ESCAPE ROOM REVIEW – THE QUICK AND DIRTY
Play if… you like anything Egypt, Indiana Jones, or digging for treasure.
Avoid if… mummies freak you out or the thought of getting trapped in a tomb makes you hyperventilate.
THE BASICS
Glenwood Escape Room:
Address: 918 Grand Ave, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601 (click address for Google Map)
Contact and Website: 970-945-7529
https://www.glenwoodescape.com/
Room – Egypt Room:
Description (from the company website): You and your team of treasure hunters have just discovered riches beyond measure in an ancient Egyptian tomb, but word has gotten out to nearby tomb robbers who are desperate to have it for themselves. Find encrypted clues, solve heiroglyphic puzzles and crack the code within an hour, or be captured by the robbers and locked within the tomb forever!
Difficulty (1-10): N/A
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Cost: $29 (All bookings are private)
Identifier: R1
Party Size: 2-8
Staging Area: Lobby has a couch and some puzzle games to play with. Water is available.
Metro Access/Parking: Glenwood Springs is a little touristy and a few hours from Colorado Springs, so you’re probably driving there. Plenty of street parking, though.
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 supposed to be an archaeological dig site. You start in a giant tent and make your way to the hidden tomb. Nothing is really hidden from you except where the tomb is.
Understanding of the Mission: Find the hidden Pharaoh’s tomb, escape with your life
Did We Escape: Yep!
Time Remaining: 10:29
Our Suggested Party Size: 4 is sufficient
Did the room challenge the entire team? Yes
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Steph
Worth the time and money? Yes
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After:
- Smoke Modern BBQ – We went here before because we were super hungry after the hot springs. The food was great as was the service.
OUR SCORING:
| JASON says |
|---|
| Overall Expectation (Summary) |
| Escape room number 3 of our vacation to Colorado Springs was somewhat impromptu. I knew we were going to be in the area, we just weren’t sure we were actually going to go. When we got up to the store front and went inside, the manager, Emily, was very welcoming and told us there was plenty of time after we came back from dinner to do one. We told her we would be back to do the Egypt tomb escape and off to dinner we went.
The website provided the basic description of an Egyptian Tomb Escape that I would have expected: enter the tomb, find treasure, leave (AKA Escape). And that is essentially what we got! |
| Story (Rating) |
| First things first: The website description and the story from the briefing are very different. When we entered the room and watch the briefing video, the story went something like this, if I recall correctly:
You are the assistants to an archaeologist who has recently uncovered an Egyptian pharaoh. Unfortunately he’s been run out from the dig site, and has asked you to sneak back in to retrieve something for him. Also unfortunately, grave robbers and other miscreants have found out about the site and are on their way to loot it. They’ll be there in about 60 minutes, so you have to find what your boss asked you to find and get out before they lock you inside to deal with whatever curses there may be. Also to die. (Again, I’m paraphrasing more than normal.) Rating: 7.5/10 |
| Mission (Rating) |
| The mission was quite clear from the video of the archaeologist. Get in, find the stuff, get out before the looters find you and trap you inside (better known as SAVE YOURSELF!).
Rather straightforward with a good sense of urgency. Rating: 8/10 |
| Puzzle Diversity (Rating) |
| There was a decent mix of puzzles throughout the room. When you walk into the room, you can see that there’s a second room blocked off by a chain link fence. So that’s not a spoiler at all.
There didn’t seem to be that much to actually do, however the puzzles that were there were a mix of things I’ve not seen before and things that I have with tweaks. (Whenever I go to a new location, and by that I mean of the country, that is when I generally find new puzzles. More often than not when I stay local it’s revamps and tweaks. So that was refreshing at least.) What I enjoyed most from this room were the more physical, hands on puzzles. There was a puzzle with ropes, another with some… I don’t know, hidden object is what it felt like, but it was a visual puzzle. There were several combo locks, but everything else was some sort of magnetic lock. And the final few puzzles with the actual sarcophagus we’re pretty cool. That was an excellent way to end the room and escape. Rating: 9.5/10 |
| Puzzle Complexity (Rating) |
| There were a couple of obvious puzzles that we didn’t really overlook but more so underestimated. For example, the visual puzzle I mentioned earlier took us much longer than it should have because we were just looking at it in the wrong fashion. Same goes for the bag puzzle.
Similar to one of the rooms at Pikes Peak Escape Rooms, there was a notebook that gave you the majority of knowledge needed to solve the puzzles. You kept referring back to it throughout the experience, and it was just as well done as the notebook at that other room. Everything was in plain sight, and although not necessarily hidden, also not completely blatantly obvious. This was Steph and I’s second room on our own, and we worked extremely well together in this room for it being just the two of us. Nothing was overly difficult, some things toward the end just clicked for me, but that just speed up our escape toward the end. Difficulty wise, I would say between a 1 and a 6/7. Rating: 6.5/10 |
| Flow/Cohesiveness/Uniqueness (Rating) |
| I want to start by giving them props for setting up a full-size tent in that small room. When she said to us before we went in that you were in a dig site and there was a tent and that nothing outside of the tent was needed, I wasn’t exactly sure what that was really going to mean. But when we got in, it was obvious what was going on, where you were, and who you were supposed to be. I believe there may have even been a leather hat a la Indiana Jones…
The only thing that seemed out of place was the chain link fence separating the two rooms. Everything else in one way, shape, or form fit the locale. The sarcophagus was beautiful, the way to escape was awesome and fit well with the entire theme. Rating: 8.5/10 |
| Fun/Amusement (Summary) |
| Steph and I had fun in this room and we’re glad we chose this one over the other 2 available (an outbreak style room and something of a whodunit as the third), both of which seemed a little over-done, theme-wise, for me at least. |
| Game Master (Summary) |
| Emily was there to help us along, should we have needed it. We had a couple hiccups/technical issues, but nothing that really drew us back to reality. |
| How Helpful Were Any Clues Given, if any (Summary) |
| We got a nudge here and there and a few clarifications (that magnetic bag puzzle for instance). |
| RAGE Meter |
| Nothing to really report here.
Rating: 0/5 |
ESCAPE ROOM GUYS’ OVERALL SCORING: 8.0/10
Final Thought: I was pleasantly surprised by this room. Being in a touristy area, I didn’t think the rooms would have been terribly good. This review seems to prove otherwise. Again, there really didn’t seem like there was much to do, but we were occupied at all times and were just into it. If I’m out in Glenwood Springs again, I would definitely consider doing a two-fer and finishing out the rooms there.