Red Door Escape Room — Local services in Southlake

Disappointed in our game tonight. 3 major problems happened that really ruined the experience.

We started in 2 separate rooms. When we asked for a first clue it showed on both screens in each of our rooms. Then we asked for another clue and nothing showed on our screen. We continued to try anything while we waited but we were pretty stuck at this point and needed the clue. We radioed to the other room a few minutes later to confirm they pressed the button for the clue and we found out the second clue showed up on their screen, but there was nothing on our screen. So we just were wasting time toiling away in our room aimlessly without a clue - and expecting a clue to show up in our own room as it did for the 1st clue.

Then we had an issue with the code on a safe. We had the right code. I was spinning my wheels going back and forth making sure. Then I come back and apparently this particular lock times out for a minute after failed attempts. So I waited longer thinking that was the problem. Then when I kept trying, I realized the safe wasn't working at all. It wasn't beeping or anything when I pressed buttons. I said into the ether "it's not working, nothing is beeping". Our game master had to come in and unlock it manually.

The final straw was another clue that was supposed to project something. I can't give away details. But again, we were spinning our wheels for what seemed like forever trying to line things up in the painted outline hoping it would turn on. And it just didn't. It was a total bottle neck as there was nothing else at the time to work on. We had to shout out to our game master "is something supposed to light up or project? Because nothing is happening". Valuable time had been wasted on this thing. Our game master came in to turn the device on and he determined the previous group must have broken it. He just gave us the code for it so we could do the next lock. That locked opened another room and it was so lame and anticlimactic at that point. Like I didn't even want to be there anymore because of all of the shifty work in this game.

When you go to an escape room, you expect successes along the way to get that dopamine hit and that you're getting closer to escaping. These problems just made things not fun as we could tell if we were stuck because there was another problem...

Short version: Maggie is a wonderful host, amazing job. The rooms are really well crafted, they flow well and clues/puzzles make sense. However the message behind one of them was extremely upsetting.

Me and my girlfriend did two rooms today, Confinement and Taken. The setting, decoration, puzzles, and flow of the room were all great, amazing job all around.

Taken: The hardest room, it was challenging and creative, the only complaint that I have is that at one point there is a door with a combination on it, however it just opens up on its own. You should probably put a sign that says so because we assumed we needed a combination when that wasn’t the case, luckily our wonderful host Maggie told us so. Otherwise, fantastic room.

Confinement: This is the scary room, which it delivered on well. I don’t scary easy, but my girlfriend does. She was thoroughly spooked and screamed, it was funny and played well into the theme. The puzzles again were great and flowed well. However, when I come to do an escape room, I fully expect to not have religious, political, or major discussion shoved in my face. The topic in this room is downright offensive. And the thing that really upsets me is that the company KNOWS. Not only are there other reviews that complain about it, but when me and my girlfriend questioned Maggie about it because we wanted to make sure we were right, she instantly was at a loss for words. Trying to beat around the bush, and when we asked “is it about this?” She confirmed that it indeed was, and that they were going to be getting rid of it soon. It is ridiculous that you are calling people who differ in opinions demons. This has been an issue for a long time judging by the reviews and this company has been aware of it for a while.

As soon as that room is rather changed/gone, I’ll change my review to five stars. But until then, it’s just ridiculous. Otherwise, stellar rooms and stellar employees. Thanks for the great time Maggie!

Edit: I wanted to add that I sent an email to this person and got no response, which upsets me even more because they are clearly doing it to just look...

Disappointing experience.

My husband and I love escape rooms and have done several over the last few years. We came here with our friends, this being their first escape room. We booked "Once Upon a Time" for the theme and lower difficulty. Apparently the other places we've been to gave us high expectations and this wasn't it. The room we entered had a metal gate door with a curtain draped over it. We could hear other loud sessions going on the whole time, so the immersion was shot.

I was confused if our game master was fully paying attention to us. We were allowed 4 hints. We were "stuck" on a puzzle for a good 10-15 minutes. When we asked for a hint, the screen told us to do EXACTLY what we had been doing that entire time. We did it again, wrong. Asked for another hint and they gave us part of the code we were calculating. The code didn't match the method. Without giving away too much info, items had to be weighed and each weight calculated was one digit off from the code they gave us for the lock.. So we spent half our hints/time on a broken puzzle. Nearly escaped at the end, but one of our final locks would not open. Turns out we had the correct code, (despite it being a 4 digit code to a 5 digit lock) the lock was just "finicky"..Maybe mention that in the briefing or simply note it on the screen when we had the right code?

Our game master was nice, so I have nothing against him. But this experience was so lackluster after having been to better ones where the devices/codes function correctly, the game master is helpful/adds to the experience, and the immersion is impeccable with sound proofing/set ups that have much better illusions than power-cords plugged into the wall outlets and locks that say "not a part of game." Perhaps the other rooms here are better, but we do not want to risk it after this "adventure." If you are unfamiliar with escape rooms you might be okay with this one (assuming the devices work), but I promise there are much better...