Room Escape Artist

Curing Ebola in an hour or so.

Location: Orlando, FL

Date played: November 14, 2016

Team size: up to 8; we recommend 4-6

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $35 per ticket

Story & setting

In Pandemic, we needed to stop an infectious disease from destroying the planet. We took over where the scientists investigating it had left off (or died off).

The overall game had a stark medical feel. It felt a bit like a slightly industrial, poorly lit doctor’s office. It didn’t look bad but wasn’t much to look at either.

Puzzles

Pandemic’s puzzles relied heavily on busy work. Once we’d figured out how to solve something, we had many minutes to go before completing the solution. At least five separate puzzles all required this type of repetitious execution.

Pandemic included one dated newspaper-style puzzle that played more like an elementary school reading comprehension exam than an adventure puzzle game.

Standouts

Pandemic included one particularly exciting interaction that we hadn’t seen until we visited Orlando.

The game flowed logically and smoothly.

Shortcomings

Many of the puzzles involved busywork rather than progressive discovery.

One prop was badly jammed and the hint to reinvestigate it was delivered with unnecessary condescension.

Asking for one hint resulted in heavy-handed followup hinting. We found this frustrating because we were already back on the right track and it was simply taking time to execute on something that was tedious by design.

Should I play America’s Escape Game’s Pandemic?

Pandemic was a competently designed escape room; the puzzles flowed logically from start to finish.

The set wasn’t particularly exciting, but the gritty environment added a little urgency to our mission.

In late 2016, the game felt dated. Much of the puzzle difficulty was in the execution, not the solution.

Pandemic was perfectly passable. There’s plenty here for new players to enjoy. However, more experienced players shouldn’t expect to be wowed.

That was the thing with Pandemic. There wasn’t a lot wrong with it, but there also wasn’t anything special.

Book your hour with America’s Escape Game’s Pandemic, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: America’s Escape Game provided media discounted tickets for this game.