Escape Masters Auckland CBD — Local services in Waitematā

My husband and I decided to try out an escape room while in Auckland on holiday as we have completed a few of the ones back home in Christchurch. For an $80 activity we left very disappointed and frustrated. After singing in and heading to the booked room, the staff member wasn’t very confident/ good at setting the mood of the room. The rooms we have completed back home are very good at setting the stage for the room you are in, with the way they put on voices or read our the room details to you before you get started. Upon entering the room we were booked for we started out hunting for clues. We located the magnet required for the key maze and then couldn’t figure out what we were supposed to be doing because they staff had not correctly reset the room and the key we needed to get out was not in the maze. After spending 20 minutes pulling everything we possibly could out and wasting a clue that showed us we were missing a key. I decided to head out to ask staff about it. Once they gave us the key, we continued on solving the remaining mysteries of this room but continued second guessing if things were missing when the clue we found didn’t open or unlock anything we had already found. Because of this the experience was frustrating and we had no shot of completing this within the 1hr allotted for the escape room. Once our hour had run out a staff member entered to inform us we can continue and use unlimited clues if required to escape this room. We expressed our frustration about questioning everything when the room hadn’t been set correctly in the first place. The staff member just went quiet and had nothing to say. They seemed very confused that we were not wanting to continue and gave up finishing this room. Might be worth you and your staff taking a trip to Christchurch to try out our local rooms and learn how to run your establishment better considering you charge more than the ones we have been to previously. If you wish to reach out and discuss this I’m sure you can find my...

One of the worst Escape Rooms I have ever done. First of all, the introduction from the staff was nonexistent. I am used to them giving a fun and witty explanation at the beginning for each group but instead we were greeted by them eating pizza behind their desks and instead of a personal induction they give you an Ipad where you have to enter every participant and read the rules and prestory. It was a quite annoying task, as every member has to enter an Email and with a bigger group it takes ages. So that was not a nice start.

The room we did (Superheros) was sparsly decorated. It was just a room with the clues standing inside it. Like you could see from the very second you entered the room what the puzzles were going to be. I prefer to actually search for the quizzes and have a room where you actually feel you are in a prison/grandmas home/hospital/whatever.

Another thing which was different to the rooms I normally did was the communication with the staff. Normally, I am used to them having a camera inside the room so the staff can observe you and give you clues when you are going in the wrong direction. Not with this room however. There is no camera and the only way to get clues is by scanning a QR code on the puzzle. So while the staff was outside eating their pizza with their feet up the desks, they had basically no idea what was going on inside the room which I felt added to the overall unpersonal feeling with this company.

The difficulty of the quizzes were on a good level though. On the other hand, I have seen better quizzes in terms of technological equipment and creativity.

Overall, I would not recommend to...

Group of three did the Spy room at medium difficulty. My partner and I have done many escape rooms, both in NZ and USA. We were very disappointed. There was very little flow from clue to clue; more like a collection of short one-off puzzles rather than a trail of breadcrumbs. We experienced functionality issues with things opening smoothly (instructions explicitly say to be gentle and use critical thinking over physically, so we didn't wanna break things, lol). Also, scanning QR codes to get hints and "this section is for Hard level" signs on the walls next to puzzles REALLY break the immersion. :-( However, our biggest complaint was the massive number of red herrings. Many were unnecessary props (SUPER cheap looking) and others were especially made "clues" that never led to anything and at times directly clashed with the logic / theme. Either the designers think that red herrings & distractions are how you make a puzzle challenging/clever (it's not) OR these were possibly all meant to be used for solving the higher difficulty version of the room (if so, REMOVE THEM DURING SETUP!) Honestly, one of the two stars are cuz it's such an affordable price. Maybe other rooms here are better, but I think the fault lies in trying to have multiple difficulties per room. I'd sooner try a different company in Auckland, certainly can't recommend...