The Great Escape Room Long Island — Attraction in Town of Oyster Bay

Played the Grimm Escape here for a friend’s birthday on 1/11 at 7:30pm.

First of all, this is one of the more low effort escape game places in terms of decoration. I won’t give away the concept of the specific game but there was 0 immersion with the way the room was decorated, it honestly felt like a kids playroom. I’ve played similar concepts at other games (eg. mission escape games, the escape game) and the rooms were always decorated to make you feel like you were immersed in the story behind the game. I would say the only benefit of this room is being in Long Island if you want to stay in the area. Also, the backstory doesn’t even play on a screen, they make you read it off a piece of paper lol.

Second of all, the game host stays in the room with you because I guess they haven’t set up a system which allows the host to remotely listen and provide hints on a screen. Again kind of hinders the experience of doing this with just your friends but if she had just stayed in the corner like she did when we started it would have been fine. However, after my group asked for one hint, she didn’t STOP giving hints. She followed us around cleaning up after us and resetting the room for the next game, which again, I have NEVER experienced at other games. This also ruined the immersion and honestly was more confusing because people in the group kept rediscovering clues someone else in the group had already used. All the while, she kept leading the team to the next answer instead of letting us figure it out. At this point a few of us stopped even trying because it felt like a teacher training you on how to solve a room instead of playing a game with your friends. We have never lost a game before but I would have rather lost fair and square here without her giving us all the answers.

Honestly a waste of money. If you’re into escape games, you’re better off traveling a little to the city, Brooklyn, or NJ and paying just a little more for a way...

Would never return.

My daughters (ages 12 and 13) and my friend and her daughter (age 13) visited here New Year’s Eve expecting a great experience but received far from such. Initially the game master appeared pleasant however, from the moment we stepped into the room, one of which she remained in the entire time (who does that??), appeared overbearing, arrogant, and made multiple snide and smirky remarks to my group. I don’t want to say that my children and I were more on the receiving end of her nasty attitude because of being of the darker skin persuasion HOWEVER, when my 13 year old comments that she felt like she was being treated ruder than her friend of the same age but of a lighter shade of skin, there is ALOT to be said (and what is to be said is in no way positive Ms Emo game master).

Whatever racial undertones may or may not have been present, I quickly addressed the gamemaster about her nasty and snippity comments which, quite frankly made us all uncomfortable and ready to leave. After 15 minutes, a refund was requested and quickly rejected. We reluctantly re engaged back in the game for the sake of the kids who wanted to complete their quest. Rest assured homegirl’s attitude was checked at the door after our little conversation.

Overall, this places escape rooms only have one room to solve unlike other escape rooms who have rooms where you solve the puzzle and migrate to the next room. It also has an overbearing vibe where even when you’re not asking for clues, you’re given them as the gamemaster is in the room the entire time. Most rooms might be too complicated for young children or teens as our room required knowing the periodic table and middle -complex math questions. I simply would not recommended them! I’ve been to other escape rooms that are more interactive, more entertaining, and void of the nasty...

My group did not enjoy the virtual Grimm Escape that we did. We solved the initial 6 puzzles in less than 30 minutes which was very rewarding but spent the last 30 minutes trying to figure out the last puzzle which was incredibly obscure. After we failed to get out and had the solution explained to us, instead of going "Oh! Can't believe we missed that!" I just sat at my computer blinking at my screen. I enjoy a difficult clever puzzle but this one left a bad taste in my mouth. I can't go into more detail without giving the puzzle away.

Our game master was in training which to be fair he told us up front, but he began giving us clues before we asked for them. In addition, the clues he gave were either things we hadn't gotten to yet (giving away things and robbing us of the discovery), or they were things we had already figured out (which were of no use to us) making us feel like he wasn't following our progress closely. He also kept giving us the same clue over and over rather than trying to find a different way to describe it to help us. Even when his trainer, a more experienced game master, stepped in, she gave us a hint to something we had already solved.

Finally, the game requires you flip through a 61-page PDF on your computer screen. The reader on their web site doesn't full screen and some of the stuff is incredibly hard to see. I understand they can't just email you a PDF because then their puzzles are able to be posted publicly, but they need a better solution. Some of our group members couldn't even see important things on their screen and having to flip from the back to the front became...