Escape Space Games Tualatin — Attraction in Tualatin

Unfortunately I did not have a good experience here. I did Two to Tango with my wife. The host didn't give us any back story for the room, which is a part of the experience I enjoy. I wasn't really sure what we were doing in the room and what our goal was within the story (are we the couple? are we breaking up the couple?) We were also not given instructions on how to open various locks, which should be standard for introductions. We were also not told that we were literally locked in the room which is a safety concern. The puzzle design was not very good and didn't make a lot of sense. It lacked creativity, a driving force, and a through line. Many of the objects in the room were not used and the set design for the room was not integrated well into the puzzles. There were a handful of puzzles where a number was the solution. In a room filled with numbers, this is frustrating, difficult, and not very creative. Most of the solutions were a matter of guessing and checking. In other escape rooms I have done the puzzles are more intuitive and once you figure out what the clues are pointing to you get a very satisfying "aha" moment and know exactly how to solve it. This was sadly missing from this room. We were frustrated the whole time and especially when the final puzzle reveal was told to us by the host. When we did ask for clues, the host was unable to give them. Instead they just told us the answer to the puzzle which is incredibly frustrating. At a certain point we didn't even ask why what they told us was the answer, we just inputted it so we could get out of the room faster. I also take issue with one of the puzzle designs specifically. It completely relied upon recognizing and sorting objects of different colors. We were never asked if we are colorblind. Thankfully neither of us are, but this lack of accessibility was off putting. Moreover one of the objects was labeled with its color rather than actually being its color. Since it was only one object it came across as very strange, especially when if all the objects had been labelled then it would be accessible to those who can't distinguish colors as well. A couple of the other puzzles didn't seem very accessible and involved things like math, or required excellent eyesight. I prefer escape rooms to rely in internal clues and to be accessible to anyone regardless of their other abilities. During our gameplay we were very distracted by the loud shouting coming from the room over. It turns out that the other room is played in the hallway directly adjacent to ours and involves players communicating between rooms via said hallway. I don't know why it was scheduled during the same time as our session because even with our door closed we could hear them yelling very clearly. For all these reasons I don't think we will be back to...

In a phrase: a fun, engaging experience marred by basic, avoidable issues.

We successfully completed Cell Block as a group of two. The host was friendly, and the price was great (the best in the area). The room was well-designed, interesting, and creative, as were the puzzles, which were nicely integrated into room features (as opposed to some rooms we've done that just drown you in padlocks - boring!).

However, there were three discrete set-up mistakes, all of which were failures to reset things to original locations/conditions. (Without revealing any spoilers: one clue had notes written on it by a previous team that hadn't been erased, and two items were simply missing and had to be handed to us by our game master.) Pretty off-putting to encounter at all in an escape game, let alone thrice.

In addition, our game master was physically present and quietly watching (instead of using cameras and walkie-talkies like most places do), which was quite awkward at best, and at one point the flow of the game was interrupted because the game design meant that he had to walk us down a hallway from one room to another. Both of these issues could easily have been solved by making the game master PART of the room in an acting capacity, i.e. wearing a prison guard costume and interacting with the players, as in just about any other escape room that has a staff member inside the room (instead of just...standing there silently with a clipboard).

Overall, a well-designed room that genuinely has the potential to be an entertaining and rewarding experience but was hampered, in our case, by multiple issues in game management. Honestly, we left the place feeling pretty bummed and underwhelmed, but recognising that 1) we only did one of the rooms ESG offers and 2) it could have been a fluke (game master having a bad day, maybe), my rating at this time stands...

My partner and I did the two to tango room.

No spoiler review— Employee was less than helpful and either gave vague clues or told us how to solve the puzzle. Employee did not tell us a story to get the room going but instead told us where we needed to start and demonstrated how to use a lock. The experience was not immersive like an escape room should be. We were actually locked in the room which is very dangerous and I'm pretty sure is illegal.

Spoilers!!— The gems need to be labeled to make the game more accessible. I am not color blind and still struggled to figure out which kind of purple gem was missing.

Employee told us to add the totals on the ticket accordingly to the menu items when we first entered the room. Because of this we did not check the back of the ticket because we were told each item is used only once. He should have let us explore the room to get started instead of telling us to add the totals.

The pocket calendar is too complicated and something more creative could have been used.

We were stuck on the last code for at least twenty minutes and could not escape. Due to the complexity. When we asked for a clue employee should have told us that there were multiple steps listed on the piece of wood.

The book in the nightstand thing is completely useless, get rid of it!

Need to add lines or string on the ceiling between the stars so people can see it easily.

Stuff on top of the table is useless and so is the sink! Those are cool props you could have used to make the game better!

Take the bear picture off the wall, its a distraction and nobody likes those. Or add something to the photo and make it more immersive.

There was no ah ha moment.

Kinda bummed I drove out from Gresham because the reviews were good.

The dancing was good but it was the only thing that represented the theme of the room.

I liked the...