Riddler's Escape Tampa - Unguarded [Review]

D.I.Y Heist

Location: Tampa, FL

Date Played: March 27, 2026

Team Size: 2-5; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 75 minutes

Price: $45 per player

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: N/A

Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

We’ve been part of several heist teams hired to gain access to a location, retrieve an object, and escape, but this was the first time we had to figure out the plan ourselves. The biggest obstacle between us and the artifact was a mildly competent security guard.

The majority of Unguarded took place in the hallways and storage closets of Riddler’s Escape Tampa, resulting in minimalist, albeit realistic, set design. The rules were simple enough: yellow doorframes were part of the action and white doorframes were not. However, we thought that watching the rules and onboarding video in the Riddler’s lobby was a bit counterintuitive. We would have preferred an introduction outside the facility to fit with the premise of sneaking into the escape room after hours.

As we probed at the boundaries of Unguarded, we discovered that the game was extremely pliable. Although, we had to solve a couple of puzzles throughout the experience to progress the gameplay, our energy was mainly focused on coming up with new ways to evade and distract the security guard. Our team was not afraid to improvise, and Dan the security guard was up to the task. We created a revolving cast of aliases including a janitor, the Baron of the building, and even an FBI agent to keep Dan busy as our other teammates were working on stealing the artifact. These personas were made complete by the costumes provided in the experience. For those less comfortable coming up with distractions on their own, posted notices provided players with several suggested tactics to distract the actor.

A dim room painted black with four mannequins dressed in different outfits which include a pirate outfit, a 2-piece swimsuit patterned with skulls, a red Riddler's Escape t-shirt, and a blue question mark t-shirt.

After an hour of ridiculous improv, tons of laughs, and the invention of the term “double pooping,” we obtained the artifact and made our heart-pounding escape back to the lobby. However, we wished there had been more of a transition to ease us back into reality at the conclusion of the game. The moments after our success were abruptly back to business as usual.

Unguarded was certainly a very unique escape room experience with heavy emphasis on improvisation and less emphasis on puzzles. Therefore, we expect that the experience would depend considerably on group composition and likely would not be for everyone. Nevertheless, all of the teams that played Unguarded while in Tampa for the 2026 Escape Immerse Explore Orlando Tour seemed to enjoy the experience. For anyone in Tampa looking for a truly unique heist experience, we strongly suggest booking Unguarded at Riddler’s Escape.

Who is this for?

Adventure seekers
Best for players with at least some experience
Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
Players who enjoy improvisation

Why play?

The humorous, playful vibe
A mix between escape rooms and improv with heavy actor interactions
To plan and execute a heist limited only by your imagination

Story

Riddler’s Escape harnessed the power of a mysterious artifact to design all of their escape rooms. After finding out about the artifact, we decided to create a plan on the fly to steal it. We just needed to infiltrate Riddler’s Tampa location, distract the mildly competent security guard, and find the artifact in the restricted area. It was up to our team’s collective creativity to succeed in the heist.

White 3-ring binder set on a red trunk. The front cover indicates this is an Employee Manual for Unguarded.

Setting

Our adventure started in the lobby of Riddler’s Escape Tampa. From there, we needed to access the entirety of the Riddler’s suite for this adventure. We were instructed that yellow doorways were in play, while white doorways were not. Much of the experience looked like the hallways, storage closets, and backrooms of an escape room company. Though the setting was not overly attractive, the scenery fit the premise of Unguarded perfectly.

A white hallway with two doors with yellow frames. One door is blank and the other is labeled Janitor's Office.

Gameplay

Riddler’s Escape Tampa’s Unguarded was an in-person escape room which relied heavily on improvisation and actor interaction. Although the puzzles were each relatively easy, the actor interaction increased the challenge, resulting in an overall experience with a moderate difficulty level.

The gameplay was unique and revolved mostly around learning how to avoid or distract the mildly competent security guard to successfully navigate the restricted areas spanning throughout the building. There was also a decent variety of puzzles; however, the puzzles were not the focus of Unguarded.

Analysis

➕ Unguarded had a large physical gamespace. The game sprawled through the entirety of the Riddler’s Escape Tampa’s suite.

➖ All onboarding for the experience was provided in the lobby, which was inconsistent with the premise that we were sneaking into the escape room after hours. We thought that the experience would be even more immersive with either a cold start or an introduction provided outside the facility.

❓A significant portion of our gameplay was conducted from the Riddler’s Escape lobby. The choice to use the lobby could result in awkwardness from improvising in front of strangers and could lead to other groups of players hearing or seeing spoilers about Unguarded. However, for our playthrough, we were the only players in the suite.

➕/➖ Unguarded was a unique and possibly polarizing escape room. The mildly competent security guard was the heart of this experience. The puzzles were few and relatively easy. If we hadn’t spent as much time interacting with the guard, we would have had much less fun.

➕ We found satisfaction actively learning how to navigate the challenges as we progressed through the experience. As we uncovered new spaces and explored the areas, there were plenty of bread crumbs and suggestions regarding how to master our surroundings. We thought the guide posts would be especially helpful for teams that are less comfortable with improvisation.

➕ The level of actor interactions was well tailored to our group and the security guard was comfortable engaging with us and doing a lot of improvisation. The experience also had the flexibility to be catered toward teams focused on sneaking around and avoiding the guard.

➖ Whenever someone got caught, the guard would march the player back to the lobby. Since there wasn’t a capture or rescue mechanic, getting caught felt trivial. We would have preferred slightly higher stakes, requiring us to be more careful to evade detection.

➖ The finale seemed anti-climatic. We heisted the artifact and escaped from the restricted area. However, since the experience ended in the lobby, we never really got the artifact out of Riddler’s Escape.