Escape Space Games – The Play House [Review]

Birth Control: The Game

Location:  San Marcos, Texas

Date Played: February 2, 2019

Team size: 3-7; we recommend 4-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $25 per player

Ticketing: Public

Emergency Exit Rating: [B] Emergency Key*

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

The Play House offered some interesting puzzles. It was a search-and-puzzle escape room, with quite a bit of stuff to sift through in a minimal set. We weren’t huge fans of the rummaging (there were a lot of diapers). This was also complicated by playing the game in darkness with flashlights.

That said, we especially liked when Escape Space Games had repurposed children’s toys into puzzles.

If you’re in San Marcos and need a puzzle fix, check out Escape Space Games.

Who is this for?

• Locals
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• Fun puzzles

Story

We found ourselves trapped in a daycare after hours. The lights were out… and the toys wanted to play with us.

Setting

We were in a child’s bedroom and playroom in darkness, with a few flashlights. The room was populated with tons of toys, diapers, and the kind of furniture that one would expect to find in the bedroom of a tiny human.

On the one hand, the props and furniture felt accurate… like they may have been migrated from the designer’s home after their child outgrew everything. On the other hand, there wasn’t anything exciting about the setting.

Gameplay

Escape Space Games’ The Play House was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Some of that difficulty was derived from darkness.

Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, and puzzling.

Analysis

➖ The gamespace was a mess of toys and diapers. It had also been far too long since it had seen a vacuum cleaner.

➕ The gameplay in Play House flowed logically. It had some interesting puzzle content.

➖ When we encountered props that had been defaced with numbers, and painstakingly searched out these numbers by flashlight, we were disappointed to find they were just a red herring, or perhaps they were a ghost puzzle, or maybe they were there by accident? I don’t know.

➕ Escape Space Games turned a few children’s toys into interesting puzzle interactions. One in particular was quite the enigma. This was solid repurposing.

➖ / ➕ We played Play House entirely in the dark, with our phones as flashlights. There was no reason – in the narrative or the gameplay – that the space needed to be dark. This was just a nuisance. It did leave Escape Space Games the opportunity to illuminate when and how they saw fit. To their credit, they seized the moment better than most. But the payoff wasn’t worth the hassle.

➖ *The door was locked, but the game master told us the “emergency code” that would unlock the door in the event of an emergency. We recommend that Escape Space Games print the emergency code next to the lock so that players don’t need to recall it in the event of an emergency. Better yet, we recommend that they upgrade to a “push to exit” button. Since the fire in Poland, this kind of lock-in isn’t acceptable anymore.

Tips For Visiting

• There is a parking lot.
• Enter through a glass door at the corner of the plaza and walk down a long hallway to get to Escape Space Games.

Book your hour with Escape Space Games’ The Play House, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Escape Space Games comped our tickets for this game.

Disclosure: Escape Space Games provided media discounted tickets for this game.