Smugglers Tunnels is one of the best games around Los Angeles. Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms in the Los Angeles area.
Roguish overtones.
Location: North Hollywood, CA
Date Played: August 26, 2018
Team size: 2-8; we recommend 4-5
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $30 per ticket
Ticketing: Public
REA Reaction
Smugglers Tunnels was a clandestine, puzzle-focused, point-based heist. The puzzles were the gem of Smugglers Tunnels. We had to solve our way through every part of this operation.
While we felt the role-play aspect was unfinished, we think there’s an opportunity to rework that portion to add depth to this escape room. Regardless, the roles didn’t make or break an otherwise excellent puzzle adventure.
If you’re in Los Angeles, there is art here you’ll want to get your hands on.
Who is this for?
- Adventure seekers
- Puzzle lovers
- Any experience level
- Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
Why play?
- Badass moments
- Interesting puzzles
- Point-based scoring
Story
The forger in our crew of high-end thieves had double-crossed us. For years this guy had been creating clever forgeries and swapping them out with our rightfully stolen goods. We had reassembled the team to steal back what had been wrongfully taken from us.
Setting
The forger kept his artwork underground. We began in two distinct lantern-lit tunnels. We needed to work our way into the forger’s workspace to get our hands on the art. The gamespace was dim with dark, bricklike walls and wooden furniture and props. It had an underground vibe.
Gameplay
Escape Chronicles’ Smugglers Tunnels was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
We aimed to steal back the highest possible value in stolen goods to achieve a high score. Points were scored by adding a stolen item to our collection display.
We each had a role on the team (mastermind, safecracker, etc). Our wristband explained what our special knowledge and abilities were, and how to use any role-specific props that we were given.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, puzzling, and applying our roles’ knowledge and abilities to the game.
Analysis
+ The point-based heist worked well. The more valuable our theft, the better we scored. The set up, however, was not as straightforward as collecting the most items. There was nuance… which could be solved.
– We each had a specific role on the heist team, but the roles weren’t justified in the experience. We each received additional cluing for our role, but it didn’t feel like outside knowledge, special to the character that possessed it. Instead it felt like reading material that we would have preferred to find baked into the game. This cluing functioned as mini runbook wristbands.
+ The puzzles were varied and challenging. We enjoyed so many satisfying solves.
– We would have liked to see Escape Chronicles take additional steps to justify the existence of these puzzles in their narrative.
+ Escape Chronicles turned one common escape room process puzzle into an legitimately challenging communication and logic puzzle. It was a much-needed path through an overused escape room trope.
+ The dimness didn’t bother us. It made sense. We had plenty of lanterns that we could carry around and set next to various props. This setup also culminated in a fantastic puzzle sequence.
– In one instance, Smugglers Tunnels asked us to search for a minute detail. This took us out of the game. In this one instance the lighting irked us.
+ Smugglers Tunnels had a couple of badass moments that worked well with the underground staging.
Tips for Visiting
- There is a parking lot.
- One player needs to be able to crawl.
Book your hour with Escape Chronicles’ Smugglers Tunnels, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: Escape Chronicles provided media discounted tickets for this game.
