Room Escape Artist

Location: New York, New York

Date played: November, 2014

Team size: 1-6; we recommend 4-6

Price: $180 per team

Plot

You’re a rescue team who has gone in search of a missing psychiatric doctor… And something went wrong…

“You have woken up in a completely dark room without a clue as to how you got there.

All you have in hand is a flashlight. You have one hour to discover what happened and make your escape, lest you succumb to the terrors of the room.”

Be Forewarned

Room escape games are typically about as scary as coming home to an empty house with all of the lights on.

“Mission Escape Games: Escape the Darkest Hour” is a horror game.

You should not do this if:

• This is your first room escape game
• Horror movies leave you crying or cowering
• You are afraid of the dark, claustrophobic, or have other medical conditions that would prevent you from doing something intense

There is nothing even remotely dangerous about this room escape, but the intensity is ramped up a few notches.

Theme

You’re in an abstract psychiatric ward gone very wrong. The lights are out. There’s blood. There’s creepy music.

Nearly everything in the room screams “horror scene.”

The music that plays while you’re in the room is eerie, and the random sound effects are awesome.

The room incorporates voice overs by professionals actors. Totally badass. And any conversing with the puzzle masters is also in character. The plot progression is outstanding.

Is it scary?

Nothing in the room scared our group. But when one of our team members loudly spazzed-out, that terrified us all. We all agreed that if we weren’t in a horror room, the spazzy episode wouldn’t have frightened us. The ambiance succeeds.

So… Mission accomplished Mission Escape Games.

Locks with your locks

This room has a lot of locks. It is littered with combination and key locks. They are everywhere.

This room is pretty damn awesome, but if I have to really knock it for something it’s the designer’s heavy reliance on locks. All roads lead to a lock.

This contrasts pretty harshly against the few, and insanely cool non-lock puzzles. There aren’t many of them, but when they happen, they are wonderful.

A serious challenge

I am proud to say that we were only the fifth team to escape in something like 170 team attempts. That’s about a 3% success rate, which puts this on-par with some of the most challenging rooms I’ve ever heard of. It’s the most challenging game that I have ever attempted and won.

Our team was very seasoned; most of us have started playing room escapes on a regular basis.

Due to the creativity and experience of some of our players, we cleverly circumvented some of the puzzles, and I suspect that the folks at Mission Escape Games might be making a couple changes to the room as a result of said creativity.

This is a really tough game. It’s a worthy adversary, and I highly recommend taking on “Escape the Darkest Hour” if you have a few escape games under your belt.

If you’re in NYC, and you’re not up for this, give Mission Escape Games: The Art Studio, or Escape the Room NYC: The Office a try; they are great starter puzzles.

Mission Escape Games – Escape the Darkest Hour (click on the tab on the left), and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.