Seattle Escape Games — Local services in Seattle

Disclaimer to start: we finished the room with minutes to spare but the win wasn’t satisfying at all.

I loved the fact that they had some last minute availabilities on a Saturday night. We booked for the 10:15 bank job room. Parking, first of all, during this time of year is a bit frustrating due to the haunted house. We were lucky to find something nearby on the street but we were rushing in after I received a call at 10, asking if we were going to make it on time. The tone of voice was very abrupt and rude. While I understand you guys have the rule that we must arrive 15 minutes prior to game time, we finished all of our waivers within 2 minutes and we waited around for a few minutes after throwing our things in the locker provided because it was really busy that night. We were finally debriefed and the rules of the room were very straight forward but not once did the employee mention that the bricks in the room were not part of game play. So then we were walked into a room to watch a video about the room we were about to play in and were given no further direction when it ended. We stood there confused like what are we doing. The employee came back out, mid eating, and said sorry then led us to our room. We finally start the escape room and we’re doing our thing when we realize, hey the bricks move! Maybe there’s a clue under there? So we start taking the floor apart. A few of us wondered “wow this is a ton of bricks to look under if they actually hid a clue there” and we were really under the impression that she would’ve told us to stop ASAP, as soon as she found out we were messing with the bricks, especially if we didn’t hear anything about NOT using the bricks. A few minutes pass by, and mind you, this is a one hour escape room, (Every. Minute. Counts!!), she finally says “I told you guys not to mess with the bricks” so rudely, we were really caught off guard. Like okay, thanks for telling us NOW? Somehow during this whole mess, we got access to the next part of the room and we were ready to move on until she said, “you guys can’t just leave the bricks there, they have to go back where you found them” again, in a very rude tone. Okay fine, so half of us stayed, the other half moved on. Because of all this, there was a small injury that happened to my boyfriend who was trying to put away these dumb bricks. She came out once we asked her for a bandaid and was nice enough to slip him a hint but that was maybe the only nice thing she did all night.

Anyway, moving on to the escape room itself… I’ve done a few escape rooms before and this has to be the worst one I’ve ever done. Our only saving grace with this room was the fact that we were celebrating a room so we had three free hints. I believe I saw that a hint usually costs 2-3 minutes? Nothing was clear, there were a bunch of miscellaneous things which, in a normal escape room, you’re fair game to touch and move around, but this one? We kept getting scolded to not mess with things and it didn’t make sense because hello? We’re trying to solve things. I don’t know if you dread your job and if we were a major inconvenience to your night as a last minute booking, but it doesn’t hurt to just be nice?? As previously mentioned, we did escape the room but the ending was extremely underwhelming and anticlimactic, to the point where we didn’t even know if we actually won or not? The girl offered to take our picture at the end and somehow it ended up being not the best photo anyway with it being off centered. So petty.

All in all, there is no way I would refer friends to go here. Please go to Locurio (Fremont) or Entangled (Marysville and Lynnwood) for much better and well thought out rooms and wayyyy friendlier staff. They also take better photos at the end of the game. Lol!

TLDR: rude staff ruined the whole experience from start to finish, you do get free hints if you’re celebrating a birthday but you’re better off spending your money elsewhere with better parking and rooms.

**edit: meant to say bank job room, not cell block but thanks...

We have spent the past week working through each of the rooms here with varying friends, without giving away too much here is our brief run down:

The Morgue - This is the easiest room of the lot. They give it a 5/10 but I would say it is easier. All the rooms in this place are pretty linear, but this one is the worst when it comes to that. We did it with 6 people which seemed to be too many, though for reasons I will not say you need no less than 3. A good beginner room, not recommended for experienced escapees.

Abducted - The same six of us returned for this room after feeling like the morgue wasn't challenging enough. They stated this is their hardest room...I agree but more because there is a lot to do. Some fun aspects of this room...we left laughing and talking about the different puzzles. Six people seemed like a good number for this room.

Cell Block 12 Only four of us this time, three of the previous and a noob. I don't recommend starting someone new on this room. And communication is KEY more so on this room so you will want to make sure you jive with each other. This had a lot of good puzzles seasoned escapees will appreciate. Another I wouldn't recommend more than 4.

The Bank Job Four of us returned to finish out the offerings. This one was really fun as well. Lighter on puzzles than abducted so four worked well.

We escaped all the rooms and got on the leaderboard on Abducted and Bank Job. If you get on the leaderboard then you get a free printed photo ($5 otherwise)

The lobby has puzzles to keep you busy while waiting and the clocks for the rooms that are going on - which are fun to watch tick down and wonder where the teams are in their progress. The staff were great, friendly and fun to chat with regarding the rooms. Honestly it's a great setup here and we are looking forward to them potentially having more...

My monthly escape group had a wonderful experience at Seattle Escape Games! The Room. We had a group of 6 that played through Cell Block 12. Awesome theme, great decoration, and a solid mix of puzzles that were a nice spread of challenging. THOUGH! I will say, I recommend doing this room with a group of people you know well/have done escape rooms with before (so you know what behavior to expect). I can't imagine trying to do this room with strangers or people who shut down when frustrated. The Facility. I wasn't sure what to expect trucking all the way out to Georgetown, but I was pleasantly surprised! Its clear that having such a large building allows Seattle Escape to build big games with multiple rooms and lots of detail. THOUGH---I will say, if you are generally nervous about parking in odd places---I recommend booking a room during the day. This is a warehouse district that might look sketchy to anxious individuals. The Staff. We had Maddie as our Game Master, and she was wonderful! She did a great job explaining everything, was patient with us in the right moments, and was generally a lot of fun. I also LOVED that Seattle Escape had a system set up to digitally tip the game masters! Seattle Escape won a lot of points from me by having a system to support their staff. All in all, great experience, highly recommend, and my group will definitely be coming back to try out the...