Escape Room NJ Pompton Lakes — Local services in Pompton Lakes

PLEASE DO NOT GO TO THIS ESCAPE ROOM LOCATION (Pompton Lakes, NJ). IT WAS INSANELY UNPROFESSIONAL AND FILTHY. I don’t know who any of these people are leaving positive reviews lol. This place was so far from worth the $140 for two people. We could’ve paid the $25 for the non-private room and saved money, cause honestly ain’t nobody else booking this place. We were the only two customers there. The location is a literal dump. Difficult to find. The banner “draping the storefront” they tell you to look for is up on the top floor in a horizontal window. Looks like a horror movie. We thought we weren't going to survive just stepping off the elevator. As the doors opened, we were met with a giant trash bin blocking the elevator door and the creepy hallway. A man on the left in what seemed to be a janitor’s room asked us what we were looking for. Thought he was a construction worker. Turns out he worked there?? Never saw him again after he went to get the three teenagers who were “in charge”. We conducted our “business” in this messy room, (which I assume was the prop room??), took my ID and credit card’s last 4 digits, wrote it on a receipt pad and had me sign it…but I already paid online. We were let down a dingy hallway to a broken door, told the quick summary of the game (which did not match the storyline we booked), and were sent through that door into another short hallway with a broken door on the left, and what we assumed was the door to the room on the right. The second we walked through the door, the "Game master" began to tell us literally every step of the game WHILE we were playing it. He was a really nice guy, but doesn’t seem to know the point of an escape room. He told us every clue. "Look here.” "Look there.” "Do this, do that.” “Now go here”. While we were playing, he randomly walked in the room, scaring the pants off us. He came to “help”. Such a waste of money and should be shut down, honestly. The room didn't even resemble, in the slightest bit, the storyline for Awaken. DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY HERE. This was the most expensive one we have ever done. I can't believe it. Tom, our game master, was as nice as can be, but whoever owns this joint needs to...

Lots of things broken. Terrible game master. PA system barely worked. My friends and I have done over 60 rooms and this was the worst we've done together. We did The Otherside: room 401 and every single room had something that didn't work. Locks didn't work (we had to use a clue to be told we have the right combination but hey to pull really hard on a directional lock), drawers didn't open (the game master at the end pointed out how we didn't open the drawer - that we had put everything into the box correctly that we needed - then had to go to his room to override open it, and acted like it was our fault it didn't open because he just "fiddled with it and then it worked" which it did not because we just watched him leave the room to set it to open). So if he had been paying attention, he could have seen that we had everything right and opened it for us. We got stuck in the last room because of a directional lock. In asking for a clue, we were only given the first two directions (which we already had) and used a full 10 minutes on just this lock alone. We were given no more hints. When we ran out of time, he came in and told us the combination (which we had tried dozens of times) and COULDN'T OPEN THE LOCK HIMSELF. So the lock didn't even have the right combination and we wasted our time. Again, he was not helpful in giving us half a hint, then just let us continue to waste our time on something he/some staff messed up in setting the room up. When I asked if we could get our time back and keep going, I was told no because the next group was ready. I love rooms with multiple rooms and the puzzles were fine but it was so darkly overshadowed by the broken mechanisms and the ineptitude of the "game master." There are dozens of escape rooms in NJ. Don't make the mistake of this being...

I really wanted to enjoy this. We were really excited to share our love for escape rooms with some newbies & decided to do Awaken (detective version). But from the moment we walked in the staff kinda disregarded us - which makes it really uncomfortable to then leave our phones with them. Not even locked away, just in a box on the floor. Id rather a box in the room, i mean you're on camera for a reason, right?

And then our game master didnt keep up with our game. We got clues for puzzles we had already solved and then completely ignored when a puzzle wasnt functioning properly. Its frustrating to find out that you have the right code but something wasnt plugged in. OR that you've had a code & tried it but because a lock didnt have proper labels you werent able to get it open.

And the room quality was good but needed some love. Some clues had worn away (like labels on locks). It made the gameplay very choppy. And the story was almost completely nonexistent. It just really wasnt the experience I had hoped for my newbies. And I really do feel that the experience came down to our game master who did not live up to the other reviews I had looked at beforehand.

Ultimately just disappointed.

Update: I spoke with someone regarding what room and time I did (Awaken (Detective Version) on Wednesday Dec 28th). I was told to expect a phone call and waited 6 hours before missing the call at 10PM. Would someone be able to return my call if you're still interested...