In June 2022, we brought 47 players to Albuquerque & Santa Fe. This was our 7th Escape Immerse Explore tour.
Over the course of 3 days, they each played 9 terrific escape rooms and visited Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return.
The post-event survey surfaced the top games in the region, but also shows the diversity of preference even among serious escape room players.
Nefertari’s Tomb is one of the best games in Albuquerque. Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms in Albuquerque.
Grand Puzzle Tomb
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Date Played: December 14, 2021
Team size: 2-6; we recommend 4-6
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $25 per player
Ticketing: Private
Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
Nefertari’s Tomb was jam-packed with content. Our goal was to raid as much loot from the ancient tomb as we could, and destroy the evidence of our presence before the authorities stopped us. New Mexico Escape Room truly made us work for the loot with a constant stream of puzzle solving, searching, and translating.
The upshot: in terms of gameplay for your money, you won’t find many games with as much to do as Nefertari’s Tomb… and it was all staged in a beautiful Egyptian tomb.
The potential struggle in Nefertari’s Tomb was the volume of translation, which felt both completely narratively justified… and also excessive. I literally learned to sightread the hieroglyphics in Nefertari’s Tomb and so did two of my teammates. (Not David… that’s not his thing.)
Overall, Nefertari’s Tomb feels unique, big and exciting… and at times it also feels cumbersome. It’s one of the strongest large team games we’ve seen, and it has a style that a lot of players – especially puzzlers – will connect with. If you’re in Albuquerque and looking for a puzzley good time, give this one a try.
After years of research, Arnold von Dunkelheit had found the location of Nefertari’s Tomb. He had a long list of items that he required from this site, and he’d hired our gang of adventuring tomb robbers to attain them. Our instructions were clear:
Bombshell is one of the best games in Albuquerque. Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms in Albuquerque.
Syndicate Revolt
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Date Played: December 14, 2021
Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3-4
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $28 per player
Ticketing: Private
Accessibility Consideration: If the transition sequences don’t work for you, you can bypass them.
Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
Have you ever just connected with a game? I connected with Bombshell. Maybe it was because I live in New Jersey, and the villain strongly reminded me of my neighbor… or maybe it was the noir vibes, beautiful set, and the clever way that New Mexico Escape Room massaged escape room tropes into the narrative of this game.
Whatever it was… I got really into it.
Another thing that I loved about Bombshell was that things had weight to them. The props, transitions, lighting… so much of this game had a playful gravitas. When you picked up props, they required a bit of oomph; the story felt the same.
Where Bombshell lost me from time to time were in a few puzzles that required a bit more repetition than was necessary. Those “ok, I get it…” moments weren’t numerous, but in such a smooth game, they stood out.
Bombshell is another one of those must-play games in Albuquerque… so if you’re anywhere nearby, go play it.
For decades Vittorio Bosargio had ruled crime in this city as the Don of Dons. No one questioned his judgment… until recently. He seemed to be losing it, becoming chaotic, violent, and mad. As the leaders of our respective crime families, we’d gathered to put an end to his reign, but Bosargio knew what we were up to…
Super Secret is one of the best games in Albuquerque. Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms in Albuquerque.
To the Secretcave!
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Date Played: December 14, 2021
Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3-5
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: $28 per player
Ticketing: Private
Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
We haven’t had a lot of luck playing superhero-themed escape rooms… until we visited Super Secret.
The struggle with superhero games is that it’s really hard to make the players – who know that they are just regular humans – believe that they are in a superheroic world. New Mexico Escape Room solved this problem by casting us as regular humans supporting the hero from his headquarters… and it worked damn well.
The characters, setting, and props blended with a campy superhero story, and sold the whole package. And New Mexico Escape Room accomplished this while telling their own story with their own Albuquerque-based superhero.
There were times where I wished that the puzzles and challenges blended a bit more into the story, but overall, this game was a stellar example of puzzle design, characters, setting, and story coming together to create an adventure.
Super Secret was one of our favorite games from Albuquerque… which is saying a lot because we loved the games we played in this city. This game is a must-play in a region that is worth traveling to specifically for escape games.
For years, Captain Secret had kept the city of Albuquerque safe from evildoers… until today. Our city’s superhero had been captured by his greatest foe, and needed our help. Fortunately everything he needed was within his secret lair, but time was running short.
This June, we’re excited to bring you our 7th escape room tour: Escape Immerse Explore New Mexico!
If you’re interested, get your tickets now… our tours always sell out. We’ve already sold a third of the tickets during pre-sale.*
We’ll also visit Meow Wolf’s The House of Eternal Return, an immersive art installation in Santa Fe.
Here is our first review from New Mexico: Blackwell Manor at New Mexico Escape Room. Stay tuned for reviews of all of the above… coming throughout the next few weeks.
We have written up the details of the tour and answered all manner of questions that are on your mind… and some that aren’t.
If the link above doesn’t answer all your questions, please contact us.
Get your ticket today. We’d love to see you in New Mexico.
*Pre-sale was available to REA Patreon backers and all past Escape Immerse Explore tour goers.
