in Medieval that looks like it would have been a pretty cool addition to the room I didn't confirm, but it appeared to me that another puzzle was omitted in Wizards (the props were all there but they were not used), such that the storyline that they presented in the beginning no longer made sense. Potentially another broken puzzle? A couple repeated puzzles between Medieval and Wizards

Rooms, 3/5. Overall though, we had...

TL;DR: Fun but easy escape room with some technical hiccups; great for beginners but left seasoned players wanting more.

Alright, darlings, let’s set the record straight on our mystical adventure at Paniq Room’s Wizard Trials. Picture it: four fabulous queens waltzing into the lobby, where we were greeted with refreshing drinking water and an iPad for check-in—thank goodness, because our cell phones were more dead than last season’s fashion trends.

The lockers were a nice touch for storing our glamorous belongings, but since we had the room all to ourselves, we brought everything in with us. The game kicked off with an intro video, but there was another automated voice and some music trying to hog the spotlight. And get this, one of the cabinets was already unlocked—either it was being generous or someone forgot to lock it!

Once we got into the groove, the room was a blast. We sashayed through the puzzles and finished in just under 30 minutes without needing a hint—because we’re that fabulous! But to be honest, it felt easier than choosing the perfect pair of heels. For seasoned escape artists like us, it was more of a warm-up than a real challenge.

To top it off, our host snapped a cute pic of us with our phones. There was a leaderboard, but it was as neglected as yesterday’s news, so we had no clue how we ranked against other teams.

All in all, Paniq Room’s Wizard Trials was a fun time, but honey, it could use a bit more dazzle and a tougher spell to break. Three stars, with a whole lot...