ESCAPE ROOM REVIEW – THE QUICK AND DIRTY

Play if… you love camping or the Friday the 13th series.

Avoid if… you have anxiety while being stalked by a serial killer (even a pretend one).

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THE BASICS

Escape Room Live Georgetown:

Address: 3345 M St NW, Washington, DC 20007 (click address for Google Map)

Contact and Website: 800-616-4880
http://www.escaperoomlive.com/our-rooms
[email protected]

The Room – Friday the 13th:

Description (from the company website): Ch Ch Ch Ah Ah Ah! Jason is back and he just wants to play! It is Friday the 13th and you need to hole up in a cabin and keep Jason out until midnight… after all, nothing bad ever happens on Saturday the 14th!

Difficulty (1-10): 7/10

Time Limit: 45 minutes

Cost: $28 + tax per person but use ERGUYS15 when booking to save 15% off per ticket.

Identifier: R1

Party Size: 8-10

Staging Area: This is probably the swankiest location we’ve seen. Tons of seating AND A BAR (wine and beer). There are also free lockers to stash your belongings before you enter the room.

Metro Access/Parking: Rosslyn metro and then a .9 mile walk across the Key Bridge. It’s Georgetown, so parking can be difficult (so definitely carpool and use the parking garage for Georgetown Mall (at Wisconsin and M, head down the hill towards K Street). We suggest Uber or Lyft.

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OUR EXPERIENCE

Logistics:

Description of the room: You enter the room and are in the woods outside the Camp Director’s cabin. Probably the best staging we’ve seen for a room so far. We can’t even call this a room; you have to see it.

Understanding of the Mission: Perform a series of tasks to alert the authorities, hide out in the cabin and stave off Jason until the clock strikes midnight on Saturday the 14th.

Did We Escape: Hell, yes!

Time Remaining: 15 minutes

Our Suggested Party Size: We had 8 because we didn’t book the entire room and had two random people in with us (a father-daughter team, who were pretty cool). So, 8 was good, but we could have done it with 6.

Did the room challenge the entire team? Yes. Plenty for everyone to do.

Members of our team (other than the ERG): Mark, Steph, Catherine and Katheryn

Worth the time and money? yes

Where to Eat/Drink Before/After: It’s Georgetown, so there are plenty of places to go for food and drinks, depending on your budget. We’ll leave it to Google, since we had wine and beer at their bar.

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Our Scoring:

JASON SAYS:	MIKE SAYS:
Overall Expectation (Summary)
1 – Who cares what I expected? JASON. FREAKING. VORHEES. 2 – Honestly, yes, I was super excited. Ever since I found out that Escape Room Live was opening this room, I’ve been dying (HA!) to try  it. I was expecting mainly some Jason memorabilia (sort of like the Escape the Movies room), but holy hell did they step up their game in this location. I originally wanted to do this on Friday the 13th in January, but alas, Capitals tickets. Saturday the 14th would have to suffice! As Mike said, they were running a few minutes behind schedule due to a malfunction of some sort, but compensated us after with a free round at the bar.	I was pretty excited for this location to open, since we had done all the rooms in their Alexandria location, and one in their Glover Park spot. Jason had the bright idea of doing this on Saturday the 14th to fit with the theme of the room. They were running about 15 minutes behind, which would have normally pissed me off a bit, but the manager was very apologetic and offered our group a free drink at the bar once we were finished. Can’t complain about that! I actually like the Friday the 13th movies for their campiness (pun intended) since they aren’t all that frightening. Plus, the bar in the lobby.
Story (Rating)
Jason’s been spotted around Camp Crystal Lake (his old stomping grounds; or should that be slashing grounds?) and you have to last until midnight. Because nothing bad ever happens on Saturday the 14th. Turns out, there’s a laundry list of things you need to ensure your own safety. Rating: 9/10	Jason Vorhees, the deranged serial killer, has been reported to be stalking campers around Camp Crystal Lake. Rating: 8/10
Mission (Rating)
As I said above, you have a literal list of stuff to do/find/setup before Jason finds you. I think this was the first time we’ve been in a room with an actual list of things do to. Rating: 9/10	Alert the authorities by performing a series of tasks and stay safe in the cabin until the clock strikes midnight. Rating: 9/10
Puzzle Diversity (Rating)
Let me think about this one for a minutes. This room had <pause> 4 <unpause> puzzles we had not encountered before. Hell, the first one we encountered was worth the price of admission. And actually took ALL of us to solve. (Though I will go ahead and give myself a pat on the back for being the one to hack it.) Rating: 9/10	The puzzles were actually really cool. We encountered some types we’ve not done before (always a plus), and there were plenty of puzzles to work on all at the same time. We were able to split up into smaller teams, and then switch once puzzles were solved or if someone was stumped on one, so there was a good variety of puzzle types to appeal to all personality types. Rating: 8/10
Puzzle Complexity (Rating)
Nothing overly complex, but just the right amount of thought provoking. And we actually mostly followed our rules this time. As Mike said, we eventually voted to get a clue for one lock, after which I wanted to kick myself for not actually examining said lock. I’m sure I could have figured it out, so I give myself a -1 for that. But other than that, as Mike says, we really did clear it out pretty quick. Rating: 7/10	The puzzles did require some thought, but weren’t overly complicated (we had two newbies in the room with us – the father-daughter team, who had a lot of fun). There was only one that really threw us for more than a few minutes. The group voted to ask for a hint, but we probably could have solved it with a little more time. Jason wants a rule establishing veto power. I may have to support him on that considering we only used 2/3 of the total time to complete the mission. Other than that, we FLEW through the room. Rating: 7/10
Flow/Cohesiveness/Uniqueness (Rating)
This room, visually, blew me away. The aesthetics were on point (I’ve not seen a room this well done to this point) and every clue was directly related to either a task at hand, the Jason story, or something thematic. Every. Single. Clue. Rating: 10/10	The setting and decor was probably the best I’ve seen in any of the rooms we’ve done. The clues all related to the theme of the room, and everything came together in the end. Rating: 10/10
Fun/Amusement (Summary)
This room easily replaces Sherlock as the room I would recommend to people wanting to give it a try. Hands down (as if they’d been chopped off by Jason’s machete).	Despite the fact that we finished the room so quickly, I had a lot of fun. The setting really made you think you were in a camp cabin!
Game Master (Summary)
I honestly don’t remember who the GM was when the room started because I was too busy taking it all in. But, pretty sure the GM was the DUDE that was reading us the rules when we got downstairs, Mike.	Our GM was good. She gave us a clue when we asked for it, but pretty much stayed out of our way since we were solving puzzles left and right. Ok, ok… so I got confused with the manager and the GM because we talked with the manager about the lock.
How Helpful Were Any Clues Given, if any (Summary)
We only asked for the one, and yes, it worked.	The clue was definitely helpful. See below, however.
Anger Level Score	ERG (pronounced URG, as in “we should have known better”) Score
The only thing I will complain about (because really, this post wouldn’t be complete with yours truly complaining about something) was the fact that one of the locks was unlocked when we got in the room. After we were all done, I asked the manager what something was for and she said it was the combo to a lock. Welp, that lock was open when we got in, honey! So… Rating: 1/5 Fists	We’ve seen tons of these types of puzzles, but this one had a twist. It was definitely a FacePalm once we got the clue. I don’t think I was the only one, so I’m giving this a three. Rating: ?‍♂️?‍♂️?‍♂️ FacePalms – 3/5

ESCAPE ROOM GUYS’ OVERALL SCORING: 8.6/10

Final Thoughts: After finishing up this room, the ERG agree that this room was the most aesthetically pleasing of any room we’ve done to date. Thematically, top 2, possibly tied for best. Escape Room Live seems like they “spared no expense” when building out this facility. Maybe they’ll build out a Jurassic Park room… (get it? Spared no expense? John Hammond? No? BAH!)