ESCAPE ROOM REVIEW – THE QUICK AND DIRTY
Play if… you like archeology, tunnels, and logic.
Avoid if… you don’t like logic or skeletons.
THE BASICS
“ENTER Company Name”:
Address: 4437 W Flamingo Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89103 (click address for Google Map)
Contact and Website: 702-602-9775
https://lockdownrooms.com/lockdown-rooms-flamingo/
The Room – MAYAN
Description (from the company website):
After years of extensive research, we’ve discovered there is a hidden chamber containing valuable treasure deep within the confines of an ancient Mayan Temple. As the best team of archaeologists around, this task is very suitable for you! Documents on the history of this treasure state “those who conquer the four elements, will be granted passage” Beware, you must proceed with caution! With such a brittle structure we aren’t sure how long you’ll have until the ruins will collapse. You’ll get a cut of the profit if you make it out alive.
Overcome the obstacles, grab the treasure, and get out!
Difficulty (1-10): 5/5
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Cost: $35
Identifier: R1
Party Size: 3-10
Staging Area: Lobby is pretty small; just a counter and a few chairs.
Metro Access/Parking: No idea; I drove. I’m sure you could find a bus that runs nearby.
OUR EXPERIENCE
This is the first video we took before we entered the room:
This is the second video we took before we entered the room:
This is the third video we took before we entered the room:
Hahaha, just kidding. I never actually did a pre-Mayan video!
This is the video we took just after we completed the room:
Note: The ERG were given the opportunity to try out this room for free, with the understanding that we would continue to provide an honest review and follow the same process we’ve used on all of our other ratings.
Logistics:
Description of the room: You walk into something that looks like it should be a the entrance to a temple in the jungle. It’s sparsely decorated and is primarily items needed for the room; very minimalist in that respect.
Understanding of the Mission: Solve the puzzles to discover the hidden treasure before the temple collapses.
Did We Escape: No, and totally pissed about it!
Time Remaining: :'(
Our Suggested Party Size: 4-6
Did the room challenge the entire team? Yes
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Was just little old me…
Worth the time and money? Yes
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After:
- I’m sure you can find something on the Strip; I went to another room after.
| JASON says: |
|---|
| Overall Expectation (Summary) |
| I was originally slated to do the Western room, then the Underworld room, but at the last minute, the manager phoned in a final audible to the two GMs that were there to put me in the Mayan room. So, let’s not worry about my expectations because I didn’t have time to have any. 😛
If I remember correctly, this was their newest, also hardest, room and she (the manager) wanted to see if I could do it on my own. (Quick spoiler: I couldn’t. Read on to find out why.) |
| Story (Rating) |
| The story was pretty simple, just as described above. You’re the best archaeologists around (toot toot!) and you’ve been tasked with deciphering this clue about conquering the four elements to find the treasure (literally) buried in a hidden chamber in this temple. However, if you don’t figure it out in time, the temple may crumble around you! Oh noes!
I like the detail about the temple crumbling, however, two things. First, the temple has presumably been there for forever, so why the sudden false sense of urgency? Maybe add in a note about booby traps now that someone’s entered. Second, while in the room, there needs to be something happening for the duration to remind me (and subsequently you all) that the temple is crumbling around me. Also, there could have been more detail throughout about what the boobies were. (Get your mind out of the gutter, talking about booby TRAPS.) Rating: 5.5/10 |
| Mission (Rating) |
| The mission was also pretty simple. Decipher the clues regarding the conquering of the four elements and relish in your riches. Pretty standard 1-mission fare. However there was no real mention of the elements until the final puzzle. (If I recall correctly, you find the stones (sort of like The 5th Element) throughout the room and combine them in the next to last puzzle.) And then there’s nothing…to talk about. There’s no real “story”, per se, you just have them and use them.
(And since I failed, the GM and I went through what I did wrong, since I was on the last puzzle. I will say, the riches were…lacking.) Rating: 4.5/10 |
| Puzzle Diversity (Rating) |
| This room had 100% new (to me) puzzles or slight variations on things. I’ll put it this way: There was *some* literal brute force required (the puzzle that required another person), there was water, a little bit of logic, some observation, and a lot of patience involved.
There were multiple times that I just didn’t know what to do! That’s where my clues went, to me saying, “Um…I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing here.” I’m on the fence about that being good or bad. I generally enjoy rooms by myself, but there are just some times that I require a second person who has a different thought process. As I said, this is their hardest room, and it’s pretty obvious why now. I could definitely have used some help in here as I said (I still blame you, Bobby…), but I’m usually pretty good at finding next steps. Not so this time. Lock wise, there are a number of combination locks (which tend to remove you from these types of themes because, well, the Mayan’s did have combination locks). Maybe more magnetic or RFID locks if it’s rebuilt. (And yes, I guess you can say that the same argument applies, but if things pop open vs having to manually open a lock, it’s more mysterious and lends itself better to older themes.) Rating: 8.5/10 |
| Puzzle Complexity (Rating) |
| As I said, I had a tough time. I think there were an equal amount of things to do that were time consuming as there were difficult. The final two puzzles, for example, each took me about 5 minutes (and I ran out of time on the last one). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however with the number of puzzles in the room, one has to ensure that there is actually enough time (on average) to complete all the puzzles. There’s a moment required to figure out what to actually do then you have to do it. It wasn’t necessarily straightforward (at first).
There was only really one puzzle I can recall being “easy”; everything else had a good level of difficulty to it. Again, this is their hardest room, so don’t go into it thinking all sunshine and rainbows. I would put the range at 5-9, with that other one being a 3. It’s tough in there so I really recommend going in with a friend. Rating: 8.5/10 |
| Flow/Cohesiveness/Uniqueness (Rating) |
| This room reminded me of a mix of the movies Congo and Indiana Jones. (Does that make sense to anyone? Whatever.) Keep in mind that it’s rated a minimum of 3 people (there’s one thing early on that requires 3+ hands but I was kind of able to do it myself (I had the right idea but just ended up needing help getting enough force into it), so you really need at least 2).
Regardless, nothing seemed out of place or far fetched for a room called Mayan. Except the combination locks themselves. But there’s only so much you can do on that front (short of the aforementioned RFID/magnetic lock suggestion). The puzzles themselves were all very fitting, as mentioned above. They only thing I had trouble with was the flow of the story. The puzzles did little to progress any sort of story, mainly because it was as described above (limited). The room itself was sparsely decorated, mostly being items needed for the puzzles. I would have liked to see some more decorations on the walls; maybe some carvings or at least the outline of the stone bricks of the temple. Rating: 8/10 |
| Fun/Amusement (Summary) |
| Not for nothing, this room would have been more fun with another body in the room (living or dead… lol). Seriously, though, there’s plenty of different stuff that I wish the Tomb of the Red Queen and this room could have swapped…stories. |
| Game Master (Summary) |
| My GM was via walkie-talkie (and the aforementioned “ghost hands” in the beginning of the room) and he (they, really) were pretty hands off until I asked for help. |
| How Helpful Were Any Clues Given, if any (Summary) |
| Oh, I asked. Multiple times. Used all my damn clues (and you know how I feel about that…). They worked. I felt stupid 30% of the time (that’s 1 of the 3). |
| RAGE Meter OR ERG (pronounced URG, as in “we should have known better”) Score |
| This one’s getting 4 fists for 2 reasons:
1 – I used all my damn clues (hell, I NEEDED to…) Rating: 👊👊👊👊 |
ESCAPE ROOM GUYS’ OVERALL SCORING: 7/10
Final Thought: While this room was incredibly difficult for me (it’s their hardest room, after all), I was slightly disappointed by the lost opportunities in the story and decor of the room. If you’re looking for a blatantly difficult room to challenge you in all aspects, then this is it.