Escapism Escape Rooms CT — Local services in Southington

Note: This review contains information to the scenario called “the tomb.” Almost all review notes and ratings will be dedicated to the scenario “the tomb.” Prior to doing this puzzle room, I have done around 5 rooms and completed three of them. I have experience working as a game master and I am familiar with game room knowledge, set up, and procedure. Parts of the in-depth review may contain spoilers for those who want a spoiler-free experience, I would recommend going to the bottom-line section. There will be no hints or advice pertaining to solutions for the game puzzles.

If you want the bottom-line skip to the end.

Atmosphere (5/5) Right away, even before you come into the game room, you are greeted by a festive bar setting (our group came in around Christmas time.) The bar area is massive and filled with Christmas lights and decorations. It was a combination of 1920s bar room sprawl with hints of modernity tied to the atmosphere. People feel welcome and comfortable in the entrance area alone. Once settled, we were greeted by our host Christian, who was a kind and informative. He explained the rules to us without being overbearing. He even gave my friend a celebratory cupcake because it was my friend’s birthday. It was greatest service I have ever seen from any game master and I was very grateful for it. Game room (skip this area if you don’t want to be spoiled) After Christian’s instructions, our group was put into a very dark atmosphere surrounded ancient Mayan scriptures. The game room provided us with lanterns which we were to use in coordination with our teammates to solve the room’s puzzles. I thought this was a very clever mechanic that enhanced our gaming experience. Some of the puzzles used clever lighting and glow in the dark tricks that helped us navigate the room. The room was very well designed and the game felt immersive.

Puzzles (4/5) The puzzles were intricate and involved the Mayan theme. These puzzles showed the game masters’ engineering background along with their deep interest in escape rooms. All of the puzzles played off of each other, meaning that if you solved one puzzle, that puzzle provided you a hint for solving another puzzle. The puzzles varied in their answers and no puzzle felt like a duplicate of another. The puzzles also kept in line with the theme and used real-life Mayan facts to solve puzzles! This is a concept I’ve seen rarely used correctly. Overall, the flow felt nice and the difficulty is good for beginners.

Help/Walk-through (5/5) The help was very well done. In the corner of the room, there was a gauntlet that was strapped with a digital band. On the band, there was a text box that would beep and fill up with information occasionally. The game master gave us generous hints without feeling like we were given the answer. The hints felt on theme and were very helpful. One of my group mates mentioned that they felt like the game master wasn’t too overbearing with the hints. I felt that this escape room had the right amount of hints without being overbearing.

Bottom line (5/5) (5/5) Atmosphere - Fantastic, Mayan themed, slightly spooky yet fitting atmosphere. Excellent host! (5/5) Puzzles – Good for beginners, excellent flow, excellent mechanics! (5/5) Help - Kind, Courteous, Gave my birthday friend a cupcake as a gift!

Thanks for having me, I will come again! Looking forward to “Do not disturb” and...

EDIT: After our initial complaint, owner Christian responded promptly, doing an outstanding job with communication and understanding to ensure a swift resolution and future good standings. I am beyond thankful for his kindness and am very much so looking forward to returning to attempt another room. If not for him and his brother, I most likely would not have come back. What happened was 100% not their faults, so I am beyond grateful that they took the means to right a wrong.

Previous Post: My friends and I went to Escapism tonight for the first time, after have completed several escape rooms elsewhere. From the moment we walked in, the gentleman helping us Matt was immediately off putting. He asked for my friend whose name the room was booked under, and said the rest of us don’t matter. Then with the introduction to the room, and instructions for the locks, we had to take a phone call from a friend and he demanded we put the call on speaker more than 7 times, which frankly is none of his business (long story short, our friend’s family was in an accident and we had to take the call to ensure everything was okay). If it was joking, it sure didn’t seem like it and again, none of his business for us to put a call on speaker. We were early to the room anyways, and had ample time to go over instructions, we do apologize if it was rude to take a call but the situation I feel justifies it. We all felt as though we were rushed, spoken to as toddlers and dismissed when instructions resumed. When the room finished, we were rushed out, told over and over again to get out and to “Let’s Go” which caused us to unfortunately left one of our belongings behind which when told to receive, one of our friends literally had to RUN into the room to retrieve it. The room was good, very unique and definitely worth the money spent, but it was hard to focus and have a good time considering the treatment from the staff member who is supposed to be helping us. We didn’t want to cause a scene by confronting in person, as there was other groups waiting, but I fear any other group who will come in will have the same negative experience we did if they have Matt as...

We did the Do Not Disturb puzzle- and weren't thrilled with the event. My aim will be to spoil nothing (still, need to talk about it some) but we had a difficulty or two that related to the condition of the room and cost us some time. We had a small group (smaller than recommended, just 2), and we were not the fastest. We did not succeed, and despite everything I think that would still be on us.

BUT. Usual stuff where you don't force anything and you respect the room- except 2 objects in that room would not open once we had the locks off, and we spent minutes figuring out what was up with them (only one did I do personally, and I just wasn't pulling hard enough. That's a problem). We also spent a lot of time on one puzzle that had redundant elements, and even then, the solution, signalled by nothing, was to employ it backwards. Some objects in the room were damaged, and it was hard to tell if it was for effect or if it was wear and tear. There was very little sense of order/sequence for the puzzles, and that also cost us some time. And to top it all off, lighting was poor, and I had a few issues even seeing the clues properly. They do say you can bring your phone and use the light for that, but point is, I lost time just trying to read things.

All in all, don't think I'll be trying the other puzzles. One other thing to note- when you book, you book by minimal group, which was 3 for this puzzle. Our third backed out, but we had to get 3 tickets, and he was lukewarm to begin with. Just... be aware of that aspect too. I ended up paying 3 tickets so 2 could participate. Net result: 90 dollars for 60 minutes, 5-10 of which were hamstrung by physical environment, 20 of which was going over the same puzzle with no way to know to do it backwards.

It was very unsatisfying. The more I think about it, the more bothered I get that the experience was...