They have some unique game play elements for each game (different difficulties, bonus puzzles (BUZZLES!!!!!), game play scoring), so you’ll find something for everyone. Not to mention some cool sounding themes to choose from (so, again, you’ll find something for everyone).

I scouted some locations in the city and we reached out to the team at Puzzah!, who also came highly recommended from another owner that Jason knew.

Trying to find out which room to do was a challenge. They all looked interesting, but I think it was the magic theme, multiple levels of the mission, and the on-the-fly adjustments for time/completion that include BONUS puzzles (which I accidentally coined buzzles in the post-room video) that really secured our decision.

If you can find the clues, and his whereabouts, you just might prove that you are worthy of becoming full fledged magicians yourself.

(It’s also exceedingly rare that I find myself rating a story with a 10 but this one has a lot going on aside from what I’ve briefly described.)

Rating: 10/10

IF you can find out the secret to his last trick, you might prove yourselves worthy of becoming full-fledged magicians yourselves.

This was a pretty awesome theme. Lots of detail in the story briefing and it’s really different from anything we had ever done before. The story itself ties you into it as his former apprentices (so there is a “personal” connection) that helps immerse you into the theme, which becomes more complex (as a good magic show should) the further you get into it.

Rating: 9/10

As you progress through the room, the game changes what puzzle you run into next on the fly based on how quickly you’ve solved everything up to that point. So if you’re flying through like we did, you can get to Expert level, which meant we unlocked all of the bonus puzzles (now known as BUZZLES).

So what was our mission? Effectively, solve the mystery of Kazam’s disappearance. Where did he go??? The BUZZLES (and yes, I’m going to capitalize it every damn time because it’s friggin’ HILARIOUS  to me (it’s in the post-room video above, at the 32 second mark)) further the story along but don’t give you anything needed specifically to solve the mystery; they are more like a ‘what happened leading up to his actual disappearance’; fluff if you will. It’s a really cool and unique concept.

Rating: 8/10

HOWEVER, as with magic, things aren’t as easy as they seem. This room and theme has a few different mission parameters that scale the faster you play. Overall, you need to figure out how to get in his secret clock (standard mission). If you play the game fast enough, you “unlock” the advanced mission parameter of being able to solve the mystery of Kazam’s whereabouts. IF you play the game really, really well, then you unlock bonus puzzles that unveil themselves as you play the rest of the room at expert level.

So, for the scalability of the play and the adjustment on the fly, I have to rate this pretty high. And bonus puzzles (buzzles)…

Rating: 9/10

There was nothing that I can recall seeing anywhere else and everything was well crafted. I don’t really even want to talk about how you go about opening the locked boxes, so suffice it to say you won’t be messing with combo locks for 60 minutes.

But seriously, there were clocks EVERYWHERE, like a scene from Peter Pan or something. It was crazy. And the locked boxes are scattered around the room in a way that made me frustrated but curious (I really am just so used to seeing a box with a lock on it waiting for me to spin some dials…).

Regardless, there was logic, visual association, reading comprehension (I know, right??), among other things. There’s something for everyone (like I said earlier) in this room IMO.

Rating: 10/10

The puzzles in this room were really well done. They were… clever. They made you work the room vs. the mechanisms of what you thought were the puzzles themselves. It was a room that really tested our observational skills, and then flipped what we THOUGHT we needed to do (or would happen) with something completely different. They really worked on bending perception in this room, and that was a lot of the fun. What you see is NOT what you get.

I LOVED a few of the puzzles here. One involved something you likely use every day, but never think about (I solved this one… thankyouverymuch, and it was truly a “lightbulb over the head turning on moment”… thank god for a class I had in 7th grade).

There is another huge puzzle in the room that tests your mental endurance, but I’m not going to say much more about this. Ok, I’ll give you a hint: take your Ritalin if you need to beforehand.

Another puzzle I liked only could be solved if you resisted your natural inclination to mess with it.

And, as I said… no combination locks. Lots of tech in the room, that pop things open once you have it done right, and a pretty cool hint delivery system too.

Overall, this room was filled with a variety of puzzles that anyone could work to solve. My buddy, Greg, had never done a room before (another Escape Room Virgin!), and after taking some time to show him how things worked, he was offering his own suggestions on how to solve the puzzles… and buzzles.

Rating: 10/10

I wouldn’t say anything was extra hard, more like tricky. Which I like. A hard puzzle for the sake of a hard puzzle is no fun for anyone. A tricky puzzle that makes you look at it upside down or sideways (or slantways if your name is Willy Wonka) will always win in my book. I like puzzles that make you look at things in non-obvious ways. The payoff is better.

I would put the difficulty range at 3-8. Pretty decent spread.

Rating: 8.5/10

I do love how they use what you find in the room (don’t assume that things are there simply for ambiance) but also flip things upside down on how you THINK they should be used. Our team did well suspending any previous experience and looking at the puzzles in a new way, which helped us move pretty quickly.

Rating: 8/10

The game progresses you through very cleanly, but this makes it pretty linear. You can go about trying to solve puzzles in any order you wish, multiple paths at a time, but you won’t be able to progress until you…provide an answer. That’s how it becomes linear.

The room definitely looked like an attic (complete with window and tree branches), with random paraphernalia strewn about. Everyone in its place, though.

Rating: 8.5/10

While the game has a lot of puzzles that can be worked on, you do need to solve them in a somewhat particular order, which makes the room a bit linear. This can easily be forgiven because there is enough for everyone to work on without all being crowded around the same thing, and you can unlock the bonus puzzles if you move quickly enough. The bonus puzzles are SUPER cool and I hope you get to play them.

Plus, even with a somewhat linear design, they have the room rated for exactly how many people would best fit to have a great experience.

I will also say that I liked how you got your hints in this room and how. they integrated that tech into the story line.

Rating: 8.5/10

Fists – 0/5

FacePalms – 0/5