Room Escape Artist

The Mind’s Eye is one of the best escape rooms in Pittsburgh. Here are our recommendations for great escape rooms in Pittsburgh.

Astral Projections

Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Date Played: December 7, 2024

Team Size: 4-10; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $195 for up to 4 players, $40 for each additional player

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: Player must take a short step up

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Enter the Imaginarium designed The Mind’s Eye around an exciting core feature: full-room projection mapping.

While this use of technology is far from new in the broader immersive world, it is, to my knowledge, a first at this scale in an escape room. I’ve played a good handful of escape rooms that have used projection mapping to help bring isolated surfaces to life or to enhance existing details in the set. I had yet to encounter one quite like The Mind’s Eye which utilized projections to fully transform a sizable space into a panoramic film. Collaborating with local artists, sound engineers, and technologists, Enter the Imaginarium executed this concept with striking finesse.

That’s not to say that The Mind’s Eye was a fully digital experience. In fact, it featured a plethora of clever tactile puzzles and creative interfaces in a unique environment, all of which tied into the projected scenes around us. This style of puzzle design was somewhat idiosyncratic, with more varied ahas and layers than you’ll find in a typical escape room. Overall, the gameplay was satisfying and clearly supported the story, though we wished that even more intermediate narrative details were communicated in non-written forms.

Enter the Imaginarium thankfully survived a recent venue change, but it led to the permanent closure of The Search for Leviathan and The Chamber of Illusions. They did, however, manage to relocate 2022 Golden Lock Award winner The Inventor’s Paradox to their new location with relatively few changes. The Mind’s Eye is the first of their new creations in their new venue, and they have space to grow.

A visit to Enter the Imaginarium is an unforgettable experience from the moment you first step through the door, with a strikingly cinematic overworld and impactful transitions. I’m truly excited to see what sorts of innovative quests they dream up next.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Mythology fans
• Scenery snobs, especially those who appreciate creative tech
• Best for players with at least some experience

Why play?

• The innovative use of projections and technology
• Elegant, layered puzzle design

Story

We entered into Daedalus’ memories in an attempt to release him from his deepest trauma: the untimely death of his son Icarus.

Setting

The Mind’s Eye took place in a vast Grecian hall. With tall walls and a minimalist aesthetic, the environment was constantly changing.

Gameplay

Enter the Imaginarium’s The Mind’s Eye was a standard escape room with a moderate-to-high level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around solving puzzles, noticing patterns, and making connections.

Analysis

➕ Our experience began the moment we opened the doors to Enter the Imaginarium. The design and performance throughout the entire facility demonstrated an impressive commitment to their mysterious and expansive world.

➕ A pre-game transition was playfully magical. It elevated our overall experience while also clearly delineating where the magic circle began amongst already thematic liminal spaces.

➕ Enter the Imaginarium found a clever way to take team photos without breaking character or immersion. I appreciated how they answered the rarely asked question: “At what point in the player journey would it narratively make sense to take a photo?”

➕ An ethereal transition into The Mind’s Eye accomplished a lot with a little, elegantly setting the stage for the experience to come.

➕ The Mind’s Eye scored significant points for innovation around their use of projection mapping in a large, unusual environment. The images and sounds surrounding us were attractive, wholly immersive, and smartly integrated with more tactile puzzle components. The Mind’s Eye was by no means a small space, yet it felt transportively larger than it actually was.

❓ There was an opportunity to further explore the interplay between projection and physical prop placement.

➖ When we first entered the space, we were overwhelmed with information, most of which didn’t get used until later. While I appreciated a structural attempt to give us time to get our bearings, I wished that clearer signposting for a sneaky observation had been built into the core flow rather than requiring external cluing for most teams, including ours.

❓/➕ It took some time for our team to align with the intended flow of The Mind’s Eye, though the game progressively taught us how it wanted to be played. This puzzle flow was atypical for an escape room: mostly linear, with a single layered puzzle available at a time. Accordingly, the “puzzle width” repeatedly narrowed and widened as the experience went along, repeatedly bottlenecking as we “broke into” a new puzzle and then opening back up once there were various subtasks to distribute. Once we got into it, I really enjoyed how this puzzle style kept our team united around satisfying ahas, but your mileage may vary.

➕/➖ The Mind’s Eye was a narrative-centric experience that delivered a unique premise and emotional conclusion. That said, for an experience themed around memories, there was an opportunity to play even more with the idea of memory through the gameplay itself: the manipulation of our own memories, or deeper stakes surrounding our manipulation of another’s memories.

Tips For Visiting

• Enter the Imaginarium moved to a new venue in 2022/2023. It is now located in Shaler Plaza. Apart from The Inventor’s Paradox, their old games are gone for good. The Mind’s Eye and other future experiences will all be new designs.

Book your hour with Enter the Imaginarium’s The Mind’s Eye, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Enter the Imaginarium provided media discounted tickets for this game.