PanIQ Escape Room Boston — Local services in Boston

I am dumbfounded how PanIQ has a 4.8 Google review rating. My wife and I are avid escape room enthusiasts and we had a disappointing experience with our escape.

Our primary disappointment is that it was very apparent that our gamemaster was either not present for our game or only loosely paying attention. About halfway through our game, we pressed the hint button on the screen to ask for a clue. The clue took several minutes to be sent and when it came the response was too long for the screen, so both the beginning and end of the clue were not shown. This made the clue almost useless since it could not be understood. We expressed this aloud and there was no response. We tried to use the details provided and we spent a lot of valuable time being confused. We then tried to ask for another clue, but the size of the first clue covered up the hint button on the screen, so another clue could not be sent. We tried to ask for another clue verbally but there was no response.

The second detail we were disappointed and frustrated by was that one clue in the middle of the escape process was an old school computer arcade style game. There was no puzzle component to this computer game - it simply involved clicking a mouse to send a cruiser through a cave. Neither my wife nor I are gamers, and this game was very difficult for us. At this point, the hint screen was stuck, so we verbally asked for help and again there was no response.

One of the other puzzles in our room involved watching a radar screen flashing green and picking out red dots, and then memorizing the pattern. This would have been an okay puzzle except that I am red/green color blind. I don't expect special treatment and PanIQ could not have known that I am color blind, but it is very poor planning to integrate red/green colors into a puzzle when so much of the male population (almost 1 in 10 men!) is color blind. You could pick any other two combinations of colors to avoid this common issue!

With these difficulties, we did not come close to finishing our room. When the attendant came in when our hour was complete, it was a different person than who started us at the beginning of our game. She asked us "where were you in the game?" so she could tell us the puzzles we failed to complete. She clearly had not been watching us on the screen. No explanation was given for the poor supervision. Maybe something happened to our original gamemaster that required them to suddenly leave and PanIQ to be short staffed but it seemed to me like the staff simply didn't care about us having a positive experience.

Overall, the puzzles in which we didn't run into issues were nothing unique, special, or particularly fun. They were just okay but combined with the issues we experienced, we did not...

My wife and I did the insane asylum and Atlantis, but this room did not live up to our expectations. Lydia was great and really nice, but unfortunately, the place seems understaffed and Lydia was busy helping other groups half the time. When we did get help, we could not hear her over the low speaker volume and loud music.

Given 60 minutes, it felt like half the time was spent on trivial actions like finding where to place certain items after already solving the puzzle. An escape room should be mentally stimulating and ‘puzzlely,’ not being frustrated over time consuming tricks. The props and room was built cheaply and it seemed like not much effort was put into creating the room unlike other places in Boston. In Paniq’s favor, the theme was fun and some puzzles were satisfying, but the puzzles/room was not well connected. For ~45$ per person, we expected good and consistent service along with a satisfying escape room experience. Again, Lydia was extremely lively; however, this doesn’t make up for the flaws of this place. Take your money elsewhere such as Red Fox Escapes and Boxaroo where you get 100% attention and an overall lovely experience where it feels like effort was put into the room.

EDIT (Response to owner): After the insane asylum, we thought your room was unsatisfactory but decided to give it another chance by asking Lydia what her suggestion was. She liked Atlantis, so we decided to give Paniq another chance.

I understand that we needed many hints, but Lydia shouldn’t even have to look at other groups. We have never experienced this before especially when booking a PRIVATE room. We have booked places at Trapology, Red Fox, and Boxaroo, all places which had excellent private service without having to monitor several rooms. Moreover, we were simply giving feedback on the quality of your rooms in comparison to other rooms in the area, but you guys decided to take it very personally. Confidence in your room is fine, but we were simply providing feedback and your response was extremely condescending and disregarded all of our concerns. This says a lot about your company and how you as an owner treat...

Me and my friends went here on a Saturday night for the 10:30pm room in the Cartel room. In total we spent about $120. We heard the workers talking badly about us in the other room, complaining, saying that they wished we weren’t there and they just wanted to go home and get high instead. This was 2 hours before closing so we thought it was fine.

When we got inside the room and the game started, majority of the game was already finished and the door connected to the other room (that was supposed to be locked) was open. Almost everything inside was already opened and completed, so they clearly did not restart the room for us. We tried to ask for hints, which took forever to receive while we heard the workers yelling and laughing in the other room.

Then we asked for somebody to come in and asked why half of the stuff was not reset, which we were then told “our magnets don’t work sometimes.” It wasn't just one thing, it was pretty much half of it.

We then asked for a refund and we (hopefully) will get it back, since it’s still in the process on our cards. Then we left, and heard them laughing about us in the other room on the way out.

Overall, nothing worked and nothing was reset. Workers were unprofessional. I’ve never had a bad experience for an escape room...