Waco Escape Rooms — Attraction in Waco

Came here with friends for a birthday party. Honestly, the room was decent and the place was pretty clean and well put together for a local operation. Unfortunately, we entered an unlucky circumstance.

First of all, we came at the last game of the night, meaning the one or two people who were staffed were tired and rushing to get us out. We didn’t get to see the end of the room when we failed to escape because the staff admitted to it being late. I am pretty certain a model like this should allow for the customer to see the end of the room so they get to experience all aspects of the puzzle in order to have the epiphany moment so unique to the escape room experience. If it is too late for staff to be there I understand; just don’t schedule such a late game that the staff would be too tired to show the end of the game (last two steps he admitted) after the allotted hour.

The second aspect which gives this review a low ranking is the fact that a clue for our room was broken. I would say that we had a decent number of people to work on different aspects of the room, and at one point there was a clue that was supposed to give us a code. This code was not received for a while because the clue was broken; as in the audio did not play. We had mentioned this out loud and the “game master” did not notice, so we thought that the clue was a dead end or a false lead. Approximately 15 minutes later, our game master rang in asking if the clue was broken after we asked for a hint that involved said clue. She then brought us a different prop that worked (without pausing the time), and we figured out the code very quickly.

Finally, we ended our game on a clue that was supposed to be spoken through the headset to our “cluer” as they call them. Unfortunately, the title of cluer was not explicitly expressed, and so we were not aware that we weren’t looking for some lock or key that was missing. In the end, the guy who came to let us out of the room said we had the first three numbers right, but did not say what the last one was. This has me suspiciously suspecting that we had the last number right and they were not paying any attention to it or they were too distracted to correct us in any way.

I completely understand that human error occurs in these games. I used to be a game master at a completely different business in Dayton, Ohio. I feel as if more time should have been given for any errors, and definitely a pause on the timer when they had to leave their room to give us a new working clue. Lastly, we should have been given a walk through of the room. The idea of an escape room is to only play once and also experience the entirety of the room, even if you don’t escape. We will likely never see the rest of the room that we paid for because the staff wanted to clean up and go home during a time that our game was scheduled and paid for.

Next time, please adjust for the error of your staff. The goal should be for everyone to get what they paid for, have fun, and be fully immersed in the puzzle. And lastly, at the very least, show the customers who paid for the room all the steps to the end so that they get to see the genius of escape rooms, even if they...

We have completed dozens of Escape Rooms across the country, so decided to give the Waco Escape Room a try. First, we did the Saloon room. It was a cute setup, not anywhere near as interactive as other rooms we've experienced as it's basically a set of padlocks to open. We overlooked the simplicity in design, and remained excited about playing. The staff who are giving the clues are NOT paying attention at all. For the first clue, we received a clue to the task we just completed. For another clue (near the end of the experience) the staff member said the code you acquire will open the piano bench. Long story short... we had the correct code for 15 minutes, and it DOESN'T open the piano bench... it opens something else - not what was stated in the clue. The staff grossly needs to pay attention. So, after swearing I wouldn't return due to staff incompetence, my 12 year old talked me into trying again in the Dinner for Two room. Again, we do these rooms ALL over the country, so at 22 minutes in we are on the last puzzle. The meal ticket, dated 3/31 from "dinner" states "See you next week for your girlfriends birthday!" which is key information to getting out of the room. Turns out the birthday isn't anywhere near the time stated on the meal ticket. It makes NO sense. We asked for a clue, the staff member gave us a clue to a task we had already completed. We asked for another clue that was pertinent to our task at hand, and we received the SAME clue, with an added 'X' to the clue tally. Finally the staff member just came in the room, told us how to finish the last task and acknowledged it didn't make any sense. We gave this place two tries. We're done. We'll stick with the good ones in...

I have been to many escape rooms around Texas and I was shocked/disappointed by this place. Upon reviewing all the reviews from a couple of months ago I see a pattern happening where people can't finish the game because:

1. poor room design: You can only work on one puzzle at a time. Also their puzzle difficulty is not well suited for people who are new to escape rooms.
2. poor hints given: This may depend on the host that you will get but the one that we got gave us hints to the puzzles that we already completed. It felt like the game host was not even paying attention to what was happening in game.
3. hints left us confused: one of the hints straight up displayed on the screen that we are "wrong" ( wow! Such an amazing hint!) To our game host: look up the definition of what a hint is and should look like, and what we were provided :)
4. poor puzzle design: I saw a review from a couple of month ago experience the same thing in "dinner for 2" where they couldn't finish the game because from the get go the puzzle was set to failure. They had two months to fix the issue but never did. Truly shows how much they care about your experience.

To end it all our game host possessed low quality in customer service. He was rude, couldn't/refused to explain to us why their puzzle was wrong, and never apologized for their wrong doing.

The only positive reviews on Google and Yelp for them are from parents stating that their kid or their group had fun. Almost feels like they buy their ratings.

Just save your money, time and nerves and go do something else. This is the worst escape room service I have been at and I don't wish it upon...