Escape The Room Woodlands — Attraction in The Woodlands

Having just got out of Clock Tower, I can safely say that I don't recommend not just the room, but the establishment as a whole.

There were myriad issues with the entire experience. Firstly, no one was there to greet us when we entered. Now I understand that there's stuff that needs to be done, but it's just good customer service for someone to greet guests as they enter. They know when the experience is about to start, maybe have someone up there ten minutes beforehand to build some rapport with the guests. It would enhance service, as no matter what the actual experience with the room is, there's at least good service to fall back on in case the people don't win.

Secondly, parts of the room are either not functional, or are so esoteric that you couldn't solve the puzzle yourself unless you could see the future. The predominant example is two buttons in the first room. One button adds 20 minutes, the other removes 9 minutes. How do you solve this puzzle? You hit the buttons until the word shows up. Yep, that's it. There is no "time" that the room leads you to try on the buttons. You just hit them until it works, as stated by our guide. "Hit them till it works " verbatim. I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but hitting buttons at random doesn't constitute a puzzle. Or a riddle. Or even a tongue twister. It's bad design through and through.

The other thing is the malfunctioning grandfather clock in the second room. We evened the scales and inserted the mechanism but nothing happened. Cut to ten minutes later when we asked what we were missing, where they tell us to solve the puzzle we ALREADY solved had to be done. They had to remote it for us since it didn't work when we did it. Half the screen in the second room was also displaying an error message, just for good measure.

Thirdly, the Cluemaster we had in our room was clearly not cut out for this. Aside from the cold intro, she also gave us "hints" that ranged from unhelpful to outright rude. "You're overthinking this" Not helpful. "We can't walk you through step by step" I never NEEDED anyone to walk me through step by step, I need someone to tell me that this ridiculous "puzzle" did or did not work. There was also little to no physical feedback in the room when a puzzle has been completed or solved. She also didn't ask us at the end of the game if we had a good time if we wanted to get our picture taken, or if we had anything from the game in our pockets. Just a sign on the wall behind the support pillar saying they'll charge you 20 dollars if you walk out of their room. 20 dollars to replace a 2 dollar prop hourglass. (We didn't walk out with anything, but still deserves mentioning)

Lastly, we brought these issues to the manager in charge, Diedra. Though she was seemingly outwardly attentive, I can't help but think that she was just telling us what we wanted to hear. Remains to be seen if they'll improve, since fixing the problem is what matters, not empty words. Not to mention that when I was bringing up these concerns she kept interrupting me to explain that "it's an old game" or "parts need to be replaced." We also didn't need to know that there have been several other issues with our same cluemaster, as if she was the one to blame for the entire bad experience, because it's certainly not her fault if the game doesn't work on its own.

Do not come here, do not give them money. Give your money to The Escape Game in Katy or in the Galleria. Or give it to Armadillo. Both are better experiences far and away. My boyfriend and I are escape room aficionados and have done easily over a dozen rooms in Houston. This one is easily the worst by a longshot. It's not hard because the puzzles are challenging and rewarding. It's hard because it's broken and the cluemaster is...

I was super mad yesterday when writing the review because I felt like I just got absolutely ripped off. Escape rooms are fun, and challenging and they're supposed to be because of wit, problem solving, and team work. The clues were a little... Lazy? I'm not sure if that's the right word. We were supposed to receive a hint after the first 10 minutes and then the rest of the hints are up to you. The whole computer was not working so our screen was showing the Google calendar for the first 15 minutes. The hint we got a laminated piece of paper "reflective" so you have to use a mirror. I personally love harder escape rooms. But you can't make up names for things and have people understand. Laminated paper is not reflective paper. Then when we got the code the lady came back on the intercom to say "oh you gotta push it a little harder then it'll work". One of the hints involves the map. The original clue said do we see something strange. The whole thing has cuts and tears all over it. So no we don't. Another clue says a red dot is on the map. There was no red dot, then the lady comes in on the intercom yet again to say "it's a bullet hole" it's also not that it was one of the tears and up to you to figure out which one. We got to a tnt portion and I hooked it up, and the tnt wouldn't detonate and we spent over 15 minutes of our hour after we fully connected it, then the employee told me I have to connect the metal parts, which we DEFINITELY did 2 or 3 times in the 15 minutes and tried it all kinds of ways, then ran out of time trying to figure out the tnt.

The escape room definitely is very ticky tacky. The hints are not good. Definitely not for kids. And the props are under prepared. If you want a reflective paper just but a reflective sticker on the back, if you want a bullet hole it's Texas have someone shoot the thing, don't just use your finger nail on a map and say "that's a bullet hole"

Don't waste your money, as there are really good escape rooms in the area. This one felt like a great value experience

Original: [Not all the props work then they blame you for not doing them right. Literally so ticky tacky and super sensitive sensors, and hints that they have to correct over the intercom. Worst escape room...

Terrible experience. For MANY reasons.

This place is impossible to find. It is hidden in a back corner of the woodlands mall and took us forever just to find where we were supposed to go

When we arrived no one came out to greet us. After we awkwardly waited, someone came out and told us to scan the waiver and that another group would be joining us. Keep in mind this was around 1:35 and our booking was for 1:30.

The other 2 people in our room that were joining us arrived around 1:40 and were told since they were late, our time already started. I spoke up and said we had been there and were ready to go so why would our time be taken away? Luckily they did let us have the full hour, but the fact that it was even a question was ridiculous.

We got into the theater room and had the story explained to us. The new worker that was our gamemaster (different than the one that greeted us) gave us the run down on the room. Y'all. She spoke so quietly and did not seem to care at ALL if we heard or understood any of what she was telling us. She did not want to be there at all. She never asked if we had done escape rooms before or explained how to open locks like most escape rooms do.

10 minutes into the room we were stuck, and it didn't occur to the gamemaster once to tell us that MULTIPLE puzzles in the room were not reset correctly. We had to practically beg for a clue. Throughout the room, we would solve puzzles but would never know that we did. It is not obvious at all when you have succeeded at a task. And once again the gamemaster did nothing to point us in the right direction resulting is SEVERAL minutes of our experience wasted looking around for things when we already solved something. This happened at least 3 times.

We did end up making it out, no thanks to our gamemaster, but the overall experience was very unpleasant. The staff does not care if you have a good experience or not. Please take your money to Armadillo Escape Room in Old Town Spring or Katy. They are amazing and will give you better service than this place. Don't waste your time...