Location: New York, New York
Date played: December 2014
Team size: up to 10; we recommend 6-8
Price: $28 per ticket
Plot
“You are a group of detectives, investigating a report of a missing employee. As you enter his residence, the door locks and you realize that there is much more to his disappearance than you were led to believe… You will have an hour to escape the room. As you and your team find clues to liberate yourselves, you will slowly unravel the sinister story you are now a part of.”
An Immediate Twist
The moment you enter the room, there is a twist that adds a sense of urgency to the typical room escape. Many room escape plots promise twists and intrigue; few actually deliver. This is by far the most interesting thing in Mystery Room NYC – Chapter 1: Penthouse 116.
Theming
There’s nothing fancy in this room, but it’s well-themed, and clearly designed with love.
The puzzles follow the themes that unfold in the game (themes that I don’t want to divulge).
They do enough to make you suspend your disbelief.
Solidly Built & Well Maintained
This is one of the most solidly constructed rooms we’ve ever escaped. At no point did we worry about breaking things.
I also didn’t feel like the room was too heavily worn from past players.
This may seem trivial, but I’ve gotten really tired of broken, worn-out, and easily breakable items in room escapes.
Lots to Do & Good Variety
There’s plenty to do in this game, and the variety of puzzles is more than entertaining.
There’s also a fair amount of misdirection, and a handful of puzzles that I had never seen before.
10 People?
This is billed as a 10 person room, and we brought a 10 person team.
Physically there’s more than enough room for 10 people. You could probably fit 15 people in the space.
From a gameplay perspective,10 people was a few too many. Early on there was enough to keep everyone entertained. As the game progressed, things became increasingly linear, and we had large groups of people bunching up on one or two puzzles, while a few people kept to the sidelines.
It was never horrible, but I’d say this is a 8 person game, if you want to keep everyone involved for the full 60 minutes.
Should I play this game?
Yes. This is one of the more solid room escape experiences I’ve encountered.
It has good theming and build quality, and there’s just enough intrigue to keep you interested.
What it lacks is a truly awe inspiring moment, but what the room lacks in awe, it makes up for in a level of quality that I wish more rooms would have.
I keep using the word “solid” in this review because that’s what this room is. It’s not the best at anything, but it doesn’t do anything wrong. It’s just a very solid experience.
If you’ve never done a room escape before, this is a wonderful room to start with.
If you’re experienced, I think the puzzle master of Mystery Room NYC has a few tricks up his sleeve that are worth experiencing.
Reserve your hour with Mystery Room NYC, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
