I am the danger.
Location: Austin, TX
Date played: January 6, 2017
Team size: 2-8; we recommend 4-6
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $25 per ticket
Story & setting
Previously on Breaking Bad: We were enslaved by a drug lord and forced to produce blue meth in his lab.
The meth lab felt more like the dingy, hacked together RV from season one, not the pristine lab of Gus’ creation in later seasons.
Puzzles
Some puzzles in Blue Meth Breakout required light chemistry. I have no idea what chemicals we handled, but I’m 99% sure they were innocuous. Interestingly, more than with most puzzles, our teammates either really wanted to mix chemicals, or wanted absolutely nothing to do with the interaction.
Beyond the chemistry, there were plenty of things to find and puzzles to reason through. Our whole team kept busy. This was made more impressive by the fact that many of the puzzles carried bits of story.
Standouts
The in-character game mastering was shockingly compelling… and memorable.
The storytelling captured our collective imagination. We were caught up in it enough that we didn’t trust the voice giving us hints until pretty deep in the game.
There were a few brilliantly constructed props with great interactions cooked into them.
The puzzling and task-based interactions were a lot of fun.
The ending.
Shortcomings
The hint system was hard to understand and hard to trust. This was an accidental byproduct of the character building.
So much of Blue Meth Breakout flowed smoothly and fit into the narrative that the moments that didn’t quite work really stood out.
Should I play Lockout Austin’s Blue Meth Breakout?
Blue Meth Breakout was fun, funny, and a little intense.
Given the drug cooking theme, it was surprisingly approachable, as long as you won’t be bothered by Lockout Austin’s decidedly non-PC handling of the subject matter.
Beginners can absolutely enjoy this game, but I expect that they’d enjoy it more with even one other game under their belts prior to playing.
Experienced players should absolutely get locked up in Blue Meth Breakout.
Book your hour with Lockout Austin’s Blue Meth Breakout, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Lockout Austin provided media discounted tickets for this game.
