ESCAPE ROOM REVIEW – THE QUICK AND DIRTY

Play if… you love the James Bond (or Austin Powers) franchise.

Avoid if… you waffle on making important decisions in a timely manner.

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THE BASICS

5 Wits Adventures – Arlington:

Address: Ballston Quarter Mall, 3rd Floor, 4238 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22203 (click address for Google Map)

Contact and Website: 703-997-9694
https://5-wits.com/arlington/

The Room – Espionage:

Description (from the company website):

Espionage is a covert spy thriller, placing you in the role of a secret agent.

The evil CABAL Corporation is threatening to launch a false flag event, inciting worldwide chaos… unless your team of agents can stop them! Your mission: dodge lasers, crawl through real air ducts, hack their computer system, and put a stop to their nefarious plan; and think before you act — with several possible endings to your mission, your mistakes could have global consequences.

Difficulty (1-10): none given

Time Limit: 30 minutes

Cost: is based on how many adventures you purchase:

• • 3 adventures: $39.99 per person (can use over different days/doesn’t expire)
  • 2 adventures: $36.99 per person
  • 1 adventure: $29.99 per person

Identifier: R1

Party Size: Minimum of 2; maximum of 12

Staging Area: There is a very large lobby where you can check out previous groups’ scores and buy some merchandise. Additionally, they have party rooms for corporate/private events.

Metro Access/Parking: It’s in Ballston Quarter Mall so you can take the metro to the Ballston-MU Station, or drive and park in the parking lot (or on the street).

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OUR EXPERIENCE

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

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

Note: The ERG were given the opportunity to try out this adventure for free, with the understanding that we would continue to provide an honest review and follow the same process that we’ve used on all of our other ratings.

Logistics:

Description of the room: You start off outside in an alleyway with graffiti on the walls. You need to find your way into the experience, and then have your choice of entrances for the first room.

Understanding of the Mission: Infiltrate the safe house, find a way to disarm the missiles, and escape the safe house without being captured.

Did We Escape: Yes, in multiple ways (and multiple times)

Scores: 93%, 96% and 97% (our best score to date)

Our Suggested Party Size: 6 is good

Did the adventure challenge the entire team? Yes

Members of our team (other than the ERG): Heather, Brittany, Tara, and Chris

Worth the time and money? Yes

Where to Eat/Drink Before/After:

• Punch Bowl Social – it’s less than a 30 second walk from 5 Wits and has good food and drinks and more games, if you haven’t had enough

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OUR REVIEW:

Note: As this is an Adventure with 5 Wits and not a typical escape room, our scoring rubric does not (properly) apply. You can watch the video below for our review of our experience.

Final Thought: This was a new experience for your Escape Room Guys. 5 Wits now has 7 locations (after the addition of Arlington) with a total of 5 games (only 3 are available in Arlington and we have (thus far) done 2 of them). Their adventures are fully automated, move you along if you’re not progressing quickly enough, and always get you out (but with different endings) is a real differentiator for them.

Speaking of endings, Espionage has 4 of them (if we recall correctly) and we’ve played it 3 times, getting 2 of those endings. We specifically wanted to play it in succession multiple times so we could talk to this point in our review.

We recommend playing this adventure at least twice as there is at least 1 major decision that will affect your outcome (and what you end up doing in the final minutes). That’s what Jason was referring to in the video when he said he had a similar app on his phone.

Overall, it was a fun time and we had some good challenges with the puzzles they provided. Go and check it out. It appears as if your best bet is to do the 3-Adventure package for the best bang for your buck.