Room Escape Artist

Git gud at grammar

Location:  San Antonio, TX

Date Played: August 29, 2023

Team Size: 2-4; we recommend 2-4

Duration: 30 minutes

Price: $24 per player

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration:  N/A

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Imagine if every contraction, homophone, and idiom in this review were replaced with the wrongest version possible (believe me, I was tempted…), and you’ll have a sense of what this escape room was like. Now imagine that it’s your job to fix them all, and you’ll probably know if you want to play. For our part, we saw the room description and immediately extended our San Antonio trip an extra afternoon to come check out such a wacky scenario. Kudos to the mad geniuses behind it; it’s truly a unique theme.

The game itself was straightforward puzzle- and set-wise, and the gore warned about on the website was fairly tame. It was made challenging by the 30-minute game clock and would be a great choice for small teams who want to compete against each other’s times. There’s not much to miss by speeding through.

Grammar nerds won’t find niche satisfaction here… no Oxford comma debates or sentence-ending prepositions to pedantically correct. Instead, it’s a hall of shame for the most common confusions. If you aced English class in middle school, you’ll have an advantage. Otherwise, you’ll be on the clock to learn the things that have haunted you for decades. Maybe this will finally make them stick.

This might be the only questionable aspect of the room; if you’re confident in your English grammar and idiomatic knowledge, a couple of activities feel more like school assignments than puzzles (though you may enjoy feeling smart). These were still satisfying enough to execute, but knowing the answers bypassed a potential chunk of the puzzling. In a small room like this, that’s not an insignificant percentage of the overall content. Even so, it always feels good to get an A, and I think that might be what the designers were going for.

Really, the game delivered what it promised. If the title and blurb make you giggle, you’ll have fun. If your a h8r who could care less, you can skip this class.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Grammar snobs
• Small teams
• Speed players
• Best for players with at least some experience

Why play?

• You want to impress the world with your grammar knowledge.
• You’re looking for a fun speed run.

Story

I can’t really top the description from the website:

“Y’all’ve made one two many gramar mistakes on social media and this cereal killer has had enough. Solve you’re way out of the kill room… or dye trying…”

To be more specific, “solving our way” out of the room meant learning enough grammar to prove ourselves worthy of survival.

Setting

Our captor had locked us in a small classroom/ bathroom/ lab facility/ kill room? It was a little unclear. We were joined by the last pupil who had apparently failed their lesson.

Gameplay

Get Out of My Escape Room’s Your Ded was a “mini” escape room with a moderate level of difficulty. It was small in terms of time and space.

Gameplay involved searching, making connections, proofreading, and learning grammar rules. Grammar instruction was built into the experience, so no need to study up beforehand.

Analysis

➕ A+ for a uniquely wacky theme. Puzzles spanned multiple generations of grammar pet peeves, which was a clever expansion of the theme that I didn’t expect.

➖ The set was fairly incoherent, tied together mostly by blood spatters. Theme-wise, I think viewing it as a bloody schoolroom is your best bet. 

➕ For such a small space with limited décor, there were an impressive number of interesting hiding spots. I enjoyed the search aspect of the experience.

➕ The number of puzzles was well-matched to the shorter timespan, giving us a sense of urgency. This was a perfect room to play for speed.

➕ The props were unobtrusive but fun. One set of props felt impressively realistic and hefty to handle. Another set of puzzle pieces brought about school day memories – maybe not pleasant memories, but I’m a sucker for nostalgia.

➕/➖ Grammar knowledge was not necessary to play the game, but it definitely enabled shortcuts to multiple puzzles. The game provided the necessary background knowledge in clever ways, so I had mixed feelings about skipping past those activities.

➖ Compared to the other rooms at Get Out of My Escape Room, the ending was anticlimactic. Since thematic endings are a strength of the company, this is an opportunity for improvement.

Tips For Visiting

• There is a parking lot.

Book your hour with Get Out of My Escape Room’s Your Ded, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.