Bear Towne Escape Room — Local services in New Bern

This was my first escape room experience, so I will admit to being a little inexperienced which probably did add to the issue I am about to describe.

Without giving any spoilers, here's what went wrong - We arrived on time and were led to our designated escape room. A friendly and knowledgeable guy (I don't remember his name, but he was seemed nice) sat us down, gave us the creepy backstory on our room, and everything was great. He then gave us the instructions for do's and don'ts of the escape room, which more or less boils down to "don't break things, don't move furniture, and don't move anything that you can't move with 3 fingers of force." Cool. Got it.

So we start off our escape, and the room administrator (or whatever you want to call him) can hear and see us, which is fine, and even helpful if you happen to need hints. Within the first ten minutes I was chastised REPEATEDLY for touching different objects in the room, two of which, I might add, ended up being things that opened or needed to be touched later in the puzzle. I mean, it was as if this guy thought I was going to Hulk-smash the furniture and He-man rip things off the wall! (By the way, I am a 5'3 tiny girl). Anyway, it made me feel super bad, and I became afraid to touch pretty much anything in the room, especially the furniture...which was unfortunate, since a piece of it I had been called down for looking under (without moving it!) held a vital clue, which I was only able to figure out by using a "hint" 20 minutes later. Anyway, after that, my whole experience was pretty much soured, and I left feeling very upset and frustrated. I don't see why it is necessary for the staff to do that, as I was being very gentle (using 3 fingers), was not trying to move furniture, and generally was doing no harm. I don't care if I win or lose, but the whole experience left me feeling like a child that had been called down by the teacher.

I hesitated in even writing this review because I think that the escape room was very well done and thought out, and I enjoyed the overall concept. I would certainly try something like this again here, or at another business. However, I feel that this needs to be said and acknowledged, so that other patrons don't leave feeling the way I did.

I will gladly revise my review upon...

We stopped by Bear Towne Escape Room on the way back from the beach and added their rooms to our list of conquests. The staff was very friendly and the owner made a point to get our input about his rooms, something we always enjoy. They had 3 rooms running Witches Brew, Poe's Study, and Deadly DIEgnosis.

Deadly DIEgnosis: Difficulty - 4/10 The theme of this room was well done. The puzzles all made sense and flowed logically through the mostly linear room. It did have a puzzle I hadn't seen before which happens less and less often as my total room count, currently 175, goes up.

Poe's Study: Difficulty - 3/10 To me the hardest part of this room was the scavenging, which is why I have the difficulty so low. Basically if you can find everything you need you shouldn't have any problems with the puzzles. Again the theme is well done though its a bit lacking in space. I'd say larger groups should lean more towards the other rooms here. The puzzles all made sense once we had everything we needed. I think this is a great room for beginners and its still fun for the experienced.

Witches Brew: Difficulty - 6/10 It's easy to see why they held their halloween room over into the summer. It's a fun room that has some interesting puzzles. That being said it's not hard to see that it was meant to...

Did the DETAINED escape. Went with my Mom, Dad, and Wife. One group was in the cell and another in the wardens office, which was right next door. Our rooms had bars on the door to communicate through. Walked in and the game master explained everything, then goes “Alright, now whoever’s gonna be handcuffed, just turn around and cuff yourself,” it was funny. Did not expect it to be real handcuffs on a metal pipe in the wall. Then they actually locked the door behind him when he left and my wife and mom were locked in the other room. Never been to a room where they actually lock you in it, usually they notionally do it because of legal reasons. It was fun and I def recommend that game for sure. Place was nice, small, but still awesome. I would def go back. Game master was chill and helpful too. Watched us and made sure we were okay during the whole escape. We made it out with 45...