When in the Course of human events…
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date played: June 25, 2017
Team size: 2-8; we recommend 3-5
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $33 per ticket
Story & setting
In the winter of 1777, we embarked on a secret mission to thwart General Howe, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in the American Colonies. His men were dangerously close to stealing the Liberty Bell, a prominent symbol of rebellion against Britain. He planned to capture the Bell and melt it into bullets to break the rebels’ morale.
General Howe’s office was built in an actual historic building that was owned by one of the founding fathers of the United States.
Puzzles
In addition to some more standard escape room interactions, Revolution largely featured encoding and enciphering techniques from the latter half of the 1700s. While not 100% historically accurate, Liberty Escape Rooms was clearly committed to historical puzzling and it worked.
Standouts
I normally find office settings stale, but the historical spin changed that. Revolution hid interactions that turned what should have been a mundane gamespace into an exciting one.
Liberty Escape Rooms did their homework and used history to create a compelling room escape. Furthermore, they knew where they had deviated from historical accuracy for the sake of game design, and even went so far as to explain this to us in the post-game debrief.
There were a lot of great moments in Revolution that are going to stick with me.
Shortcomings
One critical interaction felt metaphorically forced. As a result, it seemed like many teams, ours included, may have physically forced it a little too much. This one interaction was beat up and should probably be rethought.
I would have appreciated a little more layered complexity in some of the puzzles. Many of Revolution’s puzzles would have benefitted from having an extra step after completing a decipherment.
Should I play Liberty Escape Rooms’ Revolution?
I have a degree in early American history and a passion for the history of cryptography. I was nervous going into this escape room because I thought that my outside knowledge would sour the experience. I was dead wrong; it made a great escape room even better.
Regardless of your experience level, I wholeheartedly recommend Revolution. It’s approachable, interesting, well-constructed, and filled with beautiful, authentic props and good surprises.
Book your hour with Liberty Escape Rooms’ Revolution, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Liberty Escape Rooms comped our tickets for this game.
