Escape Room Reviews: Mortuary Mystery

Company: South Bay Volunteer Center
Room: Mortuary Mystery (Beta Test)
Date Played: 9/24/17
Player Count: 4 (2 and 2 strangers)
Success:  Eventual Success! (as part of the testing process, we completed the room, but it took us longer than 60 minutes)

Premise: The South Bay Volunteer Center’s annual fundraiser this year is an escape room. There’s some kind of plot about employee malfeasance, but the real story is that this is an excellent pop-up room escape.

Immersion: The center itself was once the county morgue, and so the setting of this room (a morgue) is strikingly realistic!

Highlights: Interacting with real mortuary-ish props is neat. One of the most creative uses of a key I’ve ever seen.  

Lowlights: The flow of the room is kind of confusing. Both from a plot perspective, becuase I’m pretty sure the story doesn’t make sense, and from a puzzle perspective. I was unclear of what our ultimate goal was, and it kind of snuck up on me. Also, I got tricked by a thing that has fooled me before in other rooms. I need to learn!

And Finally: I played this room as a tester, so there is a very good chance things will change by the time you play it. The testing experience itself was great though - the designers were excited to see us run through it all and cheered on our successes. Story gripes aside, this is a pretty neat room. It’s more inventive and more physical than a lot of “pro” rooms we’ve played, and definitely worth checking out while it lasts. Which is only 5 weeks!   Out of the 34 games I’ve played, I’m ranking this one #14.

How to book this room yourself: Visit https://www.volcenter.org/escaperoom before October 29, 2017! Hurry!