Insomnia Escape Room DC — Attraction in Washington

This was our first trip to Washington, DC (from Arizona) and we booked several escape rooms in the DC area. At Insomnia we booked The Alchemist on May 30, 2017, which was our 55th game overall.

When my family discusses escapes rooms after we play them we think of them with three aspects in mind, Setting, Gameplay, and Mechanics.

As far as the setting goes, the set itself was done well. It was being to show some wear and tear but it was a good setting. The story went well with the setting, therefore, making it an immersive environment for the story. The props were good, some very impressive. One downside of the environment was the sheer amount of books in their bookcases and I feel that cluttered up the room somewhat. While there were only three of us during our escape, the booking information says it holds up to 7. I don't know if I would want to do it with 7, one more would have been perfect at 4.

The game had a decent story to gameplay connection and while we had some searching to do it wasn't too much. Many of the puzzles were unique and memorable and I enjoyed them. They managed to hit one of our pet peeves which were lighting issues in one area. When you get a bit older you have a tougher time seeing in dark lite areas. We mentioned this before the game to the gamemaster and was told it wouldn’t be a problem. It was a problem. In one section by a particular puzzle half of it was on a very dark side of the room. If you can’t see the puzzle to do what you need to do to it, how is that fun? The fix was simple, give a flashlight no matter what. It really irks me when I bring it up before we play the game, being told it isn’t a problem and then that very problem comes right out during gameplay. The rest of our pet peeves were happily avoided which are red herrings(unless you include the sheer amount of books in their bookcases), having to guess, and need for prior knowledge, so great job for not having issues in those areas!!!! Overall, we enjoyed the game a great deal.

As far as the mechanics go in the room, it had a good game flow, an adequate hint system, an attentive gamemaster, no breakdowns (Yay!), good customer service and a...

This was the worst escape room experience I've ever had (and I've completed several). Poor room monitoring, faulty props, no clock, no 5-10 minute warning....Whoever was on staff 5/21/22 around 6PM is a major liability to this establishment.

While expressing our frustration to the game monitor (a different monitor than the one we started with), we found out that there was a shift change while we were playing so the room was basically left unattended. They knew what they did (or didn't do) and we also pointed out the defects within the room. They honestly didn't care. Seriously...go anywhere else but here.

To start, our room (the mafia) was not properly reset between our group and the last group. As is the case with any room, finishing requires the room is properly arranged and that the instruments in the room actually work ...they did not (i.e. cash register was out of ink and the lock next to it was stuck).

Fair enough...things break down; I get that. But when things aren't working as required, the staff is supposed to be on hand to help....they weren't.... We waived our hands to asked for help and it took well over 15 minutes for someone to respond. When they finally did respond, we discovered that our math was spot on but the lock was stuck. They literally asked us (midgame) to confirm our math with our cell phones since the adding machine they provided (as a major prop within the room) was broken...Resolving that issue alone wasted 25% of our time. ...

We played the Oblivion game with a team of two escape room veterans and two novices. It was a unique room - completely technology-based. All clues were presented on screens, and there was a bit of virtual reality as well, which was cool. The venue was somewhat difficult to find, and there's no easy public transportation access. Parking was also a pain. We won't give anything away, but we will say that in a game that could otherwise have been fantastic, the most frustrating aspect was the malfunctioning technology, which necessitated the interruption of the Game Master in what should have otherwise been an immersive escape room experience. As an example that won't spoil any secrets, when we finally solved all the clues and went to open the door, it wouldn't budge. So the game master had to open it from the outside, which was completely anti-climactic. Just so you're aware, in case this is important to you, this venue didn't have the typical post-escape-room photo area set up, but they did let us take a group photo inside the room. Somewhat redeeming is how friendly and helpful our Game Master, Cassidy, was. Thanks, Cassidy! We can only speak for the Oblivion room. It would have been really great, if everything had been working properly. We'd be interested in seeing how their non-tech rooms compare, but we can't comment on...