Room Escape Artist

“I think that there’s better evidence in this room than the documents.” -Lisa Spira

Location: Portsmouth, NH

Date Played: December 16, 2017

Team size: 2-8; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $28 per ticket

REA Reaction

The Roswell Incident was a fun puzzle game with a few too many (marked) red herrings. While it had a pretty typical beginning, it came into its own in the second act.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Any experience level
• Alien conspiracy fans

Why play?

• The puzzles, interactions, and props of second act
• The evidence

Story

It was July of 1947 and our crew of investigative journalists wasn’t buying the official “weather balloon” story being told by officials from Roswell Air Force Base. Fortunately we had a guy on the inside who had snuck us into the lab for an hour to uncover proof of what was really going down.

Setting

The set looked like a sterile white and steel lab that is fairly common among escape rooms. It was cleanly built with little drama. As the game progressed, things became more intense in terms of both set design and gameplay.

Gameplay

The Roswell Incident was a standard escape room game.

As alluded to in the setting section, The Roswell Incident began as a typical escape room. As the plot progressed, this escape room became quite a bit more interesting.

Play The Roswell Incident for the puzzling in its second act.

Standouts

I loved a few of the puzzles in this game. Portsmouth Escape Room put some bright twists on puzzle types and warmed our hearts.

The Roswell Incident’s larger props and set pieces contributed to tangible puzzling. These varied interactions stood out.

The puzzles flowed well throughout the entire experience. While the first half relied heavily on locks, Portsmouth Escape Room made it pretty clear which solutions should go into which locks. The escape room progressed smoothly.

Shortcomings

Portsmouth Escape Room marked “out of play” items so that they wouldn’t be misleading, but we spent most of the first half searching for the items that were actually part of puzzles.

The environment was bland and uninspiring, especially early on. This escape room needed an opening statement.

The Roswell Incident never conveyed adventure or intensity. There were no stakes other than winning or losing.

Tips for Visiting

• Google Maps directed us to the entrance of a plaza… that we almost didn’t notice. Turn into the plaza and drive toward the back to find Portsmouth Escape Room. They have a big parking lot, so if you can’t see their door from where you parked, you’re in the wrong place.
• MoJo’s BBQ Grill & Tavern in the same plaza was pretty good.

Book your hour with Portsmouth Escape Room’s The Roswell Incident, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Portsmouth Escape Room comped our tickets for this game.