Escape the Maddness — Attraction in Union Gap

Having done 40 escapes, I was excited to do my first Egyptian-themed room. While I wasn't expecting anything fancy, I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderfully-themed lobby full of games and other curiosities, including a secret door. This definitely set the bar high for what would hopefully be a well-designed, immersive experience. And hopefully, given the 75-minute drive to get there.

The decor continued into the escape room, which again was highly themed. Unfortunately the experience didn't get a whole lot better, and the reason for the two stars rests solely on the room's decor. Our game master, nice as she was, ultimately left our experience severely lacking, for several reasons.

First, being a group of three in a room designed (and charging for) 4+ persons, we specifically requested -- twice -- that she keep us updated if she felt we weren't at the pace we needed to be at. This didn't happen, other than a note that we likely wanted to finish the first room within a particular number of minutes.

Second, I wish multi-room escapes had a clock in at least two of the rooms. There were also no warnings or alerts of time left, nor a beep when time did run out. In fact, the whole system of hints is rather basic, which is a shame considering how well-themed this place is. I wish hints could have been given over an intercom or at least slipped under a door. To have to ring a cow bell and wait for the game master to come in, analyze where we're at, and then give clues, wastes time. And on that note, the game master has no way of prior knowing where we're at in the game, so she needed to walk in and ask us questions about what we've done -- again wasting time.

Third, the game master kept walking in and out of the game through various entrances/exits, which was very distracting and completely ruined the immersion of the game. On top of that, she chose to clean behind us, which meant when we went back to retrieve clues or pencils from previous rooms, they were no longer there. I know we can't help it if she has to come in to give clues, but they should not be just casually strolling through the game or tidying up for the next party. This was our biggest pet peeve, and it's a huge escape room no-no.

Fourth (POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILERS THIS PARAGRAPH), the game master said there were 3 rooms in our game. While I could see how they consider it 3, all of us ultimately felt there were actually 4, as room 2 had a "room within a room" that we all thought was the third room, as it needed a combination of physical and mental tasks to open the door. Once we got in and solved the puzzle, we thought we had successfully escaped. Nope, there was still another room behind that with plenty of puzzles. Had this been more clear, we could have allocated our time better. On top of that, both exits to these rooms had the same type of lock, which we were told about at the beginning.

As for the game/puzzles themselves, they were well-thought out and designed. Aside from a few, I wouldn't say they were especially challenging, but having fewer than the necessary number of players, we don't fault the business for that. We knew going in we would have a harder challenge, albeit the requested hints would have been nice.

However, ETM may want to consider giving some props a few updates. Some locks needed an extra shove to open; one prop had pieces that the game master said were broken, but we would have not had a way of knowing that if she hadn't been in the room with us. Just take them out of the game if that's the case.

In sum, no, we did not escape, and it was due to a variety of reasons, some within our control, others not. Had we simply lost despite our best efforts, I would've had a terrific time. But due to the game master's presence throughout the game, the ineffectiveness of getting hints and clues, and the cleaning up while we were still playing, this unfortunately cost us time and immersion. If ETM would be willing to discount or comp a future trip, I'd consider giving them a try again, as there is a lot of...

To my understanding, there is only 1 lady running all of the scenarios. So, only 1 can be run at s time, hence why the site says book 2 weeks out. I called and was able to get in the same day. There is a life-size chess board outside while you wait. The lobby area, which was locked, had a bunch of games that we saw when the doors were opened so we could pay. The scenarios are in a different building. The only issue we had with the scenarios was that a key was missing from a box that we opened, but the staff credited us the time we spent looking for it. We escaped Slaycation with 4min left. I plan to go back for the other rooms.

Recommendations to ECM to help the experience: -intercom and camera system; having to ring the bell, wait and explain where we are at takes away time. I've done rooms in Texas and Kentucky and they all had staff watch via cameras and an intercom system or a monitor for typed hints if we were too stuck and they were swift to know our next step. -replace locks that are quirky; a couple locks had too much time spent on them because the letters would slip out of alignment, so tugging didn't unlock them and caused confusion/time. -double check the rooms to ensure each item is...

The person working our event spent a lot of time whining about how no one follows directions so he's going to treat us like teenagers cause that's all he knows how to do. Complained he wasn't getting paid enough so he is going to be cleaning up as we go so he could go home too. Spent a long time telling us to not touch almost half the stuff in the room. Lots of laughing about how dumb people are and can't figure stuff out. Also, we didn't have to escape, we just had to solve the puzzle. The game master was part of the scenario and walked in and gave us a key... but hey, it was pretty much reset for the next group as we walked out.

This was for my son's 18th birthday, after having done other rooms I guess I had too high of hopes for the little...