Room Escape Artist

Handcuffs, ciphers, & astrology.

Location:  San Antonio, Texas

Date Played: February 3, 2019

Team size: 2-10; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $31.95 per player

Ticketing: Public

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [F] No Emergency Release

REA Reaction

The Zodiac Killer Legacy was a standard murder-basement style-escape room: minimal decor and a creepy vibe.

The Exit Game delivered standard gameplay with a bias for cyphers. While a few of the puzzles needed refinement or maintenance, it flowed pretty well and built towards a climactic conclusion.

We started The Zodiac Killer Legacy handcuffed without safety releases. For this reason, we cannot recommend the game. While this worked well from a gameplay standpoint, the reward wasn’t worth the risk in a post-Poland fire world.

Who is this for?

• People who like the idea of a scary themed experience, but don’t want to actually be afraid.
• Players with at least some experience
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• Creepy vibe without true horror
• Some interesting puzzles

Story

We’d been kidnapped by a hopeful Zodiac Killer copycat. He was planning to begin his killing spree with us.

We had to escape before he returned to his murder basement and began his new venture.

Setting

In The Zodiac Killer Legacy, we were chained to a wall in a dark basement-like room with minimal decor.

The Exit Game created a space that functioned as a convincing basement environment. There wasn’t anything remarkable about it.

Gameplay

The Exit Game’s The Zodiac Killer Legacy was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around searching, making connections, and puzzling.

Analysis

➕ /➖ We began this escape room with the entire team handcuffed along a wall. The handcuffing didn’t last long. It focused us on a single jumping off point, freeing ourselves to explore the room. Forced to collaborate as a team, and thematically appropriate, I can see how this could be an exhilarating beginning. That said, the handcuffs lacked safety releases. The thrill of the handcuffs wasn’t worth the risk they entail. The Exit Game absolutely needs to add safety releases if they continue to include handcuffing.

➕ The set of The Zodiac Killer Legacy looked appropriately murder-basement-y. It was spacious and relatively barren, which could come across as foreboding. It was serviceable.

➖ The bare bones set had only one intriguing element… but its use didn’t warrant the intrigue.

➖ Some of the cluing seemed a bit off. In one case, overly complex cluing was perhaps a ghost puzzle. In another, the flavor text seemed a bit of a stretch. A third seemed just a bit too ambiguous.

➖ The Zodiac Killer Legacy relied too heavy on reading and ciphering. It quickly became tedious and repetitious.

➖ One prop was wearing away. This was simultaneously making the solve too easy – we could intuit what past teams has done – and too hard – as it was needlessly challenging to take the action.

➕ As we played through The Zodiac Killer Legacy, we built toward the most exciting solve of the game. Given its nature, it was rightly placed as the culminating action.

Tips For Visiting

• There is a parking lot.

Book your hour with The Exit Game’s The Zodiac Killer Legacy, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: The Exit Game comped our tickets for this game.