Room Escape Artist

Update 5/6/2025: If you enjoyed this article, we hope you’ll check out our interview with Great Gotham Challenge creators Jon Seale and Ryan Patch on Season 9, Episode 4 of The Reality Escape Pod.

Now arriving on track…

Location:  New York, NY

Date Played: July 13, 2024

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

Duration: about 2 hours

Price: $108.55 per team

Availability: Select Saturdays throughout the summer: August 10 and August 24

Ticketing: Private and Public, in a way. You play with your group, but others are also playing, and you’re in a public space.

Accessibility Consideration:  You will be on your feet the entire time. Expect to walk all over Grand Central Terminal.

REA Reaction

REA writers have loved Great Gotham Challenge (GGC) for years, and yet, due to the insanity of our schedule, it took until 2024 before David and I finally got to experience their unique style of environmental puzzle adventure. We are thrilled we finally got to play!

Grand Central Terminal was a wonderful venue for this style of game because it has stories and its architecture is phenomenal.

The biggest thrill of Terminal Time Trial was how well the game was hidden in plain site, in a bustling transit hub. It asked us to interact with the space and the people in it, but it was safe. Sometimes we’d recognize the GGC logo on an unassuming prop. The interactions and destinations were well clued, and we were confident when we approached vendors (and GGC didn’t skimp on the consumables!) or actors blending into the sea of people. Our favorite moment was a well-positioned actor who approached us in a perfectly natural manner, given the staging, and turned the moment into an illuminating tech-driven reveal.

We were also impressed with the app that ran the game. Each of our 4 team members joined our team on their own phone. If anyone entered a solution correctly, it pushed the answer to everyone with a notification inside the app. The app was fast, responsive, and easy to navigate. We’ve seen so many burdensome apps that detract from a location-based experience, but this one enhanced it.

The hint system was well integrated into the app and granular, but it was penalizing. The cluemasters had warned us to pay attention when taking a hint, but in one instance, our group misread and took the wrong hint. This was on us, but it was frustrating nonetheless. Hints are a resource in the race against the clock.

On the subject of the clock, we felt pressured to rush… but at the same time, GGC lovingly provided us interesting history throughout the location-based adventure. The race and the trivia felt like they were in competition. Additionally, it seemed like the finish line was more of a feel bad for half the teams, rather than a celebration. We fully understand that racing is part of GGC’s DNA, but in a small-scale format, we would have been happier without being in competition with everyone else.

In terms of puzzles, we were happy with the offerings in Terminal Time Trial with one notable exception: We trekked to a lesser known place in Grand Central Terminal, but stopped short of the proper destination, only to be presented with a layered puzzle best solved at a table by only 1-2 people, and no table in sight. We awkwardly tried to solve it on our laps together at uncomfortable angles, until we eventually got frustrated a took a hint just so that we could move along to a more comfortable location.

That puzzle aside, the puzzles worked well in the spaces where they were presented. We enjoyed the mix of quick win and more complex solutions. We appreciated the use of multimedia too. All of this combined to make each stage of the game feel new and engaging.

Terminal Time Trial took us to some obscure places inside Grand Central that we didn’t all know about (some of us just know a lot of history!). While we most enjoyed being let in on secrets that might not be common knowledge, we also appreciated that the game concluded by charting a course through some of the most iconic imagery of Grand Central Terminal. We’d always heard (and read) that GGC’s biggest strength is in creating wonder in everyday spaces (iconic or not!) through puzzle and interaction design. In this regard Terminal Time Trial was emblematic of GGC.

If you’re looking for a puzzle-focused, location-based small-group adventure in Manhattan this summer, Terminal Time Trial – and Central Park Sprint, recently reviewed by Matthew – are both available select Saturdays in August.

Tips For Visiting

• We suggest taking the subway to Grand Central Terminal.
• Wear comfortable shoes.
• All members of your team should bring a fully charged phone.
• It can be pretty warm inside Grand Central Terminal in the summer. Be prepared.
• Bring a clipboard. It will be helpful for at least one puzzle.
• The food court in Grand Central Terminal is pretty great. It has offshoots of a lot of iconic New York City restaurants. The incredible Ukrainian restaurant Veselka recently opened an outpost there!

Book your session with Great Gotham Challenge’s Terminal Time Trial, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Terminal Time Trial runs twice more this summer: August 10, and August 24.

Disclosure: Great Gotham Challenge comped our tickets for this game.