ESCAPE ROOM REVIEW – THE QUICK AND DIRTY

Play if… you’ve always dreamed of piloting a space ship.

Avoid if… you don’t cooperate or share well (or are claustrophobic).

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THE BASICS

Room Escape DC:

Address: 3949A University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 (click address for Google Map)

Contact and Website: 703-270-0377
https://roomescapedc.com

Room: Escape from Venus II: Collision Course

Description (from the company website): You and your teammate are en route to Earth after your recent close call crashing on and escaping from Venus. As you make your way towards our home planet, you pick up an incoming transmission, where you find out that an asteroid is on course to collide with Earth in a populated area for deadly consequences. Your small craft is the only one close enough to the asteroid to have a chance at destroying it before collision, though many of your ship’s functions (including the weapons you’d need and your communications system) were damaged on your previous mission. Will you be able to repair your ship and figure out how to destroy the asteroid before catastrophe? Try Escape from Venus II: Collision Course for an experience that will truly be out of this world.Did you and your partner lose the aliens trail?

Difficulty (1-10): 1/3

Time Limit: 60 minutes

Cost: $75/pair, but use ERG15 to take 15% off your price on games booked between Mondays and Thursdays

Identifier: R2 (Replaced Escape from Venus)

Party Size: 2

Staging Area: Room Escape DC has a lobby with multiple tables, couches/chairs, vending machines, a sign-in station and two restrooms.

Metro Access/Parking: No metro access, so you’ll have to drive or Lyft/Uber. But there’s plenty of parking in adjacent garages.

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OUR EXPERIENCE

This is the video we took before we entered the room:

This is the video we took just after we completed the room:

Logistics:

Description of the room: The room is small with a ship’s console on one end and a locker at the other.

Understanding of the Mission: On your way back home (finally) from your trials and tribulations with Venus, you find out that there’s an asteroid hurtling towards Earth and you’re the only ship available to destroy/deflect it, due to your proximity. Do you have the skills to destroy it and save your planet?

Did We Escape: Yes

Time Remaining: 25:15 (that was a new record at the time we did it).

Our Suggested Party Size: um, it’s a 2-person room, so… 2.

Did the room challenge the entire team? Yes.

Members of our team (other than the ERG): no one else

Worth the time and money? Yes

Where to Eat/Drink Before/After:

• The Green Turtle – sports bar w/ standard bar food.
• The Wine House – stop in for a glass of wine and dessert.

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OUR SCORING:

JASON SAYS:	MIKE SAYS:
Overall Expectation (Summary)
Version 2 of Escape from Venus, this time done by the ERG proper. Gotta be honest, was not looking forward to this one. The first one was ok, and I figured it could only get better, but last time we didn’t do the room together; we split up to see who’d win. This time, though, we changed it up and tackled this one together.	We had heard about this revamp of their original room, which we had done separately. This time, however, we figured that we’d see how well we’d do as just the ERG… pretty damn well it turns out, since we got the top spot on the leaderboard.
Story (Rating)
Oh great. Finally get away from them damn Venusians and now this bullshit? Where the hell is everyone else that our busted ass ship is the only one available to destroy a rebel asteroid? Rating: 7/10	After a tumultous mission where our ship broke down, we’re now repaired and heading back to Earth when we get a call from command that a rogue asteroid is on a collision course to Earth… and we’re the only ship in the area close enough to do anything about it. Rating: 7/10
Mission (Rating)
Race to the asteroid and blow it to smithereens before it hurtles to Earth. Rating: 6/10	Enable the weapons system, and destroy the asteroid before it collides with Earth. Where are Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and Billy Bob Thornton when you need them? (and Liv Tyler… can’t forget about Liv Tyler – but I did like her better as Arwen). Rating: 7/10
Puzzle Diversity (Rating)
There’s only so much you can do in a 2-person room, so let’s get that out of the way; it’s a small room. That said, there was enough going on to keep us both busy and not be completely linear (or bored). No repeats from the first room; in fact the only thing that remained was the lettering on the floor. So the fact that we were both occupied the entire time is a huge plus. Rating: 7.5/10	For a two-person room, there was a lot of different stuff to keep us occupied. There were some items that we had to work on together, and others that we solved on our own (I think that’s why we got out so quickly). I did like that there was a mix of the types of clues (fully mental challenges) and some ones that required a bit of hand-eye coordination. Rating: 8/10
Puzzle Complexity (Rating)
As we listed, we set a record for this room. Now, that’s not to say it wasn’t hard, but ok, so it wasn’t terribly difficult. The hardest part was probably the end. I won’t spoil any of that, however. It could have just been that Mike and I work well together, when it’s just the 2 of us in these things, so I’ma go with that. Rating: 6/10	Overall, the challenges of the room weren’t too difficult, but that’s not surprising since it’s a 2-person room and is not their hardest room to do. There were just one or two times where we got stuck, and eventually figured things out. I loved the last puzzle in this room, which required the teamwork, but I’m not going to tell you what it is. Rating: 6/10
Flow/Cohesiveness/Uniqueness (Rating)
My review of the original room noted that the room was very linear. Again, that’s because of the type of room (2 people, small room, etc.). This one wasn’t as bad. In fact, it didn’t feel linear until the latter half of the room. Puzzles were effective in keeping with the theme and they kept us on our toes. The entire console in the room was really cool, though, and easily the best part about the room. Rating: 7/10	As with the first room, it’s essentially a linear room where you start off, solve one thing, and that leads you to the next step. Normally, I HATE linear rooms, but with only two-people, that works well here. The room itself is pretty sparse in terms of decoration, and you only have the equipment that you need to solve the mission. I kind of like that since it falls within the theme, and allows you to capitalize on the fact that MAYBE you had to use a lot of shit to repair your ship after the last mission. The final puzzle (again my favorite) isn’t something that we saw anywhere else to date, but was supremely cool… and will definitely appeal to you in a nostalgic fashion if you were born anytime before 1990. Rating: 7/10
Fun/Amusement (Summary)
This was pretty fun all things considered. I am kind of indifferent about it at this point, but if I hadn’t played it, I would play it now.	I liked the room better than the original and had a good time playing it.
Game Master (Summary)
I don’t even remember who our GM was at this point. :/	She was pretty great. I think we had Donna as our GM.
How Helpful Were Any Clues Given, if any (Summary)
We asked for 1 clue I think. I can remember exactly what it was for and I’m still pissed we didn’t catch it.	We got a nudge at one point, and we asked for a clarification so we didn’t accidentally break something as we were trying to solve it.
Anger Level Score	ERG (pronounced URG, as in “we should have known better”) Score
Keepin’ it cool here. Rating:  Fists – 0/5	Only a mild facepalm here, since the nudge was in a direction we started off moving towards, but then got distracted and didn’t follow through. Rating: ?‍♂️?‍♂️ FacePalms – 2/5

ESCAPE ROOM GUYS’ OVERALL SCORING: 6.85/10

Final Thought: We liked this room better than the original, which goes to show that sequels sometimes ARE better. It’s a great room for novices, or for people that normally do rooms with large groups to try out. The room was also slightly more challenging since we had less time remaining on this one than either of us did on the previous room (even though we tackled this room together with the combined power of the two Escape Room Guys).