The Trust Experiment was a personal victory for me. This game was made for the Davids and Peih-Gees of the world (and go at it, they did!). I would have preferred a backseat role. But luck was not on my side (or maybe it was) because I drew the role I was afraid to draw and even though I lost, I felt like I’d won.
The Trust Experiment wasn’t an escape room. It was a social deduction game with puzzles as a game mechanic. The good guys wanted all the points… and the bad guys wanted to steal those points. If we solved a lot of puzzles we would win (or steal) a lot of points.
Cross Roads Escape Games’ exceptional onboarding gave me confidence. Our orderly (gamemaster) gave me opportunity (and added exceptional character to the game!) And my husband and his podcast co-host diverted attention… most of the time. So I played the game. I took some risks. And I had a lot of fun.
The Trust Experiment blended puzzle gameplay with social deduction. It was unusual, and it worked brilliantly. If this sounds like your thing, bring the right group of friends (and the group matters a lot), and check this out while you can. Sadly, it is closing soon. We haven’t played anything else quite like it.
Who is this for?
Social deduction game fans
Story seekers
Puzzle lovers
Scenery snobs
Any experience level
Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
Why play?
An interesting take on Werewolf/ Mafia-style social deduction games
A very cool set
A fantastic actor
Story
Dr. Griffin put our cohort of patients into a psychological experiment. Under observation, were were made to solve puzzles, complete tasks, and determine whom we could trust among us, while some secretly tried to undermine the group.
Step on up! Come one! Come all! Test your mind against The Fun House!
Location: Anaheim, CA
Date played: October 14, 2016
Team size: 2-8; we recommend 4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $32 per ticket
Story & setting
Cross Roads’ The Fun House had our team on an unusual puzzle-based job interview. If we succeeded, we would earn our place as apprentices to the magician. Should we lose, we would forever be clueless clowns.
Cross Roads’ website nails their own description of The Fun House as, “… like being in a fun house from Alice in Wonderland.”
The story was light and barely present. The set was The Fun House’s primary focus and it was grand. The beautiful set cleverly messed with proportions. Every inch of the space was a custom creation.
For the coulrophobic: while we entered the game through a large clown’s mouth, the game itself was certified clown-free.
Image via Cross Roads Escape Games
Puzzles
The puzzles were plentiful and varied. Early on, there were so many accessible to us. Our team of aggressive puzzlers moved like a tornado of puzzling. It became a challenge to keep track of what was going on.
The mid and late game puzzles were less numerous and required more teamwork.
Standouts
The set was magnificently constructed.
Cross Roads delivered many memorable moments through the The Fun House’s set and puzzles.
Image via Cross Roads Escape Games
Hints were delivered via an in-game character who was playful and humorous. The fourth wall-breaking character toyed with us and made jokes about bad escape room design.
Shortcomings
While there were plenty of puzzles and plenty of space, this was a small team game. Each member of our team of six felt like they had missed out on things happening.
The ending was a tad anticlimactic, especially in contrast with The Fun House’s many memorable moments.
Should I play Cross Roads Escape Games’ The Fun House?
The Fun House played like a near-perfect execution of early-style escape rooms. Cross Roads replaced the standard office-like environment with a wacky carnival tent, piled on tons of well-themed puzzles, and mixed in unique and memorable moments. It was a pleasure to play.
If you’re near Anaheim, Cross Roads is a must-visit location.
The Hex Room was a horror movie experience for six characters: Prom Queen, Jock, Virgin, Nerd, Rebel, and Detective. Cast as these film archetypes, we had to solve our way out of six individual but interconnected rooms and together escape the game.
As an added twist, in order to survive, we each had to open our own hex box, a self-contained bonus puzzle for each character.
Upon our arrival at Cross Roads, we each filled out a survey to determine our character assignments. Roles required different skills and some were more or less integral to the game.
The Hex Room was a horror game with frightening moments, but it wasn’t a terrifying game. The set, ambiance, and isolation built fear through anticipation more than any in-game frights.
Image via Cross Roads Escape Games
The story was basic: escape the horror movie to survive. The set was anything but simple. Cross Roads handcrafted intricate, unsettling environments for each character. These were gritty and enhanced the individual character’s experience.
Puzzles
As individual characters, we solved a series of puzzles to escape our isolated entrapment.
These puzzles were not overly challenging. The isolated uncomfortable environments and hampered communication provided the difficulty.
The Detective inhabited the central room. She alone could communicate with each trapped character through windows in the doors of each other player’s room. Ideas or items passed through the Detective. This game mechanism made otherwise straightforward puzzles far more challenging.
Image via Cross Roads Escape Games
The individual hex boxes added temptation. They yielded a survivor’s medal, but wouldn’t help the team escape. They also differed dramatically in level of challenge.
Standouts
The Hex Room was a game like no other.
The best game interactions in The Hex Room played off of the character archetypes and poked fun at them. This was creative, clever, and comical.
The game was designed to force some characters to come together, while allowing another to choose not to.
The Hex Room was a horror game with a broader appeal. By simultaneously conforming to the stereotypes of the genre and making fun of them, it offered both heart-racing anticipation and a sense of ordinary playability.
Shortcomings
Cross Roads designed The Hex Room as a replayable game; we could return to play as different characters. While it’s true that I didn’t solve the individual puzzles in the other rooms, I can’t un-know the general game mechanics or character and object relationships. The Hex Room was exciting not because of the isolated puzzles; it was about the experience we had as a team, surviving our horror film. I couldn’t justify paying full price to unlock a different set of puzzles, while trying to hold back the knowledge I already have about the game.
The individual adventures were more exciting than the culminating story. Once our team came together, the game wasn’t able to do anything with the anticipation or build to a satisfying climax.*
If the characters are assigned incorrectly, the team will struggle. While the puzzles seemed more or less even, the settings were not. For example, one role was more claustrophobic and another included more grotesque props. If even one teammate is too uncomfortable in their assignment or can’t hold their own with the puzzles, the team will have problems.
Most importantly, if you have the wrong person as the Detective, the game will fall apart.
Should I play Cross Roads Escape Games’ The Hex Room?
The Hex Room was not inherently intellectually challenging. Instead, the puzzles were rendered difficult through atmosphere, isolation, and limited communication.
Players who like to focus in on complex, challenging puzzles won’t necessarily love this game. It was designed to be unsettling and force you to puzzle in an uncomfortable environment. We loved this. Not everyone on our team did.
Players who enjoy horror movies or horror experiences will thoroughly enjoy the game that Cross Roads lovingly created.
The Hex Room achieved the incredibly challenging feat of creating a game that brings individual plots together. It did this while staying true to the horror movie theme. Seasoned players will appreciate the subtleties in the game’s design.
This is a game for a team of six people who can rely on themselves as much as each other. Make sure everyone feels comfortable puzzling and operating locks. Cross Roads will modify the game so that as few as five or as many as ten people can play, but bringing any more or fewer than six people would be a mistake.
*Note that we played the second version of Cross Roads’ The Hex Room. The original game had an extremely different ending, among other differences. As always, we’ve reviewed the game we played and we cannot speak to the earlier version.
