Stumptown Escape Games — Local services in Tigard

Amended Post: The owner has contacted me, and we have resolved this issue. As escape rooms are not inexpensive, I would always still caution people prior to booking, and make sure you know the refund/rescheduling policy. The rooms really are fantastic, and the game masters are always wonderful. So this is one of our favorites in the Portland area.

Original Post: Caution When Booking

My initial experience with this company was VERY good. The rooms are great. My most recent experience with this company has been very negative.

I had booked their new room- Alchemist's Revenge, paid online, received my confirmation code. The day before our escape room, I received an email saying THEY needed to cancel our booking. When I asked why, they told me it was due to the room not being complete because of low staffing issues. Not a problem, I told them, I just asked for a refund so I could work with the group that I was going with, and find a time to rebook later.

After several emails, and them trying to book me into another room (and me explaining that I have done all the other rooms), they have proceeded to ghost me. I have tried emailing multiple times, I have called multiple times, my husband has called multiple times.

Matt, the owner is completely non responsive, and he's holding onto $150 of my money for an escape room we haven't been able to play. Looking online, it says that if you have up to 2 times to reschedule your game without fee, and we haven't even heard from them about rescheduling once.

I would proceed with caution when booking with them. Since we couldn't control that they cancelled on us, and are...

This was my first escape room, and boy was it a disappointment. Luckily the folks I went with, who are all escape room enthusiasts, assured me not to write off all escape rooms based off this experience, that this one (Starcrash) was just particularly bad.

My #1 complaint is user interface/feedback. I imagine it's tough to pull off a 12 person room, and this room didn't do itself any favors. It was dark, difficult to see, difficult to read, difficult to write (there's a lot of writing), no table surface to put all our clues on, just a lot of bad quality of life choices. The puzzles are about opening small cabinets, but it's so dark inside that we missed several clues inside even after we got the cabinets open. If you're going to have a room with that many people, I imagine it should be crystal clear when you've solved a puzzle so everyone knows "SOMETHING JUST HAPPENED!" Not so with this room. It couldn't have been more unclear when we had solved a puzzle, and that was hugely dissatisfying.

Lastly, the help they gave was obnoxious. At one point we were stuck on a puzzle trying to figure out a code word, and they just straight up told us what it was. No hint, no nudging us in the right direction, just "The code word is __." Wow, cool, I feel so satisfied that we beat this challenge.

I'm really not sure how these folks have so many good reviews for Starcrash. I'm not an escape room expert by any means, but I felt and all my escape room friends agreed that there were several glaring faults in the room's...

This was my first escape room experience, so my experience might not sync with more experienced patrons.

The staff were friendly and accommodating, leading to a very personal feel. Our group was having a low key covid bachelor party for a friend and this was open and a new experience for a group that bonds around board and video games. The staff were happy to discuss the rooms and gave us extra time for a late arrival and to take a lunch between games, even helping us pick out a place to eat!

The games were challenging but not insane, with clear clues on what to do but not hand holding. If you need some help though the monitor will give you clues, which was nice as we had some difficulty at times. The games we picked were Oregon Files and the Starship Academy. With four people the first was about the right size, the maximum of 6 would feel a bit cramped IMO. The Academy we were undermanned a bit, requiring me to literally sprint back and forth to complete one of the clues as we just didn't have enough people.

Overall I would recommend it as a once every month or two experience, not necessarily efficient for money compared to a board game or movie theater ticket, but certainly a good bonding experience and nice way to spend an hour. It's personal, it's a group activity, it's unique as you can only do...