As we approach our 700th escape game and 4th Golden Lock-In Awards (to be announced live tomorrow), we’ve been looking over the list of games that people keep recommending to us, but we haven’t had the opportunity to play.
We cannot yet review or elect to honor these games, but we want to call out some of the recurring recommendations that we receive.
New Games, Familiar Companies:
These include some games that have been running for quite some time and others whose opening we eagerly await:
- 13th Gate Escape’s The Asylum, Baton Rouge, LA
- 60 Minute Escape’s Frankenstein, Murfreesboro, TN
- Cross Roads Escape Games’ Psych Ward, Anaheim,CA
- Escape City Buffalo’s The Hangover, Tonawanda, NY
- Escape My Room’s Escape Extinction: Sharks, New Orleans, LA
- Escape Room Netherlands’ The Dome, Bunschoten, Netherlands
- Evil Genius’ The Morgue, Los Angeles, CA
- Locurio’s The Storykeeper, Seattle, WA
- The Room’s Brandon Darkmoor, Berlin, Germany
- Time Run’s Sherlock: The Game Is Now, London, UK
- And whatever the folks from Strange Bird Immersive are currently cooking up.
We keep detailed notes, but we’re definitely forgetting some…
Unfamiliar Companies
Then there are the companies that we haven’t ever visited, but we’ve heard a lot about and they’ve caught our attention.
- Champaign-Urbana Adventures in Time and Space, Urbana, IL
- Edge of Escape, Zion, IL
- Enchambered, Sacramento, CA
- Enter The Imaginarium, Pittsburgh, PA
- Enter/Locked, Jackson, Mississippi (specifically The Temple)
- Escaparium, Montreal, Canada
- Locked In Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Kamer 237, Volkel, Netherlands
- Nick of Time Escapes, Swain, NY (We tried to fit them in on our last western New York trip, but couldn’t make the logistics work.)
- Ravenchase Adventures, Richmond, VA
- Skurrilum, Hamburg, Germany
- The Chamber, Prague, Czech Republic
- The Sanctuary, Oklahoma City, OK
- Xscapes, Binghamton, NY (I want to play their licensed Twilight Zone room!)
And also a more general escape room travel wish list:
- Beijing, China
- Moscow, Russia
- Spain
- Taipei, Taiwan
We know that this list isn’t comprehensive. And for as much as we play, we realize we won’t be able to visit most of these places in 2019. The point is, however, that there is a ton of wonderful creation happening in this industry. It comes in all shapes, sizes, budgets, and styles… and all over the world.
If you try these out or find other gems we might not know about, please report back.
See you tomorrow for the live broadcast of the 2018 Golden Lock-In announcements.
in case yo you come to spain, don’t hesitate to ask for recommendations or scheduling doubts. http://www.room-escapers.com
We’ll take you up on that.
Beijing has a lot of cool escape games, but they’re trending toward a combination of immersive theater and escape game side. Make sure you bring someone who can speak Chinese!
We’ve heard that as well and find that exciting. I have no idea when or if we’ll get there… but I’d love to see some of these productions.
I just did two rooms (Aftermath and The Bodyshop) at Outside The Box in Webster MA last night. No kidding, I left thinking “I need to suggest this place to REA”. Definitely my new favorite ER company!
Awesome. I just saw a couple images of them the other day. They are absolutely on the list for our next trip to Massachusetts.
Israel seems to be a hotbed of escape room companies too.
Kamer 237 is good but worth going in expecting it to be weak on the puzzle front. I think it was a bit spoiled for us by high expectations – the penultimate set of puzzles in particular were very tropey.
If you’re organising a trip to NL/near Belgium I think you should try to play Kubus (and Labyrint) with Locked.Gent. I wouldn’t recommend them for beginners but for enthusiasts they’re very interesting and I think for you two are pretty much essential playing because it explores the heart of what makes an escape room.
These are good tips. I’d like to squeeze a trip into Belgium if we find ourselves in the Netherlands again.