The Spy Who… Had A Moderately Interesting Apartment
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Date played: October 15, 2016
Team size: 2-6; we recommend 2-3
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $33 – $49.50 per ticket, depending on team size
Story & setting
We were Cold War-era CIA agents investigating the home of a presumed Soviet spy. We needed to find evidence against him and escape with it.
The story wasn’t especially complex.
His home was kind of cute. It wasn’t a particularly inventive escape room set, but it was detail-oriented. The lamps even matched the wall paper and it generally felt like the 1970s.
Puzzles
Secret Mission included a handful of puzzles of the standard room escape variety. They were fairly well-themed and fit into the space well.
There weren’t a ton of puzzles in this game. They generally proceeded linearly with each unlocking the next.
Standout
Secret Mission included some nifty puzzle interactions that integrated old technology. We most enjoyed manipulating the larger set pieces from the era.
Shortcomings
For the conscientious player, this older technology posed an unintended challenge: we handled one particular item too delicately. This isn’t to say that players should abuse the game, but it was challenging to know whether or not to interact.
Secret Mission, a predominantly linear room escape, fell victim to circumvention by outside knowledge. In one instance, we solved a puzzle too soon to by virtue of knowing something that Maze Rooms provided later in the game. Since we found the puzzle before we found the knowledge, we solved the puzzle out of order and disrupted the game flow.
Should I play Maze Rooms’ Secret Mission?
This was a standard, solid room escape game, but not an exciting one.
We entered the game, solved puzzles, confirmed that our man was a spy (as we’d expected), and got out. Neither the ambiance nor the puzzles built drama or intrigue.
That said, Secret Mission wasn’t a bad game. It was a solid execution of a themed escape room. The puzzles were fun, but not particularly challenging. The game worked well without excelling.
This is a good and enjoyable game; it just isn’t great.
Book your hour with Maze Rooms’ Secret Mission, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Maze Rooms provided media discounted tickets for this game.
