Category: Mission Escape Games

A new beginning.

Location:  New York, New York

Date Played: December 6, 2018

Team size: up to 8 (note that they have two copies of the game, so you could have twice that many and play head to head); we recommend 2-3 per copy

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $30 per player

Ticketing: Public

REA Reaction

Operation End of Days looked great and played wonderfully. As the first game in Mission Escape Games’ new Midtown location, it set a high bar.

Mission Escape Games has developed a keen skill for silky smooth gameflow.

Operation End of Days was designed specifically to onboard new players. While the beginning and the ending could be further refined, it was the right amount of not-too-hard. As the current record holder in this game, I can comfortably declare that it was wonderfully fun even when flying through it.

Whether you like escape games, are escape room-curious, or you’re on the fence about them… give Operation End of Days a try. 

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Any experience level (and a great beginner game!)
• Players who are comfortable playing in low lighting

Why play?

• Great puzzle flow
• Sound design
• Immersive environment

Story

Humanity was facing the end of the world. All previous attempts to end the calamity had failed. We were the last plan, the last hope. We had to create the “final element” to succeed.

Setting

We entered a detailed, weathered, and beautiful, yet grim bunker. It was filled with machinery and piping. 

Mission Escape Games’ set design has come a long way since the early days of the IKEA-furnished Art Studio, 4 years ago. Operation End of Days ranks among Manhattan’s most elegant escape room sets. 

Gameplay

Mission Escape Games’ Operation End of Days was a standard escape room with a lower level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around observing, making connections, and puzzling.

Analysis

➕ It was intensely atmospheric. The gamespace was dramatically lit, albeit dimly. The sound effects brought the space to life. (Note, it was not scary.) Operation End of Days had a drab (by design) end-of-the-world atmosphere with flairs of color.

➖ The monitor was excessively bright against the dim gamespace. The font choice was particularly hard to read against the bright background. Softening the screen aesthetics may be a nitpick, but it would significantly improve this escape room by making it easier to read the game clock and clues. 

➕  Operation End of Days was hearty and solidly constructed.

➕ In building Operation End of Days, Mission Escape Games accommodated the oddities of the building, working these into their apocalyptic environment. We never felt that the confines of a New York City office building location compromised the game’s design.

➕ Mission Escape Games used inexpensive components elegantly. They may not have cost a lot, but they looked polished. The construction and design came together wonderfully and supported the puzzle play well.

➖ The starting place likely won’t be obvious to new players who don’t know the standard mechanics of an escape room gamespace. Since this game was designed specifically to engage muggles, augmenting this beginning so that it unambiguously called out “start here” to newbies would help get the fun rolling.

➕ Operation End of Days flowed beautifully. The largely linear puzzle design made it accessible for newer players, but no less fun for those with experience. 

➖ One puzzle felt unrefined and bottlenecked. With larger teams, this would likely become immensely frustrating.

➕ We particularly enjoyed a layered puzzle that combined typical escape room inputs in atypical ways.

➖We would have appreciated a meatier final puzzle. There was a distinct final interaction, but it felt a little anemic for a finale. 

➕ We regularly tell creators that a great game designed for newbies can still be immensely satisfying for experienced players. Operation End of Days was one of those games. 

Tips For Visiting

• Mission Escape Games has moved! They are now located in midtown. Take the A/C/E subway to Penn Station or Port Authority.
• We recommend Black Iron Burger for a post-game meal.

Book your hour with Mission Escape Games’ Operation End of Days, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Mission Escape Games comped our tickets for this game.

Pharaohs & Queens.

Location: Flushing, NY

Date played: August 20, 2016

Team size: up to 7; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $28 per ticket

Story & setting

By entering this tomb, our group of explorers disturbed the pharaoh and triggered his curse. We had to journey deep into the tomb to break our it and save our souls. Each player received an individual curse, symbolized by a lock on a bracelet, to unlock within the hour.

The Curse of the Pharaoh had a well-constructed, beautiful set with brilliant interactions. It was incredibly fun to move deeper and deeper into the tomb.

Puzzles

Throughout this tomb, we encountered challenging puzzles.

They involved physical interactions with the set and props. Many also leaned heavily on layering and logic. Because of these design features, as well as the proliferation of hieroglyphs, the puzzles required extensive communication.

Not every challenging puzzle felt fair. At times, we were foiled by large logic leaps coupled with opaque cluing.

Standouts

Mission Escape Games constructed an outstanding tomb set. It was interactive, detailed, sturdy, and fun. The set delivered the magic of the experience.

There were some strong, challenging puzzles that involved different types of set piece manipulation.

Through clever design, Curse of the Pharaoh delivered a few truly surprising moments.

Shortcomings

We were trapped in this cursed tomb with a few weak flashlights. I would prefer to bring adequate lighting to my explorations. This was a source of frustration.

In order to lift the curse, we relied on an important document. There was only one copy and it was not easy to use. Because of this, the game bottlenecked.

There were spotty locations in the scenery where exposed screw heads felt out of place.

A few puzzles included some less than clear associations and others demanded excessively drawn-out execution after we figured out what we needed to do.

Should I play Mission Escape Game Queens’ The Curse of the Pharaoh?

The Curse of the Pharaoh was a challenging and exciting game.

This was a set that everyone could love. It provided challenge through both puzzles and tasks.

It will surprise even the more seasoned players, who will truly appreciate the design and build quality of the entire escape room.

This would be an excruciatingly difficult first room escape.

While Mission Escape Games has pretty much nailed the environmental details, they could put a little more effort into gameplay and flow to further improve the experience. This game has a lot to offer, and with additional refinement, it could really be a masterpiece.

Book your hour with Mission Escape Game Queens’ The Curse of the Pharaoh, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Mission Escape Game Queens comped our tickets for this game.

 

A pound of puzzles with a side of gore.

Location: New York, NY

Date played: August 8, 2016

Team size: 1-6; we recommend 4-6

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $180 per team, regardless of how many players

Story & setting

In Escape the Darkest Hour, we had to escape from the murderous butcher’s lair.

This was the sequel to Mission Escape Games’ original Escape the Darkest Hour and it improved upon the original in every way.

The surroundings were creepy and uncomfortable, but still approachable. It was edgy and unsettling without being dangerous or grotesque (ok, maybe just a little grotesque). This made the game space fun to explore.

The set was also entirely dark. We had to find any light we would have within the game. There was enough light to be found.

The story was simple: don’t become the next victim.

Puzzles

Escape the Darkest Hour’s set was a puzzle. Much of the difficulty was in finding important elements and observing the game environment well enough to extract clues from it. In many ways, solving the puzzles meant interacting with the lair itself.

The more standard puzzles were of the “word” variety.

Standouts

Escape the Darkest Hour provided just enough story to keep us engaged. Furthermore, that story came across largely through the puzzle components; we never read long passages of text about victims or psychiatric episodes or other serial killer things.

Mission Escape Games delivered approachable horror for the masses.

While many horror experiences deliver shock through revolting decor and the fear of what may appear, this game delivered shock in the escape room sense. The setting might make you jump, but the magical set responses were exciting.

Mission Escape Games’ attention to set detail was superb.

Shortcomings

While this game included much more than locks, it had its fair share of run-of-the-mill padlocks requiring identical input structures.

In addition, there were multiple puzzles in play with similar elements. At its lowest point, we struggled to figure out which clues went to which puzzles.

Should I play Mission Escape Games’ Escape the Darkest Hour?

Escape the Darkest Hour was an accessible horror game. It kept us on the edge of our seats without inflicting lingering nightmares.

As long as you can remain at ease in the dark and in the presence of theatrical blood and gore, you can have fun with this game. And if you are a horror fanatic, this will be a lighter way to indulge.

Mission Escape Games delivered horror as an escape room, through locks, puzzles, and automagical moments. This was a puzzle game in a creepy setting. If you solve the puzzles, you’ll learn the story, and achieve your freedom.

Leave the young children at home.

Book your hour with Mission Escape Games’ Escape the Darkest Hour, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Mission Escape Games comped our tickets for this game.

A game designed specifically to introduce new players to escape games.

Location: New York, New York

Date played: December 29, 2015

Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3-5

Price: $28 per ticket

Deliberately basic

Basic, introductory rooms are usually created by accident. A new game designer doesn’t really have a strong grasp on the art and science of room escape design, and makes a room that’s soft and gooey.

These basic rooms are generally flawed in a great many ways, but are hopefully good enough to drive interest in playing another, better game.

Escape the Initiation was interesting because it was deliberately designed by seasoned escape room designers as an on-ramp for the hobby.

It was optimized for noobs. It wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t junkie. It wasn’t too easy, but it was miles away from too hard.

This was the beginner’s Goldi-locks room.

Theme & story

“The president of the Company, Mister M, has selected you to join his secret society. But in order to become a member, you must pass the initiation exam! You have one hour to solve the puzzles of the room, or else be trapped forever.”

The setup was confusing. Were we trying to get into a secret society or get a job at a prestigious company? We won, and I’m still not sure.

The room was a straightforward puzzle room. It wasn’t overdone and it wasn’t underdone… It was done.

Puzzles, locks, and magic

The gameplay was a solid mix of exactly what you’d expect from a strong, but typical escape game: an assortment of locks, some scavenging, a good mix of puzzles, and some technology-driven magic.

Missable magic

There were two special moments in Escape the Initiation. Both were pretty damn cool.

You’d have to have been unconscious to miss one of them.

But the other, which our team considered superior, happened quickly and without warning. The biggest complaint we had from our teammates came from the folks who were looking at something else when this moment  triggered.

Those that missed it were indignant.

Should I play Mission Escape Games’ Escape the Initiation?

In Escape the Initiation, Mission Escape Games decided to make the room escape equivalent of a sampler platter. It provides a great 101 course in Escape Rooms. It covers most of the cliches with its own twists.

Nothing was too hard, obnoxious, or unfinished.

The game wasn’t designed to shock, challenge, and impress us, it was made to shock, challenge, and impress the folks who have never played ones of these games… And while I’m not the target for this game, I think it more than succeeded.

It’s a polished game to introduce people to the hobby, and it’s now my go-to recommendation for first timers.

It’s also a great candidate for a more experienced team to attempt a speedrun.

Book your hour with Mission Escape Games’ Escape the Initiation, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Mission Escape Games comped our tickets for this game.

The game in which David became “Sophie.”

Location: Queens, New York

Date played: November 8, 2015

Team size: 4-7; we recommend 4-5

Price: $25 per ticket, must book at least 4 tickets

 

Character play

Before we entered the room, David assumed the role of “Sophie” and received an item that would aid us in the room.

This was a fun component that will especially resonate with fans of The Da Vinci Code book and film.

Sophie’s special item brought with it an individual power. This was a fun concept that more companies should explore.

Theme

The Leonardo da Vinci-themed room that captured Leonardo’s essence (or at least his myth), and that of The Da Vinci Code. The set design and prop supported the theme.

However, it only flirted with storytelling. It set up the story’s characters, but didn’t fully succeed at developing our sense of urgent adventure. It came close, but never really got there.

I didn’t feel like the Robert Langdon to David’s Sophie. I felt like I was with Sophie in a well-themed escape room.

Variety & unambiguity

The Da Vinci Obsession included a healthy puzzle variety.

While there was a “counting” puzzle that I usually find annoyingly subject to individual interpretation, this game included a mechanism to clarify what would otherwise be a mess of ambiguity.

This game included multiple non-lock interactions. The puzzles and their solutions continued to surprise us, in exciting ways.

Escalation

Sophie’s prop provided a fun moment early in the game that made us realize there was more going on in this room than we were expecting.

As the game progressed, the story and the game design continued to escalate.

Late in the game, a particularly dramatic puzzle succeeded spectacularly. On multiple occasions we have seen this type of puzzle flop. The Da Vinci Obession’s success was derived from a combination of clever execution, and high quality components.

Also, Sophie wouldn’t answer to “David,” which heightened a moment or two that called upon teamwork, more specifically, team members calling upon each other.

Should I play Mission Escape Game Queens’ The Da Vinci Obsession?

This was the first room created by Mission Escape Games, Queens (formerly Enigma NYC). As such, it’s a home run.

Furthermore, as the folks from Mission Escape Queens continues to design and to collaborate with others (ie Mission Escape Games), he continues to iterate, improving upon his earlier work.

The Da Vinci Code fans will love the theme and setting, and, of course, getting to “be” a favorite character for an hour.

There is a huge variety in the types on puzzles in this game. Both new players and escape room veterans will enjoy what The Da Vinci Obsession has to offer.

This is a fun one. It’s worth a trek out to Flushing, Queens, on the 7 train.

Book your hour with Mission Escape Games, Queens’s The Da Vinci Obsession, and tell them that The Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Mission Escape Games Queens comped our tickets for this game.

 

 

 

The first escape room that made me feel incarcerated.

Location: Queens, New York

Date played: November 8, 2015

Team size: 4-5; we recommend 4

Price: $25 per person, must book at least 4 tickets

Mission Escape Enigma

Escape Plan was originally created by Enigma NYC. When we went to play, they were in the middle of a merger with Mission Escape Games. Since this game will be branded as a Mission game moving forward, I’ve labeled it as such, but I think it’s important to highlight the people who created the game.

Enigma had a damn cool logo.

Story & theme

I started off the game being ushered into a transparent prison cell with my hands cuffed behind my back. I was told that I had been locked up for some time and that I had hired a team to come rescue me.

The room itself was small and bleak. The prison cell was pretty cool. It was sturdy and had a Silence of the Lambs feel to it.

For a small space, the game ultimately had four distinct sets for us to explore.

The set design was very clever and I am hard pressed to think of another game that uses such a small space so dynamically.

Being locked up

When a game requires someone to do something different from the rest of the team, Lisa or I will volunteer. That way, we get the full experience between the two of us.

In typical lock up or split up situations, the separated group has to work together to reunite.

That wasn’t the case in Escape Plan. I couldn’t do anything from within my cell to help facilitate my own escape. In a strange twist, my efforts to help my team actually hindered their efforts. They would have gotten me out faster if I had sat down and shut up.

While this twist was interesting, it felt like a design flaw because I spent a quarter of my game doing essentially nothing.

Puzzles

Escape Plan leaned exclusively on scavenging and logic puzzles.

At their best, the puzzles did a reasonable job of taking us through a prison break story, but there just wasn’t a lot to do in the room.

Also, the lack of diversity in the puzzles wore heavily on our team. I found many of the puzzles tedious.

Team size

On their website, the team size is stated as maxing out at five people, with teams of four recommended. This is an incredibly honest and spot-on assessment.

Escape games in New York City tend to overstate how many players can fit in their rooms. It’s refreshing to see a company that actually assesses team size accurately.

We had five people, but it would have been a better experience with four.

Should I play Mission Escape Games, Queens’s Escape Plan?

Here’s the deal with Escape Plan: It was a really interesting room. It had a lot going for it in terms of set design and layout. If the scavenging and logic puzzles play to your strengths, you might really enjoy this game.

My big complaint with Escape Plan was how useless the locked up player was for the first leg of the experience. Usually being locked up is a bonus mission for your boldest player to undertake. In this case, it felt like a punishment.

I imagine that it would be possible to speed run this room. In our case, we made many mistakes and melted down more than we ever have in a room. We only escaped because I circumvented the final puzzle (so that win is going to have an asterisk next to it). C’est la vie.

Escape Plan is on the bubble for a recommendation. Personally, I greatly preferred the other two rooms we played. However it’s not a bad room; it just wasn’t my room.

So if this sounds like your game…

Book your hour with Mission Escape Games, Queens’s Escape Plan, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Mission Escape Games Queens comped our tickets for this game.

Location: New York, New York

Date played: March 23, 2015

Team size: up to 8; we recommend 6-8

Price: $28 per ticket

Plot

The good doctor has been acting strange in recent months and has now disappeared.

You have been asked by his friend to go into the doctor’s study and investigate his strange behavior.

You have one hour to discover what is happening before it is too late.

Full Disclosure

We didn’t pay for this one. A reporter from a national publication took us to this room, and observed while we played it (more on that in the future).

This room was selected from the ever-shrinking list of Manhattan-based escape games that we haven’t played, and was one of the few that had availability at the time we needed.

Mission’s Most Refined Game

This is by far Mission Escape Games’ most refined escape experience. Each game we’ve played with them has been better than the previous one, and this game represents a dramatic leap in quality.

This room escape looks good, plays well, and feels polished in a way that few escape games are.

Theme

“Hydeout” is not a typo. This is a Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde themed room (this isn’t a horror room; it’s not scary at all).

It looks great; everything is on theme.

It tells a reasonably compelling story.

It’s loaded with metaphors. Some are obvious, others are not.

Variety

In the past we’ve knocked Mission for an over reliance on locks. That’s not a thing in this room.

The variety of puzzles in the Hydeout is superb. Each puzzle offers its own unique challenge and solution.

Non-Linear

Escape The Hydeout is one of the least linear escape rooms that I’ve played. There are a few puzzles that have to be solved at specific parts of the game, but for the most part, it’s up to the players.

This is refreshing and it kept all seven of our people busy throughout the entire experience.

Challenging, Not Impossible

This game has a 17% success rate, and we made it out with 17 minutes, 40 seconds left on the clock.

We made two silly errors that resulted in us asking for hints, however this was a very tough yet solvable room.

Every puzzle in this room is completely fair, even when it’s presenting a significant challenge.

Lightbox

This game needs a light-box to help solve one of the puzzles. The Mission crew assured me that they are going to build one.

I used my height to my team’s advantage and used their television (which serves as the countdown clock and hint delivery system) as a light-box. It got the job done.

Great Moments

The Hydeout is filled with great moments. There are at least five instances in this game that our team loved.

One of them is very early in the game and it’s just really damn cool.

No Climax

This is a wonderful game that is lacking one important piece. It needs an awe inspiring climactic moment. A moment that everything builds up to in an unforgettable and unreal instant. It needs that moment that everyone who plays it will remember for years after they finished it.

Few escape games find their epic, cinematic moment, and this one comes so close so many times, but never quite gets there.

If history is any indicator, Mission’s next game is going to do it.

Should I Play This Game?

This is a no-brainer. I would put this game in the top two games in New York City (that I’ve played so far).

If you’re new to escape games, you can play this. It will be hard, but it’s doable. I think this is best once you have one or two under your belt.

It has great ambiance, gameplay, and is so incredibly fair while maintaining its difficulty.

This is a must play room.

Book your hour with Mission Escape Games’ Escape the Hydeout, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.