Clueless Escape Rooms – Save Tony [Review]

Save Tony is one of the best games in the Detroit area. Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms around Detroit.

An IV drip of puzzles

Location:  Ann Arbor, Michigan

Date Played:  August 3, 2019

Team size: up to 10; we recommend 4-6

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $27 per player

Ticketing: Public

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Save Tony was a traditional puzzle-driven escape room with a familiar, but unusual premise. It was bright, inviting, and family-friendly. We needed to find a cure… but it wasn’t for the zombie virus! With interesting and diverse puzzles that involved a group and solved cleanly, Save Tony flowed well.
In-game: a skeleton hanging and looking into the camera.
Save Tony wasn’t flashy, but the puzzle-play was fun. This is the type of game design that made us fall in love with escape rooms. While it won’t present anything spectacular to experienced players, if you enjoy escape rooms for the puzzles, and you find yourself in Ann Arbor, you’ll enjoy giving poor Tony 60 minutes of your time.

Who is this for?

  • Puzzle lovers
  • Any experience level
  • Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

  • Lots of engaging puzzles
  • A good looking doctor’s office set
  • A unique premise

Story

A patient had been brought in unconscious with an apparent snakebite. We had to determine which type of snake had bitten him and the proper course of treatment before time – and he – expired. No snakes (real or plastic) appear in this game.
In-game: A wide angle shot of the medical office. It looks like a doctor's office.

Setting

Save Tony took place in a large, while-walled doctor’s office, with white cabinets and various medical props. Tony lay unconscious on the exam table. It wasn’t the most exciting space, but it was true to the theme. It was also an exceptionally bright gamespace in an industry with far too many dim ones. Additionally, Clueless Escape Rooms had 2 copies of this game, so competitive teams could race against one another.
In-game: closeup of the "Exam Room 2" sign.
Exam Room 1 was next door.

Gameplay

Clueless Escape Rooms’ Save Tony was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty. Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, making connections, and puzzling.

Analysis

➕ We loved the premise. In our escape room careers, we’ve saved a lot of unfortunate souls from gruesome demises. This was our first snake bite intervention. ➕ Save Tony looked appropriately sterile, with white walls, medical cabinets, and doctor-y implements. That said, neither Tony or the gamespace looked entirely authentic. We could buy into the fiction, all the while understanding it was a playful, family-friendly, snake-bite situation. ➕ Clueless Escape Rooms created a variety of themed puzzles that worked well within the gamespace and made use of physical props. We especially enjoyed their take on sutures and gifts brought by well-wishers. ➖ One device failed to balance properly. There are more reliable ways to implement this type of tool. ➖ One puzzle showed significant wear, which detracted from solving it. Save Tony was designed to support a larger group of beginner players. Many of the puzzles could incorporate multiple people piecing things together. That said, for experienced players, nothing required an army. ➖ Because there were a lot of locks in this escape room, we occasionally found ourselves trying a single combination in multiple places. Varying the digit structure more would prevent this from stymieing momentum. ➕/➖ Save Tony culminated in a logic puzzle, which was entirely appropriate for the scenario. While we appreciate that this was set up so as not to sink the muggles and instead to send most teams out of the hospital on a high note, as puzzlers we would have liked a meatier challenge, especially since we’d been building to this from the opening moments of the game. Your mileage may vary. Save Tony played smoothly from start to finish. It was a traditional puzzle-forward escape room, primarily gated with locks. This was the type of escape room that made us enjoy this genre of entertainment. ➕ The final interaction was cute and clever.

Tips For Visiting

  • There is a parking lot.
  • Clueless Escape Rooms has two copies of Save Tony. If you have a lot of people, you could play head to head.
Book your hour with Clueless Escape Rooms’ Save Tony, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you. Disclosure: Clueless Escape Rooms comped our tickets for this game.

2 Comments

  1. I went here for my 9th Birthday and I loved it! There were some tricky parts, but we figured it out. I love Save Tony!

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