Panic Escape Room Games — Attraction in Schaumburg Township

We're seasoned escape room aficcionados and were really excited to try a new place. 5 of us seasoned vets did the Hogwarts room with 2 newbies.

There are some major issues with accessibility, pacing, worn-out props, and artificial barriers to success that led to an unnecessarily frustrating experience. I wound up apologizing to the newbies and hoping that they'll let us show them a better experience elsewhere.

They purposely keep the lights so dim that you can't see much of anything. The GM directed us to four light up wands--three of which barely worked, and one that was completely broken--and two flashlights. There were seven of us, so already that's a red flag for poor design. They said we could use our phone flashlights, which was a) breaking the theme and b) extremely annoying when you're trying to manipulate objects, search for clues, or read out information for the rest of the team.

Some of the props and clues were cool, but there were some major missed opportunities that would have taken a fun theme and made it really sing. Flashlights should be used strategically to solve one or two clues, not as an excuse to lower your business's energy bills a bit. The wands should have been used strategically to unlock something, reveal a clue, work a magnetic puzzle--something actually creative, clever, and fitting the theme. But no. This room had no real finesse, it was pretty obviously designed by people who must have read about a lot of cool puzzles and decided to stuff them all in an escape room with no thought for how to space them, pace them, and ensure that there's enough for everyone to work on something without stepping on each others' toes, being completely overwhelmed, or bored.

The music was the Harry Potter soundtrack cranked to 11. We couldn't hear the clues we needed to hear, nor could we hear each other in other parts of the room, so it took longer for us to solve puzzles--another artificial barrier to success.

One of the biggest features of an escape room is the locks. Of course the locks in an escape room will have seen a bit of abuse. But they shouldn't be so worn that the line to line up the digits is not visible, or the tumblers are so abused that even putting in the right key doesn't work. Combined with the nonexistent light and the fact that we were somehow expected to sprout a third hand just to put in a glorified locker combination by the light of our phones, this was yet another artificial barrier to steal time.

I have never been to an escape room where the staff didn't run you through the rules, the types of locks, how to ask for hints, how to reset a directional padlock (iykyk). Our GM just opened the room and walked out.

I wouldn't have paid the extra ten bucks for unlimited hints out of the principle of the matter, and perhaps this micro transaction should have been a red flag, but we had a couple of newbies and I wanted them to have fun. The GM was consistently slow to respond and had a streak in which she gave hints for the step we had just completed instead of what we were trying to accomplish.

The escape room itself was basically a small room connected via a tiny hallway to two small offices and a broom closet. Some of the hints were behind a door to the hallway, and all 7 of us could not fit in that hallway to use the hints so some of us ended up in the first room doing nothing, which is a good sign that you're in a bad escape room. Even after the two additional offices were opened, we were all squeezing back and forth through this hallway choke point to bring clues to each other because we couldn't hear each other over the soundtrack. I think the only reason this room could be rated for 10 people is if the fire marshal doesn't know what escape rooms are and how half your time there is spent cramming as many people as possible into a 2 1/2 foot x 6 foot space.

In all, an unnecessarily frustrating experience that could have been so much better with some playtesting, fine tuning, GMs who actually care, an eye for accessibility (and fire code), and...

My significant other and I did the Cold Case: Amnesia room last weekend. This room was listed on the website with the “Novice” difficulty, and as this was my significant other’s 2nd escape room ever (failed our first one), we wanted a chill and easier run this time around.

Upon arriving, I was surprised when one of the employees told us, “Cold case? That’s one of our hardest rooms!” I explained that we booked the room because it said “novice” on the website. The employee replied, “oh, they should really update that.”

The production of the room itself was fairly impressive and immersive to my assessment. However, our experience was dampened due to the obnoxiously loud jump-scare sounds that were clearly audible in our room, despite being intended for the “Saw”-themed room across the hallway. The sounds startled us constantly and gave us anxiety; I intentionally booked a room that I thought to be chill and without jump-scares.

There came a point in the game where the gamemaster communicated with us via typing on the screen. He saw that we were stuck on a clue. Turns out, he had to enter our room and physically hand us a crucial prop for the room that was supposed to be there, but wasn’t.

Finally, my biggest complaints were in the last 10 minutes of our room experience. It seemed that we had a change in gamemaster perhaps, because it seemed like we were no longer being monitored. We were trying to ask for another clue, and it took 2-3 whole crucial minutes of yelling out and waving our arms before finally receiving an interaction from a staff member.

I am annoyed to say that the clue we were given was not even helpful to us. The clue that was given to us was apparently for the step beyond where we actually were in the room. (Speciffically: use the pictures on top of the briefcase!) however, we didn’t even have a briefcase yet. We wasted a few more minutes searching the room again for a briefcase that we might have missed. This new gamemaster was not responsive to us or helpful, but was very quick to hand us a “we lost” sign immediately as the time hit 0.

I believe we had a good shot of actually completing this room, but were actively hindered by inadequate help from staff. Definitely a sour experience.

I wouldn’t return to this facility unless there was a really good...

My group of 7 did the conjuring room yesterday. We have done quite a few previously and were successful. The look of it was nice and well done. However, our game master were not good at all. We asked for a clue but it was not direct in terms of solving a combination. They just gave us a digit. The response time for each clue was about a minute as i watched the clock, so it seemed like the game master was not even paying attention to the progress we were making. We got pretty far as we were told. 20% left. There are a few rooms to get through. But even in the beginning, we weren't told of how many clues we were allowed. And we felt as if they were determined to scare us and give distractions more than guide us to get along. Don't want to give spoilers but we ended in the third room and ran out of time.l due to directional lock that kept getting stuck. When clues were given the text ended up, off the screen. We spent 20 minutes on written puzzle with a bad clue given. With the next puzzle set up and ready to go in the kitchen. Sadly this room did not exceed my expectations. We were hoping to get a tour like previous rooms have done to see what we didn't get to. The game master did not do this. And when we asked her about the puzzle and how we were supposed to solve it, she didn't know. She kept guessing, but it made no sense. This is a good room. Concept is a good idea. But overpriced for puzzles that have no connection with the room and a game master that is unaware of the group. Severely...