You’ll never guess what that shoe cost.
Location: Jersey City, NJ
Date played: September 25, 2017
Team size: 4-30; we recommend 4-16… Note that they have two copies of the game and larger teams can split and play head-to-head, 16 = 8 vs 8
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $32 per ticket
Story & setting
Grand Theft Jersey City took place in a bank vault, where we were trying to steal as much loot as possible… and more than our friends stole… and then escape with it all.
Each of the valuables had a barcode affixed to it. We “stole” them by scanning the barcodes. As we scanned each item, its dollar value was added to our running total.
The space looked more like a museum than a vault, with white walls, bright lights, and valuables in glass cases.
Puzzles
Grand Theft Jersey City was loaded with puzzles. Most puzzles lead to a scannable valuable. Some puzzles were stand-alone and others were interconnected.
While the puzzles had physical components, they were generally more cerebral than tangible. They relied on logic, ciphering, math, and observation, among other skills.
There were additional bonus puzzles labeled with a green and gold star. These indicated high dollar value items that were not necessary for victory. The bonus puzzles were especially challenging.
Standouts
The barcode concept worked really well. It enabled Puzzle Out to create a heist where we didn’t have to hang onto or keep track of a ton of large and heavy loot.
The barcode concept even factored into the puzzling. This was a brilliant puzzle design. It was challenging, rewarding, and fit right into the overall gameplay.
There were many fun and satisfying puzzles to solve within this escape room. Puzzle Out did simple, puzzle-driven gameplay really well. This has been Puzzle Out’s signature each time we’ve visited.
Grand Theft Jersey City kept our teams of 7 experienced players each fully engaged throughout the experience… and we were all playing for just under an hour.
As a head-to-head game, Grand Theft Jersey City was intense. We were scurrying around solving for and scanning loot as rapidly as possible. We could see our dollar value and the opposing team’s increasing on a screen. As the minutes ticked away at the end, and we could see that we were neck and neck, we debated whether to escape or try to add more money to our tally.
The soundproofing between the two games was excellent. We may have been next to one another, but we never heard the other team.
Shortcomings
While Puzzle Out leaned into their strength, challenging puzzles, we would have loved to see more attention to the set. It never felt like we were in a vault.
Some of the puzzles – and especially one of the more complex layered puzzles – was suffering from wear and tear.
We relied heavily on the barcode scanning app. While it generally worked, a few small UI tweaks would greatly improve the experience… and make one particular puzzle a lot more fair.
The scanner app was also a little too slow to respond and sometimes failed to scan an item at all. Our gamemasters were on top of this and promptly added the correct dollar value to our score.
The excitement came from the head-to-head gameplay as the monetary values increased. We would have loved to see a more interactive head-to-head design where one team’s gameplay could impact the other’s. That would have further increased the drama.
Should I play Puzzle Out’s Grand Theft Jersey City?
Grand Theft Jersey City was a game for puzzle lovers of any experience level.
You could easily book this for a few friends to play together without the competitive aspect and have a great time.
I’d recommend, however, that when you visit, you go all out. Bring two teams of evenly matched puzzlers and distribute the skill sets across the teams. Make sure you have at least one person per team who is willing to work a scanning device. Also, if you’re bringing large teams, someone will likely need to play “project manager” to keep the puzzling, loot, and gameplay organized.
While Grand Theft Jersey City was a heist in name, it was really a puzzle battle.
Book your hour with Puzzle Out’s Grand Theft Jersey City, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Full disclosure: Puzzle Out comped our tickets for this game.
