Location: New York, New York
Date played: October, 2014
Price: $28 per ticket
The Plot
“You’ve been called in to assist in a disappearance!
A studio in town is hiding a secret and we need your help!
The tenant has disappeared without a word.
Find clues, solve questions and help us find our friend!”
The Staff
The first thing that our team discovered at Mission Escape Games is that boundless enthusiasm of the staff. Their love of room escape games was inescapable. We really liked them.
Theming
The Art Studio escape was themed on, you guessed it, an art studio. The room is fairly basic, and there isn’t a story, but everything is on the theme.
The furnature, decor, and the puzzles themselves are kept within the theme. The mystique is loosely held together, but it works.
Non-Linear
The entire game was decidedly non-linear, which was great for a larger group. Everyone could work on different things.
10 People?
This is billed as a maximum 10 person game. The space is a bit too tight for 10 people. I’d suggest 6-8.
With a team of 10 people we were at times stepping on each other. I literally stepped on one of my friends.
Fun with Little Adventure
This is a solid starter room, but there isn’t much of a sense of adventure.
Don’t get me wrong, the room is a lot of fun, but there weren’t any moments where I thought “damn… that’s incredible.”
There’s plenty to throw you off, but there is a similarity between a lot of what’s happening in this room, and some elements start to illicit a feeling of déjà vu.
Ultimately the puzzles are tricky and clever, however they never inspire awe.
Questioning the Sturdiness
The staff informed us before going into the room that in the near future, they will set up video cameras, and the game will proceed without a puzzle master in the room with the players. In principle, this is a great idea. In practice, I’m not certain that this particular room is sturdy enough to play without supervision.
While we were waiting outside, the team before us walked out, and one of the guys (who seemed like a drunken meathead) proudly proclaimed that they told him not to use force, but he broke something and it helped them win. As we inspected the room we found a small cabinet that was taped up.
On the flip side, in an attempt to over-engineer a solution to a puzzle, I accidentally broke something.
If the room stays as it is today, I suspect that the room will experience a bit too much weathering from both overzealous and overaggressive players without a puzzle master in the room; it’s already been subject to a beating with supervision.
Great Deception
My biggest complement to this game is that while the room is fairly simple, the creators did a so superb job of creating deception; especially if you’re familiar with room escapes.
The record for this room is under 30 minutes, and if you’re really on top of things, I can easily see achieving this. However that was not the case with my team. We never got it together.
This was the first time that time that I lost a game that I felt like I should have won. It was a humbling experience.
Bottom-line
All-in-all, this is a very solid introductory puzzle.
I recommend both the room, and Mission Escape Games as a company. They are opening three new puzzles over the coming weeks, and I cannot wait to go back and play more.
Mission Escape Games – NYC, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
