Zombie Apocalypse Escape is one of the best escape rooms around Salt Lake City / Park City. Here are our recommendations for great escape rooms in the Salt Lake City / Park City area.
Unchained zombie.
Location: Draper, UT
Date Played: January 7, 2018
Team size: 4-14; we recommend 4-8
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $28 per ticket
REA Reaction
We were locked up with a zombie, but Zombie Apocalypse Escape was not Trapped In A Room with a Zombie. This was a different take on the zombie escape room format that focused more on creating tension and bursts of excitement between puzzling challenges. You’ll need at least a few brave players with decent cardio to make it through this zombie apocalypse.
Who is this for?
- Adventure seekers
- Agile people (not all need to be)
- Nerf marksmen
- Any experience level
Why play?
- Fleeing from a zombie
- Zombie hunting
- Thrills and tension with horror overtones
Story
With the zombie outbreak running rampant, we entered a survival bunker looking for another group of survivors we had heard on the radio. Unfortunately, there was something else in there with us… and it was hungry.
Setting
We were initially released into a quiet and dim storage room. Zombie Apocalypse Escape began there as a typical escape room. If our group had been larger, we might have found ourselves in a split room scenario. With our smaller team, our gamemaster played the part of the other survivors.
The early game built tension. At some point – I won’t say when – the zombie emerged.
Gameplay
The first half of the game was a standard escape room with a lot of added tension because we didn’t know when or how the zombie would reveal itself.
The second half of the game split our attention between puzzling our way to freedom and not getting eaten. In order to keep the zombie at bay (as our gamemaster explained in advance of the game), we would shoot it in a bullseye on its shoulder with a remarkably well-maintained Nerf gun. Shooting the zombie would incapacitate it for a little while, allowing us some puzzling time.
When the zombie wasn’t subdued, we could only focus on not getting tagged by the zombie as it had no chain. This zombie was more like Zombieland than Walking Dead… By that I mean that cardio is necessary for wrangling the zombie.
If running from the undead doesn’t sound like your speed, there was a safe zone where the zombie would not enter, but participation options from that space were limited.
Standouts
From its opening moments, Zombie Apocalypse Escape built tension. The premise worked. We were on edge, in a good way, as we uncovered new gamespace, anticipating what else we might find there. Anything new was inherently scary because we didn’t know when or how the zombie would enter the game.
The early sets felt appropriately apocalyptic and intense.
Unlike other zombie escape rooms, at any given moment in Zombie Apocalypse Escape we were either solving puzzles or escaping a rampant zombie. Alcatraz Escape Games introduced a game mechanic that allowed us to separate these two challenges. This didn’t mean, however, that we could relax; the zombie could easily wake up and attack. We aren’t endorsing any one particular style of zombie play, but we did enjoy seeing something wholly different that required us to strategize in new ways.
The zombie actor had a lot of control of the team’s experience. He read the team well and made Zombie Apocalypse Escape exciting and challenging, but winnable.
The best challenges were life-sized. Or maybe, dead-sized.
Shortcomings
While the earlier sets felt ominously apocalyptic, the final set was escape room-y. It was a room with puzzles… and a zombie. We would have preferred the survival bunker aesthetic to dial up over the course of the experience, rather than evaporate into a game room.
We found the initial staging confusing: we were searching for another group of survivors, but our gamemaster was “playing” as the other survivors. Alcatraz Escape Games does not split smaller groups. The staging wasn’t adequately explained at the onset and we were pretty confused by our gamemaster for quite some time.
We received one misleading pregame instruction that caused us to be far too gentle with an important set piece. We recommend rephrasing to avoid confusion.
Given the in-game exhilaration of a hungry zombie, the escape was anticlimactic. The game ended abruptly.
Tips for Visiting
- This is not Trapped In A Room with a Zombie where the zombie is on a chain. This is a different game.
- There is an actor in the room: 6 Rules For Playing Room Escapes with Live Actors.
- At least a few players need to be a agile.
Book your hour with Alcatraz Escape Games’ Zombie Apocalypse Escape and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: Alcatraz Escape Games provided media discounted tickets for this game.
