Cost: Varies. Monthly payment options and box sets available on the website.
So, we continue with this “play at home” subscription about your childhood friend, James, who is on the run after being accused of killing his wife, Victoria, on their honeymoon. Victoria is the heiress to a family dynasty, so James has to stay on his toes to stay ahead of them.
We had a bit of a hiatus between boxes 2 and 3 (just over a year, actually), so that probably contributed to the fact that we got REALLY stuck on this box… and admitting that some of the puzzles are a bit more challenging than the first two boxes we completed.
This one took us about 3 hours, and we were only able to finish it because of a hint or two provided by some of the other players in the Slack channel, but, the puzzles were fun and challenging, which was a big switch from box 2.
Watch our video review and comment on this post.
Are you playing this subscription? What do you think?
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Are there games, locations or rooms you’d like us to scout out?
We just found out that we were named to a list of the Top 48 Escape Room Bloggers to Follow in 2019, being ranked #11 by an escape room marketing and seo (search engine optimization) company called SEO ORB. The top 48 were chosen from over 300 escape room blogging websites.
Check out the write up on us!
Obviously, we’re honored to have made the list, which features a number of other great blogging sites. We worked hard on establishing our grading rubric to ensure that we covered all rooms we do consistently and fairly, and spend hours trying to write our reviews to provide an accurate representation of our experience, while not giving away spoilers to ruin the experience for others.
This blog started off as a hobby in February 2016… an experiment (if you will), to see if we could provide a service to the emerging escape room community and help grow the popularity of this type of event. It was also a way for us to refine our way of thinking of what escape rooms should contain to give that overall great experience., and we continue to refine as we go.
We ended 2018 with 4x the number of unique visitors and hits to the website than we had the previous year, so it’s encouraging and exciting to see how our little experiment is taking off, and we’re looking forward to what the future might bring. Thank you to all of our readers, whether you are new to the site, or are a frequent visitor.
So, for a little while now, we’ve seen rumors and then brief snapshots of an Escape Room movie. Being the enthusiasts that we are, as well as loving a good thriller, we were a bit intrigued as to how the crew was going to take an escape room experience and turn it into a cinematic experience.
The local DC rep from Columbia Pictures reached out to us to see if we’d be interested in attending the DC premier of the movie. Since we already promote reviews and games, and worked with the Solver team last year on their movie, we agreed spread the word.
This movie opens in theaters on January 4.
The premise: (from the press release)
You find yourself in a room – no windows, only one door, and it’s locked. The madman who’s locked you in has set up a series of fiendishly clever and difficult puzzles that, when solved in the correct order, will lead to the key and your salvation. And to add to the difficulty, he’s set a ticking clock, with one hour to complete the puzzles and escape… or face the consequences.
What sounds like a horror movie is one of the fastest-growing entertainments in the world: the escape room phenomenon. Armed with only your wits – and the variety of strengths of the people in the room with you – players have been cracking codes, deciphering enigmas, and unlocking hidden caches as quickly as they can. Each room has a secret plot, with players piecing it together as a fun, team-building experience. Since the dawn of the concept in 2010, escape rooms have popped up all over the world at an amazing rate by satisfying human nature’s hunger for fun and escape from reality.
When producer Ori Marmur tried out an escape room with his family, he saw the potential for a film – and because audiences worldwide have embraced the concept, it could be a film whose themes had global appeal. “I thought it was very immersive and incredibly fun, sort of a living boardgame,” he says. The project seemed to be a natural fit with a classic locked-room mystery setup, and with producer Neal H. Moritz, he began to shepherd the project. Quickly, they hit on a way to raise the stakes, making the ultimate escape room: one that is not only hyper slick and incredibly dangerous – when the clock runs out, it means death.
Our Take:
We’ve done a number of rooms where a serial killer or madman has us trapped in their lab or lair, and we have to figure our way out before he/she returns. Now, we’ve even done a few rooms that had a “Saw” feeling with them, so the overall theme of the movie isn’t that far a stretch. What is interesting is that the room turns deadly AFTER the characters begin playing. From the looks of the trailer and the press packet we received, it simply looks like the six strangers have agreed to do a room together that is billed as the most immersive room yet, and has a $1 million prize for escaping. Let’s just hope none of them show up drunk or stoned (this has happened to us).
As the experience progresses, they have to make their way through and figure out their own role in the game and how the rooms were specifically created for each of them… and not die in the process.
We were pretty psyched to see that Adam Robitel, who directed Insidious: The Last Key also directed this one, so that brings some legitimacy to the movie being a true thriller.
Stay tuned for our review of the movie. Check out and follow our social media channels below to be notified when new postings and interviews are published.
Check out the trailer below (from Columbia/Sony Pictures YouTube channel):
Planning on seeing this movie? What are you most excited about?
Comment on the post below and let us know!
Logistics:
Rated PG-13 for Terror/Perilous Action & Violence, Some Suggestive Material and Language.
Columbia Pictures presents an Original Film production, Escape Room. Starring Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Jay Ellis, Tyler Labine, Nik Dodani, with Yorick van Wageningen. Directed by Adam Robitel. Produced by Neal H. Moritz and Ori Marmur. Screenplay by Bragi Schut and Maria Melnik. Story by Bragi Schut. Executive Producer is Rebecca Rivo. Director of Photography is Marc Spicer. Production Designer is Edward Thomas. Editor is Steven Mirkovich, ACE. Music by Brian Tyler & John Carey.
Cost: Varies. Monthly payment options and box sets available on the website.
So, this review is based on Box 2 of a series that explores the continuing saga of your childhood friend, James, who is on the run after being accused of the murder of his wife, the heiress of a powerful family, during their honeymoon. James has been reaching out to you through a series of boxes sent to your address, which evolves the mystery. This is a pretty cool premise because while this isn’t an actual escape room, the mere method of tying in the delivery of the boxes to you starts the immersive experience.
We liked the second box as much as the first one. It required a lot of reading (like the first) and solving a lot of different clues using items in the box as well as your phones.
This one took us about 35-40 minutes, and was done by the same group of us (Mike, Jason, and our Escaptern Mark)
Watch our video review and comment on this post.
Are you playing this subscription? What do you think?
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Are there games, locations or rooms you’d like us to scout out?
Cost: Varies. Monthly payment options and box sets available on the website.
So, we are expanding our reviews to include games, and we decided to do a video overview of our experience playing box 1 of the On the Run series from Dispatch at Breakout Games.
Watch our video review and comment on this post. Are you playing this subscription? What do you think?
Also, do you like the video review, or do you prefer our standard format with the different sections rated by both Jason and Mike?
Let us know!
Are there games, locations or rooms you’d like us to scout out?
Description (from the company website): Zombies are everywhere! And they’re hungry … hungry for … PIZZA!
Trapped in an apartment on the 28th floor, can you rescue the pizza, get the gun, unlock the door, and defeat the zombies?
But how? By solving lots and lots of interesting, fun puzzles!
Welcome to Escape Room Z, an hour-long puzzling adventure for you and your crew.
Difficulty (1-10): none given
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Cost: $19.99 + supplies (if you download and print yourself)
Party Size: no more than 8 recommended
Staging Area: Your room should be a comfortable size for however many people are in your party to get up and move around.
OUR EXPERIENCE
This is the video we took before we played the game:
This is the video we took just after we completed the game:
Note: The ERG were given the opportunity to try out this game 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: We used our Community Room in our condo building (Jason and I live in the same building, but you’d know that already if you watched the pre-room video). We had 6 people, and that was a good size (although maybe our room was a bit too large for the number of pieces of the game).
Understanding of the Mission: Essentially, save the pizza that is baking in an oven on the 28th floor from a horde of hungry zombies.
Did We Escape: Yes (we saved the pizza LOL)
Time Remaining: about 19:30
Our Suggested Party Size: 6 is probably good if people have done games like this before or are regular “escapees” (escape room enthusiasts/addicts).
Did the room challenge the entire team? Yes
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Eric, Heather, Corey, Brittany and Katheryn (who served as our Game Master)
The ERG and their Disturbed Friends (Eric, Mike, Heather, Corey, Brittany, Katheryn, and Jason) turned their ordinary game night into an “escape the zombies” night!
Worth the time and money? Yes, even though it’s a once-and-done game (but all of them are anyway)
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After:
It’s your own location. Serve whatever snacks and drinks you want… maybe go with pizza to fit the theme?
We checked out the LAST Episode (#12) of Solver’s Puzzle Hunt released on January 24. This one is all about Luke (the main character) trying to find an investment to save his fund. The puzzle takes you back to the beginning, and makes you think about the entire journey, which was a nice way to end the hunt (and a celebratory glass of scotch never hurts.
Time is limited, so use everything you learned and start at the beginning (really… start at the beginning).
We checked out Episode #11 of Solver’s Puzzle Hunt released on January 19. This one is all about a (fictional) Twitter battle between Elon Musk and tech billionaire rival, Demien LaBlanc.
Make sure you follow the Twitter exchange very closely, and look at the URLs.
We checked out Episode #10 of Solver’s Puzzle Hunt released on January 14. This one is perfect for people who can pay close attention to detail, and possibly view things from different perspectives.
Subscribe to this blog or our YouTube channel to stay informed as to when the new challenges are released!
We checked out Episode #9 of Solver’s Puzzle Hunt released on January 10. This one is perfect for people who love crossword puzzles, numbers, and logic puzzles. It wasn’t overly difficult, but it did require some focus and some educated guesses.
Subscribe to this blog or our YouTube channel to stay informed as to when the new challenges are released!
