Room Escape Artist

I need a vacation.

Location: Danbury, CT

Date played: December 3, 2016

Team size: up to 10; we recommend 4-6

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $27.95 per ticket on weekends, $24.95 per ticket on weekday, child pricing available

Story & setting

“You’ve won a trip to a mystery destination. The catch? You’ve only got an hour before take off. Finish your ‘to-do’ list, pack your bags, and you’ll be on your way. But don’t forget your boarding pass- after all, you’ll need it to escape!”

Jet Set was an old-school escape room packed with used furniture, cheap props, and lots of locks. Against all odds, Jet Set’s gameplay was less exciting than completing a pre-vacation to-do list.

Puzzles

The puzzles covered a broad range:

On one end of the spectrum, most of Jet Set offered the simplest, most forgettable puzzles possible.

On the other end, it got pretty obtuse, and in one baffling puzzle, we had to do something that the game explicitly told us we should not do.

In the middle, there was one puzzle worth solving.

Standouts

There really was one very clever puzzle. The execution was cheesy, but dammit, the puzzle was smart.

Our gamemaster was lovely and Escape 101’s facility seemed well-staffed.

Shortcomings

Jet Set generally derived its difficulty from subterfuge and silly gotchas. Most of the game was comically obvious, except when it dropped obtuse hint burners.

Jet Set looked thrown together and felt cheap.

There came a point early on when a clue explicitly told us that we weren’t supposed to take a specific approach to problem solving. Then later in the game, we had to do the exact thing that we were told not to do.

Should I play Escape 101’s Jet Set?

Jet Set was a categorically weak game, but it was a bit stronger than the unmitigated disaster that was The Widow’s Room.

I cannot recommend this game or this company to anyone.

I hope that the folks from Escape 101 will take a few days and play some of the Northeast’s many great rooms. There is a lot they can learn and it’s a tax write-off for them.

Full disclosure: Escape 101 provided media discounted tickets for this game.