Mission: Breakout Lafayette — Local services in Lafayette

Not an outstanding escape room. I’ve done around seven or eight rooms now, and this was probably the most low-budget, least thrilling, and least clever.

To begin, the idea of an escape room is that the process of finding clues is clever. This distinguishes an escape room from just solving riddles for free in the comfort of your home. But several of the clues in the room we did (the Apocalypse) were just riddles written on laminated sheets of paper. They didn’t necessarily fit with the theme because they weren’t clue-like. They were just puzzles to work through.

The second deadly sin for escape rooms is ambiguity in clues. If it isn’t straightforward how to use a clue once you crack it, you’ll likely not know that you cracked it or how to use it. This forces you to use hints, which takes a lot of fun out of the game. This room violated the non-ambiguity rule in multiple ways. For example, one of the major clues was a (case sensitive) computer password with limited guesses allowed and strange components; another was a long and tedious grid-based riddle that was obvious where it should apply but with unclear instructions and results.

Two more critiques. One is that the clues were not very sophisticated. There’s a difference between clues that are legitimately hard because they are clever and clues that are hard because they don’t make tons of sense. This room had more that just made no sense. This, again, forces you to ask for hints that leave you scratching your head—not because the clue was too hard, but because it was painfully obscure.

Last thing: the room wasn’t very well decorated. This is huge for escape rooms—having trap doors and clever hiding places, often with some technology like magnetic latches, makes the experience thrilling. It also contributes to the rich complexity of the puzzle by making clues easier to hide among the mounds of non-clue decor. Not really the case here. There were a few hidden clues, but they tended to be lazily stashed away in huge chunks together. And the decor was more of the style of random junked electronics glued to a big gray box. (I’m still not totally sure how the big gray box worked with the theme of the room.)

All-in-all, I wish we had our money back. Other escape rooms left our group talking afterward about the clever clues and unseen trap doors, etc. with excitement. This escape room was pretty disappointing and forgettable. Save your time and money and go somewhere else. There are far superior...

Update: I just tried the ultra-new, ultra-AMAZING Barrel of Lies Escape Room, and it was one beautifully crafted, immersive room with a cleverly designed puzzles and AWESOME special effects!!! There are literally surprises lurking around every corner of this room, as well as brilliantly hidden secret compartments hidden EVERYWHERE!!! I don't want to give away any of the surprises, but believe me...this room is absolutely going to be talked about for years to come! Great job, Eric, Wes and team!!!

This was my first ever attempt at an Escape Room, and I had such an AMAZING, MIND-BLOWING experience!!! I completed the Sherlock vs. The Ripper alone, but had some much-needed guidance along the way by quite possibly one of the most patient, bubbly and friendly Game's Masters, Janelle!!! DEFINITELY could not have done it without all of her wise guidance! The room's decor and music were so perfectly Sherlock in every way!!! Just absolutely LOVED everything about how that room was set up and presented. One can tell that a great deal of thought, care and creativity went into its design. Such an INCREDIBLE adventure!!! Can't WAIT for my...

It's been a while (2018) since I did a mission here for a work related team building exercise. However, the staff was very friendly and accommodating. The clues were definitely ones that had to make a combined group of engineers, technicians, and customer facing employees think and problem solve together. I can't remember our specific challenge, but I feel we had too many people in one room trying to work the problems. It was hard to keep it all coordinated. I would suggest teams of 4-5 people. I would also designate one as the leader (ie, one the problem solvers report to) in an effort to minimize the group solving unnecessary problems, as one clue usually leads to another. Or, I suppose that could be part of the exercise. See who out of the group rises to the occasion of leadership. Either way, it's a great experience. And since they have updated the rooms, it's time to start thinking...