Escapology Escape Rooms Lake Elsinore @ Pins 'N Pockets — Local services in Lake Elsinore

Let me just begin by saying that I consider myself a connoisseur of games, puzzles, and Escape Rooms. I've been playing all kinds of games since I was a little kid, worked for several years in the game industry, and not a day goes by when I'm not playing a game or a puzzle. I absolutely love games, and have played Escape Rooms all over the world, including in Europe and Asia. I'm very picky about games and Escape Rooms, and if I play one that is not well-designed, I definitely speak my mind about it.

Visiting Escapology in Lake Elsinore was an amazing experience. I brought my family with me; six people totals with ages spanning 9 to 45 years old. We all had a riveting experience and phenomenal time. Escapology went all out on this location, and it shows. Usually, you can only find Escape Rooms of this caliber in large cities, so I was very surprised to find one in a suburban location. The folks living close to Lake Elsinore are lucky to have it in their backyard.

We played two different rooms (so far!) of the six offered, and they both rated extremely high. I usually grade Escape Rooms on the following criterion:

Ambiance: 10/10

This category is for the quality of the props, decorations, paintings, bric a brac, and furniture that go into a room. Ideally, when done right, a good Escape Room makes you forget that you are inside a normal room and you start to think that you're actually in another place.

We played two rooms, one set in a scientific laboratory, and another set in a submarine. Both were set up wonderfully, with sounds and special effects to make you really feel like you were in those locations. It's really the details that make or break this category, and they absolutely nailed it.

Staffing: 10/10

You want hosts that are as excited about running Escape Rooms as you are about playing them. Smiles, warm welcomes, good story-telling skills, and funny theme related jokes are key. Another factor is that you need enough people to keep an eye on all the players. In some poorly run Escape Rooms in can be hard to get the attention of the staff (for a clue) because they are too busy with their other duties. A well run operation has enough people to cover all their bases and attend to all players.

Escapology Lake Elsinore does a wonderful job with this important aspect. The staff members offered warm greeting, were well trained and knowledgeable, and slipped in some themed jokes to the delight of my group. They were genuinely excited to be working at such a fun place, and seemed devoted to making sure we had an excellent time.

Puzzles: 10/10

Good Escape Rooms have a variety of different puzzles, and the best ones have puzzles that allow people of different talents each a turn in the spotlight. There were some puzzles in the rooms we played where I felt like a star, because of my prior education and life experience. Other times, our youngest member shined, as there were puzzles where being smaller and more dexterous was a huge asset.

Ultimately, every member of our group had several moments where they got to be the star. It's so much more fun this way, and really promotes team building and camaraderie. I've been to other Escape Rooms where they only have one type of puzzle, and it's the same person or couple of people who are dominating the game. It's a shame, because you don't want anyone to feel left out or useless. Escapology Lake Elsinore does a wonderful job making sure everyone has a chance to contribute and...

We were excited to try this place as we did escapology before in Vegas and really liked it. In total, we've done over 50 escape rooms across the country and in Europe. I'd break the rating down as follows:

Entrance to facilities 3 of 5: we arrived 10 minutes before game time and the staff were busy with setting up other guests. We were kinda rushed into the room 10 minutes late when they got to us. No big deal.

The room (Murder Mansion) 4 of 5: the room was very well decorated and looked like a lot of time and effort went into it. A few game pieces were broken and the game master had to give us advice for workarounds. One puzzle in particular is misleading and I'm not sure a team could solve it without a hint. The puzzles have some uniqueness to them and can be challenging for newer teams. I would say an experienced team of 2 can do this room with time to spare ignoring the challenges we ran into.

Game master 1 of 5: this was the deal breaker for all of us. Every time we asked for a hint, the game master went through a series of questions to find out what we needed. It was obvious that her or she was not dedicated to our room. He or she did not know where we were at with a particular puzzle and what we were struggling with. He or she was giving us hints for things we had already done. At one point, the game master gave us a hint for an equation that actually threw us off, and we ended up spending more time than we should have. Eventually, we were just given the answer.

The review pretty much came down to the game master for us. We met him at the end, seemed...

It was an okay room, it looked really cool inside (we played the Batman room) however our experience was impeded by our game master. When we were asked if we wanted free clues we said no thank you. We proceeded to get free clues and even answers without being asked. While working on puzzles they were triggered without us solving them and or solving them correctly multiple times and mid try it would pop wasting lots of time and ruining puzzle experiences. The thing that truly took us out of the game and frankly made it not fun was the we were solving a lock puzzle, and we asked for 1 hint. We got a nudge and we were working on it, we understood the basic concept but as most first clues are it’s not a step by step. We asked for a second hint, the game master paused the time so we thought there was in issue, they came into the room and opened the puzzle for us…we just didn’t understand how it fully worked. It was so frustrating as we wanted to solve the puzzle ourselves and I saw absolutely no reason why a second clue couldn’t have been sent. They walked us through how to solve it and it felt pretty condescending. Very disappointing, they didn’t even ask if we wanted help before entering. I’ve played a lot of escapology rooms and this have never...