Escape Room Reviews: The Smugglers' Tunnels

Company: Escape Chronicles
Room: The Smugglers’ Tunnels
Date Played: 9/4/17
Player Count: 4, a good minimum for this room.
Success:  Success!

Premise: As part of an elite crime ring that’s been burned, you need to get the goods, finger your traitorous partner, and get out!  The more work you do and the more puzzles you solve, the more stolen artifacts you can recover and the more cash you get to split with your crew.

Immersion: Escape Chronicles’ first room is well designed, but it’s an office theme, so that’s almost a gimme. This room looks as much or more like a cavern hideout than the Testing Facility looks like an office break room. 

Highlights: The Smugglers’ Tunnels has a wonderful system for giving each member of your ring of thieves secret, specialized knowledge. You’re not a bunch of henchmen, you’re hand picked for your unique skills, all of which are necessary to pull this thing off. The room features a non-linear series of tasks befitting each specialist. This room has fun interactions, some cool reveals, and plenty of things to keep everyone busy. 

Lowlights: I wasted some of my loot on calling a criminal mastermind for a hint when I should’ve totally seen the thing the hint was about. Also, we got suckered by a forgery instead of one of the real valuables. 

And Finally: I loved this room. With two excellent rooms, Escape Chronicles is officially my favorite escape company in Los Angeles (or anywhere). It may be neck-and-neck with Evil Genius, but so far I’ve only seen one room from them. The North Hollywood location might make Escape Chronicles seem a little off the beaten path, especially for visitors and tourists, but this should be considered one of LA’s can’t-miss games. Out of 33 games played, this one is practically tied for first. I'm going to call it #2.

How to book this room yourself: Visit https://www.escapechronicles.com/rooms/smugglers-tunnels/