ESCAPE ROOM REVIEW – THE QUICK AND DIRTY
Play if… like being outside, enjoy mazes, or fantasy is your bag.
Avoid if… you dislike nature or mosquitos.
THE BASICS
Escape Woods:
Address: 628 Sleepy Hollow Road Powder Springs GA 30127 (click address for Google Map)
Contact and Website: 770-880-8846
https://www.escapewoods.com/our-escapes
The Room – The Maze: Curse of the Dragon:
Description (from the company website): In this adventure you and your group need navigate a magical forest maze to break the evil curse that was put on the woods by a dark wizard. Ages ago 5 elders met at Elders Rock and swore an oath to protect forest kingdom, the Mother Dragon, and her eggs. The 5 elders founded the 5 Great Houses of the kingdom, which still live on. For a long time there was peace an prosperity. However, that all changed when an outsider from a far away land, later to be revealed as a dark wizard, stole the Mother Dragon’s 3 eggs from Dragon’s Keep and enchanted the Mother Dragon with an evil curse. Now the dark wizard uses his enchanted dragon for evil purposes. To save the kingdom you need to find the 3 dragon eggs to break the curse put on the Mother Dragon. The eggs have been hidden and locked up throughout the kingdom. To find the dragon eggs you and your team will have 1 hour to navigate a giant 80 foot x 40 foot maze built in the woods, crack codes, unlock doors, and escape before time runs out. Along the way you will visit important locations such as Dragon’s Keep, Elders Rock, Devil’s Mouth Cave, and the Enchanted Forest. Are you up for the challenge?
Difficulty (1-10): Medium
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Cost: $28
Identifier: R1
Party Size: 2-10
Staging Area: The “lobby” is a dirt parking lot outside a storage container that they tell you to look for. Keep in mind that the instructions in the email they send you are inaccurate at best (admitted by our GM); just follow the signs for “Escape Woods” on the trees.
Metro Access/Parking: drive Drive DRIVE. No public transport out this way.
OUR EXPERIENCE
This is the video we took before we entered the room:
Yeah, nope. We got out of the car and they kinda just started talking so I didn’t have a chance.
This is the video we took just after we completed the room:
Yep, I suck. We ran off after taking the picture because it was entirely too buggy outside and I forgot to do a video later that day.
Logistics:
Description of the room: we knew the room was outside and a maze, but that was about it. Oh, and that there were dragon eggs.
Understanding of the Mission: find the 3 dragon eggs to put an end to the curse.
Did We Escape: Yes
Time Remaining: Something like 10 minutes; I don’t remember what we were told but based on the time notifications we got over the walkies, sounds right.
Our Suggested Party Size: We were 5. There’s plenty of room for 10 (the room max), but there’s not going to be enough for 10 people to do. I’d say 4-6 max.
Did the room challenge the entire team? No
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Steph, Jolene, Liam, Logan
Worth the time and money? No
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After:
- We went home and had pizza after.
| JASON says: |
|---|
| Overall Expectation (Summary) |
| We chose this escape out of their 4 available escapes due to the ages of people on our team and availability on the day we were able to play; those factors made choosing this room a no brainer (as it was actually the only one of the 4 available to us on that day). It helps that I LOVE mazes. I have since I was a kid. I have one tattooed on my arm. So I figured yes, I’ll do a maze escape of sorts, thanks. |
| Story (Rating) |
| The story on the website is basically what we were told in person. The amount of background to the tasks at hand was a nice change from other rooms we’ve done in recent memory, however, it was totally offset by the lack immersion in the maze itself (and we’ll get to that later in this review).
For starters, there are sections of the maze that are not friendly to the physically larger audience. The maze itself narrows to 2.5′ wide at points (guestimate; I did not measure) and there are obstacles in the way (read trees in the middle). On the other hand, the theme was entirely new to me. There’s only one escape that I can think of that even comes close to being similar (unreviewed as of yet, though), so that was a nice change of pace. Rating: 7/10 |
| Mission (Rating) |
| This escape provided us with a multi-part mission (yay!).
First, find the walkie talkie (which honestly was just blatantly unnecessary, though I did forget to radio back that we’d found it; also makes me think that this was just so they could have multiple missions). Next, you had to find 8 puzzle pieces (not a spoiler) while you find the 3 dragon eggs (also not a spoiler). And, of course, navigate the maze to exit the woods. Unless I misheard our GM (which I’m pretty sure I did not), I thought the final egg was supposed to be mounted in place (which made me think the final puzzle was going to be to put them all together on a shelf or something; I was wrong about that). The eggs are, however, each locked in their own jails so to speak (and again, not a spoiler), so you’ll have to free them as well. That all said, I feel like it’s been a hot minute since we’ve had a multi-mission escape to do, so that was at least refreshing. I was sorely disappointed about the lack of a final puzzle based on the instructions given. Being out in the woods, the only electronics I saw were the cameras keeping an eye on us, so I guess I’m not surprised there was no like, RFID shelf or anything to place them on, but would have been cool. Call it an opportunity for a revision. Rating: 7/10 |
| Puzzle Diversity (Rating) |
| Honestly, I’m struggling to recall anything particularly memorable about this now (granted it’s been a minute since I actually started this review). I do have some pictures as we were told it was ok (and would be helpful) to take pictures so you didn’t have to run back and forth between locations in the maze.
That said, I do recall some observation-style puzzles, there was a physical puzzle (stated earlier) that was actually something else (I won’t go into more detail about it), there was even some matching. My favorite (for whatever reason these days) was there too (black light puzzle for those who didn’t know), but it was a little ambiguous and I was not happy about the solution. Other than that, the rest were locks. Rating: 7/10 |
| Puzzle Complexity (Rating) |
| Unfortunately, I don’t necessarily think this escape warranted a difficulty level of ‘intermediate’ as probably the most difficult thing was the aforementioned black light puzzle (we spent wayyy too much time on it and asked for a clue). The puzzles didn’t take very long to figure out, which is great because it was kinda hot out and very buggy (bring your bug spray…).
I’ve basically seen all the puzzles here in one way, shape, or form before, which is fine (and really we should have gotten our faster because of it), but I think since we had some ERVs among us, as well as the back and forth required for solving some of the puzzles, that added a bit to the complexity and amount of time we were in. Rating: 5/10 |
| Flow/Cohesiveness/Uniqueness (Rating) |
| This is probably where the escape shined the brightest. For starters, everything was themed well (though I would have liked to see more theming on the walls of the maze, but it’s outside in the elements so I get it). Nothing was out of place for the time period it was supposed to be or the theme of a dragon. The maze itself had dead ends, parts that wrapped around onto themselves, etc. and it’s an 80’x40′ maze in the woods so it’s got that going for itself.
The puzzles all contributed to the story, pushing it further the more you get through the maze. The puzzle pieces also helped on this point. The only thing was an actual dragon sitting on a pile of gold… Rating: 8/10 |
| Fun/Amusement (Summary) |
| Other than the fact that I was sweating my proverbial balls off and got eaten alive by mosquitos, it was fun. You’re better off going in milder weather, though. (Bring bug spray otherwise.) |
| Game Master (Summary) |
| Our GM was helpful, however clearly answered one of our standard questions incorrectly. Something IS, in fact, used more than once. Let this be a warning to you. (And yes, I’m probably being overly ‘technical’ here, but that’s what I do.) |
| How Helpful Were Any Clues Given, if any (Summary) |
| We asked for 2 clues (they offer up to 5 but there was no talk of a leader board). They were helpful without the stupid feeling, but they were clearly things we missed or misinterpreted, nothing that we just couldn’t figure out. |
| RAGE Meter Score |
| I was more annoyed about the misinterpretation of one of the clues and the puzzles we needed them for than anything else.
Rating: 👊👊 |
ESCAPE ROOM GUYS’ OVERALL SCORING 7.0/10
Final Thought: This was a unique experience that I’m glad I was able to have, but some of the execution left things to be desired. I’m definitely curious what their other escapes are like, not to mention I’d like to see Hopper’s cabin, so I’ll be back at some point.