Brainy Actz Escape Rooms Irvine — Local services in Irvine

My friends and I tried the secret of the master room recently with another group that booked the same time. We were three and they were 4 so we did the room with people we just met. It wasn’t bad and they did say we could step out if things weren’t working out. But luckily we all got along.

The room itself was nice and I did enjoy the puzzles. It was pretty fun over all! My friends and I all had a blast and we escaped with 6 mins left! The experience was worth the price we paid and I would like to come back to do a different one.

The only problems I had was that some of the necessary items and clues in the boxes and such were hard to see. It’s a little dim in the room and I couldnt read some clues. We had to use the light of the tablet they lent us to read them. I understand that atmosphere is part of the experience but it was a little frustrating to be unable to just read things. Also some items needed to go to the next puzzle were so small it’s easy to not grab it from the box. I had thought I searched everywhere in the boxes but it’s dim and I’m only trying to feel for things since I can’t see so something so small was easily missed. One thing I thought would have been nice is a paper or something saying you escaped the room. Like a congrats of some sort, but that is hard since some people may not escape in time.

Also we played as the villains! Haha! So it was nice having a choice of which side to play. I’d recommend going here for an easy and fun escape room experience.

The staff was nice and friendly even though it was a little late. They explained the rules very understandablly and we didn’t have issues with the room itself. Everything seemed to be there! And it was super fun. I had the excitement, the adrenaline rush and the feeling of successfully escaping the Secret of the...

My wife bought a Groupon for this experience for a group of friends. First off, she was unable to book online so she called and made a reservation for 6:30 PM. When our group arrived, we were told we were scheduled at 8:30 PM. My wife called the corporate number and after about 15 minutes on the phone, she passed the phone to the host and told him to put us in a different game room than we had booked which we appreciated.

Once in the room, the description of the task seemed a bit vague, particularly since several of us had never done an escape room but we went at it and were able to solve the first puzzle. It all started to go downhill from there, mostly related to what amounts to poor setup/maintenance of the room. The little flashlight they supplied had nearly dead batteries. The whiteboard pen for taking notes was completely dry. We solved one puzzle but it did not activate the next step and we had to call the host to check our work. He verified it was correct and had to manually activate the next clue. Another prop literally fell apart in my hand and I had to hold it together to complete the step.

We ended up running out of time so the host came in to show us the final steps. Lo and behold one prop that was crucial to the final solution was missing from the room so even if we had gotten to the last step, we could not have succeeded. We detailed all of the broken/problematic issues and he told us 'ya, I'll have to fix those before the next group'. Gee thanks. One of our group has done about five other escapes elsewhere and said this was by far the least organized and logical she'd seen.

It was kind of fun, mostly because we had some really good friends with us but overall we were really...

This review is for the Smugglers escape room, and we DO NOT RECOMMEND this room!!! This room was definitely not ready for play and yet for some reason they are allowing people to book this. Which makes me question the competency of their other escape rooms.

Clues were released out of order or skipped, and locks were malfunctioning. There was no mechanism preventing you from moving forward without solving the appropriate clues which makes you wonder if things are working. Definitely not a well thought out room.

One problematic prop was a security camera looking prop. We were afraid of shining a laser for fear of blinding whoever was monitoring them. There was also a LACK of props. We were supposed to use our phones in place of them providing flashlights for the dark section of the room.

Totally a non-immersive experience. We ended up escaping before we could solve all the puzzles. It was supposed to be medium in difficulty but we all left disappointed and unchallenged.

We do appreciate that the host was nice and at least apologized for the faulty escape room and gave us a small discount to book another room. However, we much rather get our money back because this experience was so disappointing that it just wasn't worth what we paid for. I still can't believe I made my friends drive all the way here from Burbank for this disappointment.

They do offer axe throwing and a rage room, so maybe they are just spreading themselves too thin and ran out of brain power to design the escape rooms properly. Who knows.

Almost forgot to add that the place is super dusty and looks unclean at first glance. Restrooms...