Room Escape Artist

I spy something…

Location: Katy, TX

Date Played: July 7, 2025

Team Size: 2-8; we recommend 2-4

Duration: 70 minutes

Price:  $40-$45 per player, depending on team size

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: All players must crawl or otherwise contort themselves in strange ways to avoid a penalty.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Top Secret was billed as this Game Over’s most challenging game, and it lived up to that hype. We were glad to have an extra ten minutes to sort through the room’s puzzles. The challenge came not so much from the volume of puzzles but from the minimal cluing available for making connections as well as multiple places to enter our solutions. This led to potent ahas but would likely be frustrating for teams without some experience knowing what to look for.

As with other Game Over rooms at this location, Top Secret had a very physical wow feature that promised some real-live actioneering. In practice, it was way harder than it looked, to the point that it wasn’t clear whether the task was even possible without penalty. This began a sequence of questionable activities that relied on trial and error as much as overlooking inconsistent feedback. In retrospect, I think things mostly worked as intended, but in the moment it sure seemed like the game was non-responsive and malfunctioning. After we suspended our concerns, the final sequence comically slow-rolled some high-stakes tension, leaving us both laughing and anxious to survive.

It’s hard to recommend a room with significant potential for staring blankly and wondering if everything is working right. If you want to embark on this challenge, bring a team of 3-4, prepare to get a little stuck, but trust that it will ultimately come together.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Best for players with at least some experience

Why play?

• For some high-stakes spy action

Story

As expert spies, we had allowed ourselves to be captured by a dubious organization of missile-toting bad guys in the hopes of accessing their top secret plans. Now we had to break free and execute some sophisticated spy shenanigans to stop whatever they were up to.

Setting

Our willing captivity began in a small bunker cell with zero amenities, unless you count boxes as amenities. Our environment became progressively more embellished as we progressed, though many intriguing objects were clearly marked as out-of-play. All things considered, the place was a convincing bunker with all the pizzazz of a bunker.

Gameplay

Game Over’s Top Secret was a standard escape room with a moderate-to-high level of difficulty.

Gameplay consisted of observing, making connections, some dexterity, and a bit of trial and error.

Analysis

➕/➖ We appreciated the challenge level that the room aimed for through unusual connections and interesting tech. Most puzzles seemed reasonably though lightly clued. However, the game flow was hampered by poor lock-mapping and a strange misdirection related to an interesting tool.

➕/➖ A wow element was exciting to interact with but seemingly impossible to master. We wondered if our extended efforts were more theatrical than consequential.

➖ An unnecessarily grating and persistent late-game sound effect was at best distracting and at worst unbearable for a teammate with auditory sensitivities.

➖ The endgame suffered from ambiguous tech issues. In retrospect, we think these problems served a narrative purpose, but the lack of feedback or direction in this segment was confusing and off-putting.

➖ The hint control panel was made difficult to access by an obstacle during the last stage of the game. It was unclear whether this was by design, and we eventually “disobeyed” the obstacle in order to access the hints.

➕ The finale was entertaining, dramatic, and a little silly. For all we’d been through, we felt like we earned our escape.

Tips For Visiting

• There is a parking lot.
• Game Over has multiple locations, primarily in Florida, and in a few other states too, including this location in Katy, TX.

Kurtis Rohlf recently played Top Secret in St. Johns, Florida, and agrees that Sarah’s review of the game in Katy, Texas, captures his experience in St. Johns too.

Book your hour with Game Over’s Top Secret, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.