Pack extra eyes.
Location: St Paul, Minnesota
Date played: August 20, 2017
Team size: 2-10; we recommend 6-8
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $35 per ticket
Story & setting
Dr. Kevorkianstein planned to infect the world with a virus and get rich selling the cure. As agents of the CDC, we had to infiltrate his lab to steal the cure.
Dr. K’s Lethal Injection had a standard stark white aesthetic with a wider variety of real life lab equipment than most other laboratory escape rooms. Labs may not be the most exciting environments, but this one looked authentic.
Puzzles
Dr. K’s Lethal Injection was primarily a game of searching and connection building; there was a lot to find. Late-game it transformed into a puzzling experience.
Standouts
There were a few significant and compelling setpieces. The escape room’s primary late-game focal point was particularly cool.
Escape MSP did a good job creating the science lab aesthetic.
Dr. K’s Lethal Injection had an exciting, dramatic ending.
Shortcomings
Dr. K’s Lethal Injection included a substantial focus on searching. We spent a lot of time finding objects, some of which seemed important, but turned out to be completely irrelevant.
Dr. K’s Lethal Injection had significant upkeep issues. One important clue had worn off from a puzzle and we lost a lot of time because we didn’t know it was relevant. Some props were broken in ways that made puzzle solving into guesswork.
There were a lot of red herrings and puzzles with fuzzy answers. All of this served to water down the experience.
The name of the game’s villain,”Dr. Kevorkianstein,” seemed unnecessary. The real-life Dr. Kevorkian was a controversial figure in the debate over physician-assisted suicide. Reasonable people can strongly agree or disagree with Dr. Kevorkian. The suffix notwithstanding, I had a visceral reaction to seeing his name reduced to that of a generic genocidal super-villain… especially since it was a completely unnecessary plot detail, which also wasn’t relevant in the gameplay.
Should I play Escape MSP’s Dr. K’s Lethal Injection?
Dr. K’s Lethal Injection was a search-centered, large-team beginner’s escape room. That’s not to say that it was easy; it wasn’t. The set looked good and the tech was fun and responsive. However, Escape MSP constructed the gameplay around finding things. In that way, it will hold far more appeal for newbies. Any player who puts in any effort can greatly contribute by simply finding things; there was a lot to uncover.
Experienced players will likely be frustrated by Dr. K’s Lethal Injection as it usually follows that the more games the players plays, the less keen they become on substantial searching.
Dr. K’s Lethal Injection was not our style of room escape, but we can absolutely see the appeal. Bring a big team and don’t let the stark white walls fool you. There are plenty of places to hide things in a seemingly minimalistic laboratory.
Book your hour with Escape MSP’s Dr. K’s Lethal Injection, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Escape MSP comped our tickets for this game.
