Big Escape Rooms — Local services in Silver Spring

Wow. This place is coasting on good reviews they built up over time, but it is absolutely falling apart now. Sort by newest and the number of one star reviews is quite a lot higher.

I am in a unique position because I know people who went a while ago (when things were fine) and I myself went very recently, so I got to compare notes. I have also seen many (~20) other escape rooms all around Maryland, all of which were fine to fantastic. This place was just plain awful.

We did the outbreak room. I don’t want to give things away I guess, but here’s an idea of the state of the room: Several of the locks/boxes were literally torn open and falling apart. One of them had a note written on it that said something along the lines of “this is broken, don’t open it until you find the cure.” There was a laser related task/clue but the laser was duct-taped to the device in such a way that it was loose, misaligned, and giving the wrong answers. That clue was completely unsolvable in it’s current state, which would have been bad if the box you needed wasn’t already wide open when we walked into the room. There was a voice recorder that was supposed to give a clue, but instead it just played back audio from some other group, equally confused about how to use it and what was going on. There was an iPad that was supposed to give you a clue for the exit code that just said “iPad Unavailable.” There was a golf related clue that was also irrelevant because of broken equipment. We asked the people who are supposed to answer questions about all of these items and they told us the broken clues were “red herrings” meant to distract us. I know this isn’t true because my friend who went before told me what everything was supposed to do and it made perfect sense. Several clues also weren’t reset between groups, and after a couple questions the person who was supposed to help us just plain stopped answering our questions.

We very politely asked for a refund and we’re offered 20% off our next visit. We said we would prefer a refund and we’re told “no problem, just call this number and they’ll take care of you.” We called, emailed, etc. they basically have a “no refunds ever” policy and stopped responding.

The room we were in was in awful condition, not reset, and was unsolvable without literally brute-forcing several locks (which we did) even though half the locks were just missing or broken anyway, and the staff lied to us about the purpose of several clues, and about their refund policy. I don’t like writing negative reviews but this place is just such a complete waste of money, I really hope this helps someone.

Wish I had better pictures, this is all I got that doesn’t give away clues before the guy came back. Still gives an idea of the condition of the...

TL;DR first Room: 3-star. Medium difficulty, need math skills, codex wasn't scrambled, not a "big" escape room. Don't be deceived by the pic of the huge supermarket (it's not an escape room).

Customer service/employees: 1-star. Staff confirmed our reservation, played vids, and that was it. We had to remind them of our room reservation and find out we needed to do a waiver on our own. Details below.

Detailed We went yesterday for the Pharoah room. Puzzles were interesting and fun. Total of 2 room sections. I wouldn't call it a "Big" Escape Room. One of the codex puzzles wasn't scrambled when we started, so we ended up jumping ahead one of the puzzles accidentally. We didn't know we could leave because we had jumped backwards in solving puzzles and we're trying to figure out how we were supposed to continue from that point with the "storyline".

For the puzzles, themselves, it was fine. Difficulty was medium, for sure. Just make sure you are good at figuring out math related puzzles. Truly an average 3-star escape room made better using electronic magnetic locking mechanisms.

The reasons it was scored a 2-star are because of the (2) employees. After confirming our party, we were told to have a seat while we wait for the rest of the room participants. That's fine. Got 15 minutes to kill with their table games. Other party arrived just at the appointed time, and they are told to fill out waiver forms and then proceed to the room.

We were not told about waiver forms, and it wasn't until I approached the employee that he said we needed to do the waiver first and then we should enter the designated room. The 2 employees were very lackadaisical. If they were running around, I could attribute it to being busy or resetting rooms. But they moved around and appeared to be more nonchalant. They don't need to act super enthusiastic, but also definitely not just a smidgen above "they don't care".

We solved the room, and didn't get a "congrats", "consider using the placards to commemorate escaping", or much acknowledgment of our existence from the staff.

If they said any congratulatory/parting words before we left, it was of minimal volume since they were too busy watching and chuckling about something else behind the receptionist table.

Average room, below average...

This escape room is the worst experience we have ever had in an escape room ever. We waited 20 mins for a walkie talkie, we ask for hints and get no response and when we did we can hear nothing at all. The staff was HORRIBLE. Reading from a script the entire time and giving us answers as a lazy way to get us off the walkie, even though again WE COULD NOT HEAR. I will be requesting a refund from my bank. The level of service is ridiculously unpleasant and unacceptable for a place of business. The room is all over the place there is no organization no place to put belongings and looks dirty. We left the room with time to spare because the clues were unhelpful as we could not hear a word and couldn’t get helpful staff. Then the staff laughed as if something was funny as we left with half of our time left because the experience was SO BAD. When we walked in we were not acknowledged and when we weren’t given walkie talkies after 20 minutes the worker said “oh shit” because she forgot. As a group who does escape rooms very often this was by far the absolute worst experience we have ever had. Someone is leadership should contact me regarding this experience. There is no reason we should have to pay for such a poor display of professionalism. You should seriously reconsider the people who you have representing your business because I can not imagine how you are still in business with the experience we just had. Talking to the staff was out of question as we were laughed at as the workers were more interested in being on their cellphones than doing the job they are being paid to do. This escape room is essentially a scam, we work hard for our money and when we decide to spend it it should be on quality service. We paid to stand in a room and be ignores basically to the point where we felt the only option was to leave after spending well over $100 to participate. The fact that you are still open is mind boggling to me. The reviews must be fake because there is no way anyone had a good experience here.

Response to the owner: Yes I am positive I visited this place UNFORTUNATELY. Booking under Paula McCown-Epps &...