Upon reading the description of this room, I thought it would be something like Darkness Falls, which is a paranormal investigation. You know how I feel about those two words… Conversely, I love the concept of that room, with the approaching dusk. So I gave this one a pass.

We hadn’t heard of Rush Hour Live Escapes prior to this email and it always tickles us to find new rooms, especially when they find us, rather than us finding them. A quick email was sent to the team to poll them as to which room(s) they would prefer and then we scheduled the time and made our way down with some of our Disturbed Friends for a night on the “town.”

Part of the problem in getting a team together and finding a time to get there is that traffic on I-95 is a problem at the best of times. We eventually settled on a date, polled the group as to the rooms at this location, and confirmed with Paul that we were okay to get these scheduled.

I based my selections on the website descriptions (so, hint to Escape Room owners… make sure that your website descriptions have some good detail as to what the room entails), and we were all set.

Something Wicked was the first room we did here.

I think my favorite part of the story briefing was “the night is dark and the moon is full”. Not sure why, but it just hit me the right way.

Rating: 8/10

So, we’ve done rooms where we’ve been paranormal investigators before, so this theme isn’t entirely original. However, Rush Hour’s spin is that we’re investigating the issues within a forest vs. a house or specific location (like a bedroom, or a parlor, or a basement, etc.).

The story has just enough of a creep factor to entice those who like those types of rooms (well, me being one of those people). And the name of the room “Something Wicked” references one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, so that was a nice addition.

There isn’t any build up to getting immersed in this room… it happens as soon as you open the door.

Rating: 8/10

Neutralizing is the priority. However, while discovery is secondary, it falls into the flow of the game, so you’ll do it anyway. There’s no specific thing to do to find out what it is that I can recall, though; you just find out as you progress.

You do, however, have to find out what you need for said neutralization during the course and you’ll need vocalization (unless you’re too few people in which case there will be a touch of running around) to do so.

Rating: 7/10

As I mentioned before… the paranormal theme isn’t new, but they put a nice spin on things. I can’t say much more because a lot of one of the parameters you figure out are revealed as you progress through the experience.

Rating: 7/10

There were a few things I hadn’t seen before, and one thing that made me actually jump, as I wasn’t expecting it from an escape room (though, honestly, I should have). But regardless, there were a few pad locks, several combination locks, maglocks; pretty standard fare.

The puzzles themselves…another story. When was the last time you used a signpost (like this) to solve a puzzle? Yeah, me neither. But that’s the point, isn’t it? There were a good amount of subtle clues, the ones that make you go “huh?” then scratch your head before having an epiphany. I think that’s the best part of this room IMO.

Rating: 8/10

I loved the puzzle you find just inside the room (by about 10 feet on the right). It wasn’t the first time we’ve seen something like this but discovering how it worked was a lot of fun. You MAY think that you can solve it early… that’s a big ole NOPE.

Some of the other puzzles made me laugh and had some subtle dark humor worked in.

There is a huge mix of puzzles in this room… lots of observational, but a few actual puzzle-types to put together, and one that will challenge your sense of direction. I solved one pretty quickly because I had seen one like that in a previous location (hey, I like putting things together!).

For the locks, most of them fit the scene and had a large amount of combo locks and a few padlocks, but they used the magnetic locks and other types where it was fully appropriate and fit well into the story.

Rating: 8.5/10

This room is cleverly put together, and I believe the ladies gave our GM a scare when they solved a puzzle super early, way before finding the clue on how to solve it, as they used the things in the vicinity of the lock to piece the solution together. Well done to them but we ended up wondering if the room had been reset properly after (and yes, it had been lol).

Difficulty range I would say was somewhere in the range of 2-7. Like I said, more clever than hard but well put together.

Rating: 6.5/10

We had a team of 7 strong players, and a few of them ended up solving one of the puzzles without the instructions that we were to find later… just by applying logic and previous playing experience to something they thought they’d try. I wouldn’t say this was brute-forcing the puzzle because it wasn’t random guessing…

I solved a few puzzles quickly on my own because I had seen something similar in other rooms. However, the one puzzle that we THINK we were all ready to solve required a spin that we hadn’t anticipated or fully zeroed in on, despite some clues as to how to do so.

Rating: 7/10

You’re led down a very well defined path as you progress through the room. Everything in it’s place and a place for every thing kind of deal.

There is a good amount of searching to be done as this escape room is quite large as escape rooms go, but it’s supposed to be a forest and cabin so take that as you may.

There’s some fun to be had as well, and ample opportunity to scare the bejeezus out of your friends, so please do so with my best wishes. Hahaha (sorry, MUAHAHAHAHA)

Everything you solve has some connection to the story-line, so pay attention as you progress. You’re also given the option to take 1 bonus item into the room with you. Pay attention to what they are and choose wisely (or, IMO, obviously).

Btw, you’ll definitely feel like you’re at a campsite. It’s really well done. And pay no attention to the spiders. Any of them. At all. You’ve been warned.

Rating: 10/10

However, everything regarding the decoration was very well done in this room. Part of the room (that you work with later into the game) was also fun, a bit creepy, and totally fit the overall theme. Larger groups, however, may find it difficult to all work together as you get towards the end.

The final reveal was pretty cool and I was fully entertained. I did have to ask the GM if there was a way to solve a combination lock without trying different sequences… he said “no” but we found out later that there was some design behind the combo… just a very, very subtle application of what you find and how you apply it. I would say it was almost too subtle.

The room flowed well… lots to do in the beginning and then coming together later on to get to the ultimate reveal. It was well done and fun to work through its progression.

One of our team members had the right idea a few minutes earlier in the game as to how to approach it, but we were all busy and we didn’t try her solution. We should have, so it goes to show that following Rule 6 (the speak up and try it out yourself rule) would have helped us here.

And, a room that has something that can make Jason jump should always get a brownie point LOL

Rating: 9/10

If you don’t have fun in this room, blame your friends. Then get new ones.

Fists – 0/5

Rating:  FacePalms – 2/5