Escape Rooms Ranked

Okay, the idea of ranking the escape rooms we visit is going to become unmanageable very quickly, but this is the post that will be continually updated with the scoreboard.

This scoreboard is the list of escape rooms I've played, from most favorite to least. As it grows, it gets reshuffled based on the wind.

This is a completely subjective list that shows what game I would most like to play as of the last time I revised it . It's what I would want, if I were searching the internet for reviews.   

Click on the names to read the reviews and find out what I liked, didn't like, or learned about myself at each game. 

1. Evil Genius: Occam's Apartment
2. Escape Chronicles: Smuggler's Tunnels
3. Evil Genius: Norcross Art Gallery
4. Room Escape Live: The Bunker
5. Escape Chronicles: Testing Facility
6. Quicksand Escape (San Diego): The Diner
7. Red Lantern Escape Rooms: Midnight on the Bayou
8. 60 Out: Grandma's Master Plan
9. Escape the Laboratory
10. 60 Out: The Wizard's Workshop
11. Exit Game: The Lab
12. 60 Out: The Zen Room
13. Quest Rooms: Da Vinci's Challenge
14. 60 Out: The Hangover
15. Escapedom: The Lair
16. Mortuary Mystery
17. 60 Out: Dracula
18. Maze Rooms: The Castle
19. 60 Out: Ghost Ship
20. Escape Era San Diego: Déja Vu
21. Maze Rooms: One-Way Ticket
22. MagIQ: The Pirates Cove
23. Escapology (Las Vegas): The Budapest Express
24. 60 Out: Titanic
25. Xterious Escape (Las Vegas): Bugsy's Nightmare
26. Enigma Escape: The Crime Scene
27. Exit Game: The AI
28. Escape Hunt Experience Cleveland: Murder in the Old Manor House
29. Trapped Cleveland: Labyrinth
30. Escape Room Cleveland: Black & White
31. 60 Out: Senator Payne
32. Amazing Escape: Mystery of the Red Dragon
33. Enigma Escape: The Will
34. 60 Out: Alice in Wonderland
35. Great Redemption: Great Redemption
36. Hidden Passage: The Pharaoh's Curse
37. Maze Rooms: Prison
38. Amazing Escape: Escape From Corporation X
39. Perplexity Games (Cleveland): The Clockwork Caper
40. Maze Rooms: Lunar Escape
41. Cryptic Escape: Stuck in Time
42. Exit Game: The Villain's Lair
43. Escape Hotel: Witchcraft
44. SCRAP: Escape From the Magic Show

Unless otherwise noted, all of the games on this list are located in the broadly-defined Los Angeles area.

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Home Games:

This section is for boxed games you can play at home, and maybe eventually VR or video games that are like room escapes.

1. Escape Room in a Box
2. The Librarian's Almanaq
3. The Mystery of Stargazer's Manor

A

B

C

D

F

Escape Room Reviews: The Will

Company: Enigma Escape Rooms
Room: The Will
Date Played: 8/6/16
Player Count: 4, which was plenty.

Success:  Success! Some hints.

Premise: Your dear uncle has shuffled off this mortal coil. You must find his will in his study before you’re shuffled off as well, by his lethal traps!

Immersion: As an office, it looked a lot like an office.  New best introduction by a host: She went over the rules, and then remembered that she had a letter addressed to us which set the scene.

Highlights: Instead of being all locks, this room had a lot of ‘magic objects,’ or devices that know when they’ve been used correctly and advance the game. One puzzle would have left me feeling and looking silly except that it turned out I was doing the right thing, which was fairly satisfying.

Lowlights: We were warned so thoroughly at the beginning about what was and wasn’t okay to touch that we missed out on something important at the beginning until the GM intervened on the radio. I think I’m starting to come down on the use of walkie-talkies - it seems like in the rooms where we have them, the GMs are too eager to use them.  I couldn’t tell if one of the puzzles was actually tech driven or if it was just activated by the GM watching and talking to us. 

And Finally: As we progress, my regular group of four is finding that we have certain roles we fall into.  One guy focuses on the dexterity puzzles (something this room didn’t feature heavily), one of us is the communications officer, handling real radios and fake phones alike. My specialty might be stepping back to see a bigger picture and then saying ‘Oh, I see it.’ and doing the unlikely or silly seeming thing. In this room, that paid off in a big way, but earlier on it also led us astray and wasted a lot of time while I ignored a big obvious thing. 

Also, I think I noticed that this room has been revised, with a certain puzzle toned down, even though the clues to the original version (I suspect) are still ‘in play,’ even though they serve no actual purpose.   

Unlike some of our previous rooms, I think any two of us would have been sufficient to solve The Will.  There is another room that continues the story, in which you solve your uncle's murder. I'm looking forward to playing it one day. Out of the 5 rooms we've played, I'm ranking this one #3. 

How to book this room yourself: Visit http://www.enigmaescaperooms.com/room/info/3

Escape Room Reviews: Lunar Escape

Company: Maze Rooms
Room: Lunar Escape
Date Played: 7/2/16
Player Count: 3, which was plenty!

Success:  Success!

Premise: "You are on moon base, but the problem is, nothing works.  You know, like in movies? But there is rescue ship coming to get you!" You also need to grab a sample of a space rock on your way out the escape hatch.

Immersion: Everything we loved about The Castle's introduction was back with flying colors! However, in stark contrast to The Castle, this room is beautiful. The design and decoration is really top notch, the best I've seen. We got some costumes to wear.

Highlights: The set is fantastic. The finale is very cool, and the beginning has a couple of puzzles that are enjoyable to work though. All of the things you're not supposed to have or use, like your purse or phone, went into a plastic box that you take with you into the room. I like this approach.

Lowlights: One object was broken in a way that required the keeper to run in and fix it, which kind of breaks the spell of being stranded on the moon. At least one puzzle was solved by accident and we didn't understand why. Our keeper was too chatty on the radios, offering us hints, anti-hints ("that's not what you need to do"), or offers to skip ahead. I think we'd rather not communicate with the keeper unless we initiate it or we need, like, a safety warning. 

And Finally:   Compared to the other Maze Room we've played, this one had a very linear path. It was almost more like a guided story experience than a puzzle room. I think we physically needed three people in order to complete one part, but a bigger group is going to have a hard time finding enough things to do.

Out of 4 rooms escaped, Lunar Escape ranks #3.

How to book this room yourself: Visit http://la.mazerooms.com/quest/lunar-mission/

Escape Room Review: Escape From the Magic Show

Company: Real Escape Game / SCRAP
Room: Escape from the Magic Show
Date Played: 4/23/16
Player Count: 5 (2 + 3 strangers)

Success:  No, failure!

Premise: You're at a magic show, but then there's a magic bomb and you're tied to a bunch of strangers. So defuse the bomb, or you're doomed to live in the El Rey theater forever!

Immersion: Well, it was kind of a magic show, in that there was someone doing magic tricks on stage at the beginning and end of the event. And the group of strangers that we were paired with claimed that they thought they were there to attend a real magic show and that they didn't know there was a game, which is just what someone would say if it had been a real magic show. So I guess that was pretty realistic.

Highlights: The scant few physical things there were to do, like unlocking a couple of locks. 

Lowlights: Most of the puzzles had to fit on a small cocktail table and be replicated for two dozen groups, which means most of them were like doing an activity workbook for kids. The event cost more than going to a regular escape room. The random strangers we met were kind of a drag. Plus they blew up our bomb, so now we have to live in the El Rey forever.

And Finally:   We were pretty excited about the idea of one of this company's other games, The Time Travel Lab, until we actually played this one, which was pretty disappointing. I've heard they're doing Escape the Bank Vault in Long Beach later this year, but I think we'll skip it.

Out of 3 escape rooms played, Escape From the Magic Show is a distant #3. 

How to book this room yourself: You probably can't. This was a limited engagement event. It's for the best. But you could visit http://realescapegame.com for permanent games and upcoming special events.

Escape Room Reviews: The Bunker

Company: Room Escape Live
Room: The Bunker
Date Played: 11/1/15
Player Count: 4

Success:  Success! With a hint or two.

Premise: Some military guy launched a nuke and then killed himself, so go through his office and find a way to stop it!  (Not strictly an escape, you could walk out at any time, but that won’t stop the missile launch!)

Immersion: Sufficient. I mean, it doesn't make any sense that this guy would have so many padlocks in his office. How would he get anything done? On a scale of '1 - Office Park' to '10 - Actual office in a missile silo' I'd say this gets a '6 - Set of a Game Show,' which was great.

Highlights: The main prop and all the things it gets used for is a lot of fun. There are a couple of multi-step puzzles that also stood out. This room always had plenty of stuff for the four of us to be searching or doing. So much so that we had to debrief after to make sure we all knew what all had transpired. We solved the dexterity puzzle (we're learning that there's always a dexterity puzzle!) that the minder told us most people don't solve. (Apparently they use a hint instead.) 

Lowlights: Kind of a lot of the same kind of regular locks. We got hung up in the beginning on a searching failure. 

And Finally:   We had a great time in this room, and we reached the very cinematic conclusion. However, our minder didn't stop the soundtrack, so the bomb still went off while we were taking victory photos and chatting, which was a good laugh. Not every object in the room was part of the game, but it felt like everything was 'in-bounds' and explorable. Fun gadgets, clear objectives, cool set. You would need a minimum of two people to physically accomplish the tasks in this game, but our foursome kept plenty busy.

Out of 2 escape rooms played, The Bunker is #1!

How to book this room yourself: Visit http://losangeles.roomescapelive.com/reservation/index/game/bunker