Challenge59 The Escape Room — Local services in San Juan

Challenge59 has well-themed escape rooms and an upbeat and energetic staff (our GM Alex was excellent and very friendly). We successfully escaped from 2 of their rooms with our group of 7 total people.

However, having done over 80 escape experiences at this point, I can definitely say that these rooms were sorely lacking. We first attempted the Murder Hotel room. While the theming was excellent, the room was lacking in puzzles. Rated for 15 people, I believe there were a grand total of 2-3 puzzles in the whole room, and there was a single flashlight and single blacklight available. Darkness and flickering lights made up the majority of the challenge factor, along with going over all the things in the room to sort out what was actually a clue and pertinent to the puzzles as opposed to noise (theming without consequence to the outcome). If you bring any more than 2-4 people to this room, expect to have them standing around bored and unclear what they can do to help with anything.

Next, we did the Lethal Experiment room, their hardest and longest experience advertised as multiple connected rooms. Again, excellent theming throughout, but the puzzles had terrible cluing in the room. There's an expectation to brute force a puzzle with nothing in the room to indicate that expectation. I try to never brute force lock combinations normally as it could cause the group to get things out-of-order and takes away from the fun of finding the solution, so to be presented with a puzzle that we were expected to just try every combination until it worked without anything in the room to indicate that was shocking and ate up a ton of time. The set of rooms also contained puzzles where you had to find a hidden clue sheet with a random number that had nothing to do with the room's theme in order to get a solution. While the discovery aspect of escape rooms is a highlight for me, it would've been much better, especially in a room that can supposedly have 15 people, to have additional puzzles and let the group solve things in a thematic way to get the necessary numbers than to just find a random number and instructions on a slip of paper. Again, we escaped with ample time remaining, but it was a sub-par experience.

Challenge59 has the bones of making some great rooms. They know how to create atmosphere and tell a story. They need to up their actual puzzle game though. You can't rate the number of people a room holds based on fire code; rather, it needs to entertain that many folks. You need multiple puzzle chains that that draw from the many thematic elements scattered around the room and interconnect at the end to get to the final solution. These 2-3 puzzles to progress where the major difficulty factors are lighting and finding relevant things as opposed to distraction just leads to a lot of bored and frustrated people.

I'd also suggest designing some rooms around Puerto Rico's themes. Sure, HH Holmes Murder Hotel in Chicago is interesting, but I'm betting the unique culture in Puerto Rico could lend to some amazingly themed rooms as well. Not everything needs to be creepy/horror themed, and you don't need darkness to create difficulty. Here's hoping for some improved puzzles to go along with your excellent room decor...

Alex, the host is exceptional. Upbeat, professional, very enthusiastic about his job. The building has great security and the waiting room is clean and attractive. I’ll start with I have a serious addiction to escape rooms and have done close to 100 in the continental US. I was SO excited to bring my family of 7 here but I have to say this was the most simple and basic of escape rooms. The decor was very good which led us to believe things would be a real challenge but as other posters have mentioned there was literally two locks and it took such minimal thinking it was honestly boring. There was nothing that more than one person could do. We are used to having to think outside of the box but There is no tech involved, no secret doors or passages, no string of clues etc. I know escape rooms are new to PR but I think they need to bring in some outside help as the host Is AMAZING (thank goodness for Alex who is EXCEPTIONAL) but if they saw and did a real escape room they would be shocked! A for attempted effort D- for execution. On the other hand if you have never done an escape room then you may enjoy it as a...

Embarking on The Escape Room Challenge59 was an absolute thrill! Upon entering, we found ourselves enveloped in an immersive and captivating atmosphere that set the stage for a truly unique and enthralling experience. The staff went above and beyond, offering flawless assistance and fostering an environment that held our attention effortlessly from beginning to end. This escape room distinguishes itself by demanding a keen sense of observation and attention to detail. Every puzzle and clue was intricately crafted, elevating each revelation to a level of excitement and satisfaction. It proved to be a formidable challenge that kept us constantly engaged and on our toes. Hats off to Challenge59 for masterfully crafting such an alluring and intellectually stimulating escape room. We enthusiastically recommend this adventure to those eager to test their cognitive prowess and embark on a journey filled with excitement and fulfillment. Gratitude for an...