Escapology Escape Rooms Lansing — Local services in Lansing

The short review: Good solid puzzles, professional staff, well designed rooms, recommend playing with 5 or less, will return.

The long review: We’ve played 2 rooms, Antidote & Under Pressure. Both were solid & fun rooms that we played as a group of 3. Located inside Spare Time it is not immediately obvious where you need to go but as long as you look out for the signs it was simple enough to find. The waiting area is nicely done with enough sitting for large parties & has some puzzles on the tables to try while you check-in. Both our host, Joshua, and game master, Connie, were extremely professional, well-trained and friendly. It was obvious that they take pride in their work and want to make sure that you have a good time. Both rooms were well designed with enough decorative touches to feel immersive. The rooms are in good condition with minimal, if any, wear noticeable. The door doesn’t actually lock which is a nice touch for those that feel claustrophobic at the idea of being locked in a room but still want to experience the game. The puzzles are well thought out & entertaining. No outside knowledge is needed & no assumptions are required to play the games, everything you need is somewhere in the rooms.

Each room has an introduction video & instructions video that you watch in the room. My biggest complaint about these is that they run a tad long especially because you are in the room and are trying not to allow your eyes to wander. If you really enjoy the theme the introduction videos are fun but they are also the same video you can view online so it is a little repetitive.

My 2 main complaints about the rooms result in me not being able to recommend at least these 2 rooms for larger groups, especially if you have experience with escape rooms. We had 3 in our group & if our group had been larger I feel my enjoyment would have been less. My biggest complaint is that while the puzzles are solid, there aren’t that many puzzles in each game and/or they aren't that challenging. Antidote in particular is very short. If you are new to escape rooms I could see this room being enjoyable but I wouldn’t recommend playing with more than 4 people in this room; there aren’t that many puzzles & as a result not that much stuff to look through. I feel that if you have more people there would just be a lot of standing around. If you have experience with escape rooms I could easily see 2 people completing Antidote. I think the fact that you mostly open numbers locks so you don’t often have to think beyond “where are the numbers” is the reason I felt the puzzles weren’t that challenging. Using different types of locks would go a long way in making you think in different ways. Antidote suffers more from this than Under Pressure, which does have a few different types of locks.

My other big complaint is that the games are very linear so there aren’t many puzzles that people can work on at the same time. Often you open one box to get what you need for the next puzzle and that opens something else to get you to the next puzzle. While this doesn’t necessarily affect the enjoyment of the game, the more people you have in your group the more likely someone will be standing around with nothing to do. Under Pressure suffered less from this than Antidote again because there are more puzzles & because each puzzle often could be worked on by more than one person. Because of this I could see 8 people playing in this room but if you have played escape rooms before I would be more likely to recommend 4 to 6 people instead.

Overall, I enjoyed both games & had fun. I have played at least one room in 6 of the escape room locations with 30 minutes of Lansing & would put this location at slightly above average. I would come again but I would not pay the premium price for a Friday/Saturday as I feel there are other locations that have just as good of rooms for the...

This was our first encounter with an escape room them. Upon arrival, we were greeted with a very friendly person. In spite of the fact that all staff members were in a meeting, she was able to assist us effectively. The orientation was clear with emphasis on having fun.. of course we were concerned what would happen if we were stumped. Not only would our ego suffer, but the cameras in the rooms would record our Shame. We were given approximately 60 minutes to complete tasks in three separate rooms. We were a group of four people. We had googled suggestions (not methods to cheat) before our arrival. The suggestions were incredibly helpful and emphasized fun. You are allowed three hints from a disembodied game manager. The hints are delivered by way of a large television mounted on the wall. It was a nice balance of puzzle and hints. There are many computer simulation games you can play online. But they all lack the contact of physical touch. The facility was very clean and the only addition to a mask was a pair of plastic gloves. This is definitely different than many entertainment options. Consider taking part in this entertainment distraction. I’m not sure if there’s a minimum age requirement, but I’m guessing at least 12 years old. Let go of that mouse or tear your eyes away from the screen. Call these people and make an appointment. I think you’ll find...

I’ve done a lot of escape rooms and the two I’ve done so far at escapology in Lansing are near the top. The room construction is extremely high quality (very detailed, well built, and uncluttered unlike BreakOut Escape Rooms in Lansing). The puzzles are linear in fashion (I.e. solve one to get to the next one). They feature many types of puzzles in the rooms and so you’re likely to come across one that will really challenge you. The staff was incredibly friendly, so much so we decided to do a second room immediately after the first since one was available.

The only warning I would have is the room size is ideal for 2 to 6 players. We did both rooms successfully with 4 people. Six people would be a little cramped, and I wouldn’t even try it with 8 people. If you have a larger group then go to Challenges in East Lansing where rooms can easily accommodate larger groups.

If your group has quite a few people doing escape rooms for the first time, I recommend the “Antidote” room. It’s the easiest, perhaps too easy if you’re escape room vets like my group. “Under Pressure” was the second room we tried and it was far more challenging. Inexperienced escape room players may really struggle to escape this room.

Overall a great place to have fun and I look forward to returning for their other...