Crooked Key Escape Rooms — Local services in Steamboat Springs

My wife and I have done a little over thirty-five escape rooms around Colorado (and a few out of state and country). Besides a couple of rare disappointing rooms, most have been very enjoyable, but only a very select few have really jumped out to us for providing an EXPERIENCE. The Crooked Key definitely falls into the exceptional category. After doing all three of their rooms (Escape the Old West, Flashover!, and Taphophobia) and the city search (Key to the City), we both agreed that The Crooked Key is easily in our Top 3.

All three of their rooms offered a different experience. Escape the Old West was listed as the most beginner-friendly of the rooms but it was still incredibly fun for familiar escapees like ourselves. We had a blast in this room and it impressed us how well it managed to be accessible to a wide range of experience levels. It had a great atmosphere, good variety of puzzles, and great pacing and flow to the game.

We then did Flashover! Going from the most beginner-friendly room to the most challenging, we definitely felt the heat. We greatly enjoyed the set-up for the room and were really surprised to hear, when talking to the owners, that the room doesn’t book as much as the others, due to customers being hesitant of the theme. Those who are shying away from this room are really missing out on a fun experience. We found it to be very immersive, creative, and unique. There where many fun twists to this room that kept us on our toes, while still keeping the core elements of puzzle solving, observation, and scavenging a person expects from an escape room. It was another very well put-together room that really sold us on how much passion and care The Crooked Key puts into their rooms.

We had a large break between Flashover and Taphophobia (we wanted to do the Edgar Allen Poe room at night) that we decided to do Key to the City, the city search experience. We were initially going to skip the city search since we’ve done other types of outdoor searches and they usually were a bit lackluster. By this point, though, we were so impressed by the two rooms, we wanted to do everything they offered while we were in town. We are glad we did; Key to the City had a nice take on the outdoor scavenge. I won’t spoil too much but we really liked how they incorporated physical puzzles into the game. And we liked that we had the option to stop into a bar, have a beer, soak in the humor in the info packets, and carry on at our leisure.

We closed the night with Taphophobia. Having experienced the other two rooms, we knew it was going to be a quality experience but that still did not properly prepare us for this room. This room was fantastic! The imagination and thought put into this room is stunning. It truly felt like a Poe nightmare, but a beautifully developed and composed nightmare. The mood and set for this room was so immersive. The puzzles were top-notch and had great flow to them that matched the theme of the room perfectly (there were no traditional locks). Each room at The Crooked Key offered a different experience, and we LOVED every single one of them. However, for me, Taphophobia, has to be one of my most favorite rooms, ever. I know I’ll be raven about it for quite some time.

I’m not one to write many reviews (especially long ones, like this turned out to be), but The Crooked Key just really left that strong of an impression on us. We want to thank the owners for taking time and chatting with us and making our celebration weekend all the more special. We also want to thank CJ for being a fantastic Game Master and for providing such great customer service (we give him 5 Stars for each of the three rooms he guided us through). Thanks for giving us such an incredible experience and we look forward to...

Our family was very disappointed with this escape room. We did the Lucky Bird Saloon room. We've done quite a few escape rooms at other locations over the years - probably at least a dozen and enjoyed all but this one. We came away frustrated and unhappy.

I would not want to post information detailing information about the puzzles, but there were several design problems. For example, instructions say nothing should be moved that doesn't move with a gentle push, but this one requires moving heavy items. One puzzle would have likely required luck to solve unless using a smartphone flashlight. One puzzle was very worn and three different clues were very hard to see. One of those worn/faint clues could even be obscured in the process of solving it and you would have no idea that it was obscured. The FAQ says there are props, but no intentional red herrings, but we came across at least 2 props that I would instead call red herrings, as they appear to be clues, but we're not used at all.

The hints we got were also uneven, though the host was otherwise very nice. For example, when we asked for a hint about the obscured puzzle, our first hint was along the lines of "try again" and our second hint gave the actual answer instead of a hint about the now obscured clue. In this case, it actually made us believe the puzzle was actually incorrect, not that we missed something. That made us lose confidence in the room. Later, when we asked a clarifying question at one point about whether a device was functioning properly, we got told the location of an unrelated solution rather than an answer to our question.

The decoration of the room was very good and most clues/puzzles were fitting with the theme/time period, though not all, including the final solution, which is rather disappointing. There were a couple of clever puzzles.

In the end, perhaps it was an off night for us, but I would not recommend this...

Great fun - we've now done 2 of their rooms and loved them both.

We are avid Escape Game enthusiasts and have done rooms around the world. Crooked Key has built great games with a variety of puzzles and their games masters do a good job of making the experience fun for you, no matter your experience. This time around, our games master was Xandria, she was friendly and really got us engaged in the room.

The rooms we have done:

Taphophobia - with the Edgar Allen Poe theme, this room has several really unique features and NO padlocks (when we did it in 2018). The puzzles were challenging and fun, the theme is unique. I would say this is a challenging room, if you're beginners, expect to get some clues if you are going to get out in time. For pros, you'll need your thinking caps!

Engine 61 Flashover - I did this with a group of teenagers. The set is really engaging and the theme and storyline are expertly crafted and implemented. Our group did require a few clues to get us through. There was a great surprise in this puzzle (no spoilers here), that we all found really fun - and lots of unique puzzles. I also appreciated that this was a room we could all stay busy doing, while it's sequential to solve, there was enough to keep multiple people busy at once and we didn't have to sit around and wait for one clue. I'd definitely recommend this room for newbies, and for large groups looking for an experience where everyone can participate. (it'd be great for 1 or 2...