Brainy Actz Escape Rooms - Tacoma — Attraction in Tacoma

UPDATE (Aug 2025): I tried reaching out to them offline to see if they were interested in receiving feedback, but they never responded.

We’ve visited Brainy Actz in Tacoma three times over the past few years, and unfortunately, this will be our last unless they make serious updates to their establishment.

The escape rooms have become extremely dated—props are falling apart, puzzles feel neglected, and nothing seems to have been refreshed in ages. To make matters worse, there was no air conditioning in our room. Instead, they placed a loud industrial fan inside with us. It was so noisy that, on two separate occasions, we couldn’t hear secret compartments opening after solving clues. We had to ask for help both times, which cost us valuable time and ruined the flow of the game.

The staff experience was equally disappointing. Our game master was new and unprepared, offering a lackluster introduction that failed to set the tone or build excitement. The overall energy felt uninspired, which only made the deteriorating environment more noticeable.

It’s frustrating to see how much Brainy Actz has gone downhill. What was once a fun and immersive experience now feels poorly maintained, underwhelming, and not worth the price. If they want returning customers, they desperately need to update their rooms, improve sound management, and properly train their staff.

Until then, we’ll be looking elsewhere for our escape room adventures.

We've been to other escape rooms in the area and had time for one more adventure prior to our vacation ending. Our usual haunt was completely booked so we decided to try Brainy Actz. Overall my impression of them is above average, however, there are areas that can be improved upon.

The good: I originally tried to book this via Groupon, but due to Groupon's timeframe for getting the information to the vendor is 48-72 hours as disclosed by a rep from Brainy Actz I chatted with so we were not able to take advantage of that deal. However, the rep... I believe his name was Jay or Jeff was able to give me the same price and set up my reservation. Kudos for working with me on this!

The Tacoma location was easy to find and parking was readily available. Upon check-in the team was friendly and informative. I really enjoyed Matthew's presentation/introduction of the room!

The room we did had 3 actual rooms to go through and that was nice as most only have one and at the most two rooms.

The just "ok": We did "The Secrets of the Master" room and was given a tablet that had a cracked screen. The condition of the room overall was very worn. We had difficulty seeing some of the numbers on both combination locks. The room was a little too dark and we all had difficulty reading some of the clues. Other escape rooms we've visited give out flashlights. The background sounds/music was crackly for lack of better term and it was very difficult to hear the person speaking. Moreover, the music volume was a little too loud.

The puzzles in this room were almost completely math based and at times irrelevant to the theme. There was also a challenge that was so far removed from the room's theme that it had all of us scratching our heads as to why that was even included in the room. I don't want to get into specifics as to give anything away, however, if someone from the company would like more specifics then they can contact me.

Lastly, we've done a number of escape rooms all across the US and most have a stamp that displays their company logo and name as most offer/participate in an escape room "passport" that people can show their escape room adventures. The staff here had never heard of this. Every escape room has props that can be used by the participants to use for after adventure photos and Brainy Actz was no different, however, theirs was pretty weak!

I would be interested in trying some of the other rooms that Brainy Actz has to offer...

Horrible. If I could give this review 0 stars I would. I had gone to a Rage Room a few years ago so I was very excited to take my husband for his birthday! It was a terrible experience. The ticket was $40 for 1 person. The pictures and videos online show a room with multiple things to break. We got there at our appointment time. We sat waiting close to 10 minutes without seeing any staff whatsoever. When someone finally came out, We were led downstairs to their "garage" which was dirty and unorganized. The rage room was a glorified a closet. And there were 12 mason jars to break. Nothing was in the room besides that. I asked the host why it was empty if it was a rage room and the pictures online show stuff in the room to break. and she said that's all they had right now, didn't offer to add anything or reduce the price.. but if I wanted to PURCHASE things to break I could. She led me over to the junk area. And showed me that I could buy a broken fax machine for $150 (but she would do it for $100), a broken tv for $50. Or a ratty suitcase for $25. Because I could tell my husband was very disappointed that there was literally nothing to break, I asked if she would do $80 for the fax machine. Her reply is no because she gets commission off what items she sells. We ended spending $25 on top of our $ 40 for the empty room to buy the suitcase which was probably less than $5 at goodwill. Just so he would have something. The helmet my husband put on smelled like Body odor and the room looked like it hadn't been swept or prepared. He broke the mason jars pretty quickly. Needless to say the cloth suitcase was not the same as breaking tvs,plates or office equipment.... It was stupid. But had we not bought the suitcase he would have been bored in 3 min. She also acted like she expected a tip when we were done. We tried to make the best of it but his birthday was ruined, it was far from a rage room and definitely not worth $40. I will not be back! There are much better rage rooms worth the money. And from reading the comment responses from Brainy Actz after the fact, they don't care whether you had a terrible experience or not, they don't care to make it right, they don't refund your money and they don't say anything other than, " we're sorry it didn't live up to your expectations" ... Sorry excuse for a business. I would strongly advise anyone to choose a different establishment for any event or...

This place sounds exciting when thinking of throwing axes. The staff that checked us in was extremely rude and incompetent. We had made a reservation, but were in tge area early so called to see if we could show up early. They told us we could, but when we showed up they told us we would have to wait. The employees clearly don't communicate. When we told the front staff that we had called, he told us he would check. He went into the basement and talked to the other employee. He came back up and said we could go down when the other employee was finished with the other guests. We waited 10 minutes and were told we could now go downstairs. The stairs looked sketchy and in need of repairs. Once we made it downstairs there were no other customers that we were told he was working with. The employee downstairs was lazy and looked like he had been sleeping or just hadn't showered. He gave us a quick rundown of safety and seemed extremely uninformed. It was extremely cold and my daughter asked if he could turn on the heater. He told us they were having problems with the heat. Turns out he was using the outlet to charge his phone. My daughter unplugged his phone and plugged in the heater. He immediately grabbed his phone and was obviously upset that she had unplugged it. You would expect there to be some instruction and coaching on how to throw the axes, but the employee wasn't even present, too busy playing with his phone in a separate room. No observation at all for a dangerous activity... The axes, knives, and metal cards were all dull and the rubber axe handles were coming apart. The wood was in such bad shape from their lack of maintenance and upkeep that most axes wouldn't even stick. Another couple showed up while we were there. The employee looked at them, failed to acknowledge them and went in another room to play on his phone. After the couple had waited for 10 minutes, I finally went back and asked the guy if he was going to help them. He seemed put out, but finally came out to help them Overall EXTREMELY BAD EXPERIENCE!! I DO NOT...