The Mayan Temple is one of the best escape rooms in Eastern Pennsylvania. Here are our recommendations for great escape rooms in the Eastern Pennsylvania area.
It’s not the end of the world if you escape.
Location: Bethlehem, PA
Date Played: July 25, 2021
Team Size: 6-10; we recommend 4-8
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $28.50 per player
Ticketing: Private
Accessibility Consideration: Brief flashing lights
Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
REA Reaction
The Mayan Temple was expansive, transportive, and just plain fun. This room absolutely nailed the film-like ancient temple aesthetic, with a polished, caringly hand-crafted build quality. The puzzles were solidly designed, encouraged regular collaboration and communication, and naturally kept us spread throughout the room. A few puzzles led to satisfyingly visual reveals, even when those ahas were somewhat predictable to seasoned players.
The Mayan Temple is a standout choice for large groups, alongside The Island in Captured LV’s Allentown location. Both rooms felt like party rooms — with eye-catching sets and plenty of space to move around — while also still filled with substantive and varied gameplay.
Who is this for?
- Puzzle lovers
- Scenery snobs
- Any experience level
- Large groups
- Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
Story
Our team of archeologists entered the Tikal Temple, the famed resting place of the apocalyptic Calendar Cycles. We had just an hour to reset the calendar and prevent the end of the world before the temple chambers filled with toxic mercury.
Setting
The Mayan Temple was set in an ornately decorated ancient Mayan temple.
Gameplay
The Mayan Temple was a standard escape room with a moderate, accessible level of difficulty. A wide range of puzzles and tasks would appeal to players of varying skill sets.
Analysis
➕ The Mayan Temple was an excellent room for larger groups or parties, and also playable by smaller teams with some experience and/ or lots of energy. There were a ton of puzzles to keep us busy, and the set was a spacious, immersive, and fun environment in which to spend up to an hour.
➕ The gameplay followed a clear structure which both made sense thematically and helped us track our progress. There was never any ambiguity in knowing which objects went with which puzzle or which combination to which input.
➖/➕ The molded-foam set seemed a bit fragile up close, but everything in the room was in near-perfect condition so impressively that this proved not to be an issue.
➖ While The Mayan Temple did an admirable job with lighting and sound throughout most of the room, the finale felt comparatively anticlimactic. Ending with a video rather than something using the room’s set seemed like a mildly immersion-breaking copout right when it mattered most.
➕ We noticed a number of parallel puzzle types between The Pirate’s Chamber and The Mayan Temple, and in all cases, the versions in The Mayan Temple were much better implementations. I enjoyed seeing how Captured LV has refined their design skills over time, and I look forward to seeing how they continue to evolve in future builds.
Tips For Visiting
- Parking: There’s a parking lot behind Captured LV, as well as plenty of metered street parking in the immediate vicinity.
- Food: Captured LV Bethlehem is located in the heart of historic Bethlehem, with tons of great food options within a few blocks’ walking distance. In the shopping center where Captured LV is located, I recommend Stations Cafe for reasonably priced healthy and diner-style fare, and Bethlehem Brew Works for pub food and microbrews.
Book your hour with Captured LV’s The Mayan Temple, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
