Room Escape Artist

Be still my beating heart… This is a 12 person room escape that can actually fit 12 people.

Location: New York, New York

Date played: April 26, 2015

Team size: up to 12; we recommend 8-12

Price: $28 per ticket

Plot

“The Theater is for up to 12 players. You and your fellow theater goers are trapped in a theater. You have one hour to escape or it’s curtains for everyone.”

12 people!

The website says, “The Theater is for up to 12 players.” We brought 12 adults. We all fit in the room with tons of space to spare. We all had fun.

This never ever happens, and I was totally ready to write about how “12 person rooms shouldn’t be a thing.” The Theater pulls it off because it’s big (huge by Manhattan standards). It’s actually a theater.

It’s a theater!

The theater actually is a theater. Before the space was converted into an escape game, there were theatery things happening in the same space.

This means that there is theater rigging and auditorium seating.

When I read the description, I was expecting a “backstage” setting with tons of props and costumes.

The setting makes the game. It’s dramatically different from any other escape game I’ve played. Never underestimate the power of a unique environment.

Image via Escape the Room NYC (Facebook)

Too many 4 digit combo locks

The Theater isn’t perfect.

It has a ton of combination locks, and almost all of them were 4 numerical digits.

Why is this a problem?

Every time you think you have a solution, you have to try it in half a dozen locks. This gets tedious, and you really have to be on top of your game to make sure that you don’t miss a lock.

Locks are great. Lots of locks is fine. A wide variety in combination length, as well as letter, and directional locks help break up the patterns, and creates a situation where the players know which lock a solution belongs to. It seems small, but this makes the room considerably more player-friendly.

Bad lock

One disk in one lock was set incorrectly. For example:

The clues lead us to the number “1234” but the lock accidentally required “2234.”

We burned at least five minutes on that before asking for our a hint. Our game master told us to try “1234” and it didn’t work. We only figured it out because one of our teammates started futzing with the first disk, and accidentally opened the thing.

Bad setups are deeply frustrating, and what makes this even more agitating is that we have had a bad setup three out of six times that we’ve played with Escape the Room NYC.

As a reviewer, this puts me in a tough position because while I think they have some of the most creative and fun games I’ve ever encountered, they have consistent quality control issues that are inexcusable.

Bad setups are never ok. You only get to play these games once; they should be set up correctly.

Bad Lock Response

We reached out to Escape the Room NYC for a comment about quality control. Designer and Co-founder Victor Blake agrees that bad set ups are never ok. He explained the lengths he goes to to ensure correct set ups and high quality game experiences at all his locations. He works hard at it, but sometimes things break and his staff are human.

Our consistent experience with bad locks is not reflective of the total percentage of set up mistakes at Escape the Room; he keeps track. We have to chalk this up to dumb luck.

Victor offered us a refund and free tickets to our next room. He does this for any team that experiences a quality control issue that impacts their experience. We enjoyed the Theater too much to accept the refund, but we accepted the free game; he doesn’t want to treat us differently than he would any other team.

Exceptional Staff

That staff at Escape the Room NYC continue to impress us. They are energetic, engaging, and passionate about the game and the players’ experiences.

Best walkthroughs in the business

Escape the Room NYC has the best post-game walkthroughs in the business. It may seem like a small detail, but it matters.

Walkthroughs are especially important when you’ve just played a 12 person game, as there is no way for each player to keep track of everything that happened.

Should I play Escape the Room NYC’s Theater?

I love escape games that riff off of local culture and history, and there few things as New York as the theater.

The room is awesome. The game is both fun and challenging (the escape rate is approximately 20%).

I wouldn’t recommend this game for a team of first timers because it’s so different from most rooms that it’s more fun to play after having experienced some more typical escapes.

You can bring a team of 12 people to this game. I think 8-10 is probably ideal, but you’re still going to be able to have a good time with 12.

Escape the Room NYC needs to get a handle on quality control because bad setups keep tainting an otherwise exceptional experience.