Knowing what the Cursed Crypt looked like, I had high hopes for what could possibly happen in this room; how it would look, what the build quality was. It seems like they spared no expense when they created this room, and it really shows through in the puzzles and game play.

We hadn’t done a horror themed room in awhile, so when Jason wanted to introduce a new player to our team, we ended up trekking out to Herndon to check it out.

Knowing how well The Cursed Crypt was designed, we were hoping that it wasn’t just this room that was that well done (we had some confidence since Ravenchase has been well rated on some of the groups we belong to).

The room is only slightly creepy, and dimly lit. No flashlights allowed, which is a good thing to limit for it.

At least it wasn’t a room where you’re an investigative journalist…? *yawn*

Rating: 8/10

The story was similar to some of the urban legends you’ve heard about and was pretty well done. More of the story develops as you go through the room and uncover parts of the mystery.

Rating: 8/10

At this point in our escape room career, we have done a ton of simple-mission rooms. That said, while I appreciate the multiple objectives, there was nothing terribly exciting to be done here. Maybe we could have determined, based discovering a performed ritual, who was the entity that was being summoned; something like that. (Just to be clear, though, that was not a spoiler.)

Rating: 6.5/10

The mission is pretty clear on what you have to do, and there is a moderate level of challenge with the multiple objectives, and these seemed to be loosely based on that old John Cusack movie “1408.“

Rating: 7/10

We found a few physical manipulation puzzles, some logic, but in general a good amount of straight up puzzle solving. I’m still a little annoyed at my lack of putting 2 and 2 together for one of the first puzzles that progressed this story. Freakin’ floor knob…

I even lent my body to one puzzle, as well as crawled on the floor to find something.

Did I mention the bodies…? There were bodies.

But nothing was repeated, which is always a great thing, but there were a few things I’ve seen before. Nothing we hate more than a million locks in a room, though (not to imply there were; that was more to just reiterate that fact).

Rating: 9/10

There were some spooky elements that were surprising and were threaded throughout the experience, and integrated into the puzzles themselves. There was a type of puzzle we’d seen on a much, much smaller scale (think the size of a chessboard) that was pretty cool to solve as well.

The locks, themselves, were varied throughout the experience so there was plenty to do for both the newbies (two ERVs… Steph and another person who was put into the room with us), while also showing them how different types of locks in typical escape rooms can operate.

Rating: 9/10

One thing that really surprised the team was that something made me jump. I don’t scare easily so the fact that this occurred is surprising/impressive.

Anyway, there were only one or two things that were more complicated than they seemed, but didn’t necessarily prove to be difficult. It’s the plain sight visual things that got us in this room.

I’d say the bulk of the puzzles were between a 3 and a 7 pushing 8.

Rating: 9/10

Rating: 8.5/10

It looks like a hotel room, albeit a small one. However it is packed with shit to do. As you progress, though, it becomes…less…of a hotel room.  You’ll understand.

The room progresses rather quickly and it may seem that what you find throughout has little to do with the story line they’ve provided, but upon the conclusion of the story/room, it all makes sense and ties back everything together (like the rug in The Big Lebowski). [Yes, I made a reference to that piece of hot garbage of a movie. Also yes, I hate myself a little bit for it.]

Rating: 8/10 (3.5/2.5/2)

The decoration was well done (you feel as if you are in a second-rate hotel room that could really be haunted or at least infested with bedbugs *SHUDDERS*), but to complete the overall experience, I’d suggest maybe adding a bed (I know it takes up space, but it IS a hotel room after all).

The room flowed pretty well as the experience moved on. The first part required us all to explore together in a small space, and then it expanded after that which allowed us all to work in small groups. There was definitely enough for 6 of us to do in this room.

It was a pretty unique experience and I loved the ending… which was creepy and a take on one of my extreme dislikes… but what we had to do was pretty cool and made it much easier to get through.

Rating: 8/10

The other two people in the room (new to escape rooms as well) wanted to get a clue in the first 5 minutes as we were just starting. They were ultimately overruled. I also did have a good laugh when the disembodied voice of our GM warned them twice about taking selfies in the room (and the guy tried to deny it). Dude… they have you on a fucking camera… dumbass.

Rating: ?

Rating:  4/5