Category: Trap Door

“Better than Award Winning Musical CATS!” -David Spira

Location:  Morristown, New Jersey

Date Played: December 17, 2019

Team size: up to 16; we recommend 4-6

Duration: 120 minutes

Price: $40 per player

Ticketing: Public

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

What do you do when you’re an escape room creator with a small child who watches Disney movies on endless loops? You make an escape room musical; that’s what you do.

When I heard the concept I didn’t know what I was getting into. Were there going to be actors? Was this a show? Was this an escape room?

The answer: It was an escape room through and through. While it had actors artfully projected and displayed, and included recorded performances, it was a 2-hour escape room in a large space, as Trap Door is known to build.

This was very much a Trap Door production. By that, I mean it was innovative, big, thoughtful, and in need of much stronger puzzle content.

This escape game was lovable in so many ways, but the one that mattered most to me personally was the emotional message and a moment that tied into it. It was honestly innovative. The level of commitment and investment in this game was undeniable; just the square footage alone is costly. It just needed much stronger gameplay.

If you’re in the area, I recommend The Greatest Freakshow because it does a lot of truly interesting and unusual things… and I love that… even though it’s frustrating how regularly this escape room undercuts brilliant moments that are unlike anything that I’ve seen from any other escape room company.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Scenery snobs
• Carnies
• Players with at least some experience
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• It’s quite large and contains many different scenes
• The escape room as a musical concept was clever
• There were some compelling moments

Story

Xunder’s Freakshow was ensorcelled by the song of the evil siren Atina. We had to free the minds of the freaks and team up with them to put a stop to her sinister serenade.

Setting

Dating back to their first game, Trap Door has always created big escape games (in terms of square footage). A small Trap Door game is still big… and The Greatest Freakshow was big compared with their other big games. I think it might be smaller than Cure Z: Quarantine, but they are both at a size where it just doesn’t matter which is larger.

The Greatest Freakshow’s world included a stage, fair grounds, carnival games, and dressing rooms or trailers for nearly all of the main characters. There was no shortage places to visit. Throughout, Trap Door minded plenty of details. They covered the ground in convincing rubber wood chips. They used a large television and projections selectively to add life to the space. As a timer, they had the various scheduled stage performances by the Freakshow’s characters. It was a novel and cool space to explore.

A few of the spaces felt too empty or underdeveloped, but on the whole, Trap Door filled the large space.

Gameplay

Trap Door’s The Greatest Freakshow was a standard escape room with a large set and musical interludes. It had a moderate level of difficulty.

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

Analysis

➕ Trap Door’s commitment to large scale is admirable. It is undeniably fun to traverse a sprawling gamespace.

➕ On a conceptual level, I absolutely loved the escape room musical as a genre. I also truly respect the way that Trap Door brought this concept to life in an affordable, repeatable way through video and projection.

➕/➖ The use of the performance schedule and musical numbers as the game timer was a great idea. This was undercut by the lack of audio in the space where we spent all of the second act. This is a fixable problem.

➕/➖ The emotional climax of The Greatest Freakshow was brilliant and the cinematic execution was smart. From a gameplay standpoint, this interaction suffered because most of our team was struggling to see the information that we were supposed to work with. Again, this is fixable.

❓ The opening interaction left our whole team baffled, but we tried to play along. We weren’t sure what the game wanted of us, or if there was a point to the performance… or why it ended when it eventually did.

❓ While I’m no theater critic, and I am certainly no singer, to me, the performances felt more like spirited community theater than a professional production. Most of the performances were charming, not wowing.

➖ The funhouse was undercut by either unclued challenges or janky tech.

➖ The puzzles were painfully lacking. For the most part, they involved identifying information in one place and more or less transcribing it into a corresponding input mechanism.

➖ A key setpiece in the concluding sequence was visibly unfinished and bludgeoned an otherwise great moment to death.

➕ The Greatest Freakshow contained a great sequence that carved itself into my memory.

Tips For Visiting

• EPILEPSY WARNING: There are flashing lights used during this game to simulate circus stage lighting.
• This is at Trap Door’s Morristown location.
• There street parking and a parking garage nearby on Cattano Ave.

Book your hour with Trap Door’s The Greatest Freakshow, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Trap Door comped our tickets for this game.

Who ya gonna call?

Location: Red Bank, NJ

Date Played: January 27, 2018

Team size: up to 10; we recommend 4-6

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $35 per ticket

REA Reaction

Bogeyman was an exhilarating hide-and-seek-and-puzzle game. Trap Door transformed their space into a maze where a potential scare lurked at every turn. The challenge and intrigue came from the menacing world of the Bogeyman. This escape room is not for the faint of heart.  

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Horror fans
• Any experience level
• Players who can solve puzzles while scared

Why play?

• The thrill of the looming bogeyman
• The story
• The finale

Story

After a number of children had been abducted under paranormal circumstances, we had been brought in to investigate the disappearances. Could we find the children before we became the Bogeyman’s next victims?

Setting

The majority of Bogeyman was set in the bedrooms of the missing children. Each child’s bedroom revealed his/ her age, interests, personality, and circumstances, making them distinctive characters.

The Bogeyman’s presence was not implied; there was a live actor haunting our game. While he wasn’t out for blood, he was out for frights.

Gameplay

Bogeyman was all about fear. While those of us who had played Zoe or had bravery kept our cool, some of our other teammates were paralyzed by fear.

There weren’t a ton of puzzles, but each one tied directly to a child and their life. The limited amount of puzzles worked just fine because the Bogeyman and our panicked friends were pretty effective at disrupting our flow.

Trap Door splits larger teams in two, starting them in different parts of the gamespace. I imagine that this split would make Bogeyman easier in some ways and more intense in others.

Standouts

Bogeyman was scary. The lighting, actor, and gamespace kept us continually on edge, in a good way. The gamespace was never quite familiar or comfortable enough for us to let our guard down.

The actor was phenomenal. He kept track of our movements within the gamespace and delivered well-timed scares. He was menacing, but mysterious.

The dramatic ending delivered escalation and narrative closure.

The puzzle flow worked well with the structure of the space and the narrative. We enjoyed one interactive prop that fit the staging and added humor.

Shortcomings

As much as we enjoyed this interactive prop, it was distracting. It was a bit too easy to take this down a rabbit hole… which we did.

When we checked for monsters, we’d frequently find wiring. Trap Door could hide their tech more cleanly.

Bogeyman included one tight transition space. While it worked well in the gamespace, it will make Bogeyman inaccessible for larger and less agile players.

There was not enough light in Bogeyman. During the pre-game briefing we were told that we “could bring our phones in for light.” That instruction really ought to be, that we “should bring our phones in for light.” We didn’t all carry them into the game and thus we didn’t have adequate lighting. This was frustrating.

Tips for Visiting

• There is an actor in this escape room. Read our 6 Rules For Playing Room Escapes with Live Actors.
• Some crawling is required to traverse Bogeyman.
• Bring your phone in as a flashlight. You’ll need it.
• There is a large public parking lot across the street from Trap Door.
• Red Bank has many excellent restaurants, bars, and cafes.

Book your hour with Trap Door Escape Room’s Bogeyman, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Trap Door Escape Room comped our tickets for this game.

🍷 The gateway drink.

Location: Morristown, NJ

Date played: July 31, 2017

Team size: 1-10; we recommend 2-5 thirsty puzzlers

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $37 per ticket

Story & setting

Puzzles & Corks was not an escape room. It was a light puzzle hunt that rewarded solves with a round of wine tasting.

Staged at high tables in the lobby of Trap Door, Puzzles & Corks was a puzzling spin on the girls’ night out genre popularized by Paint Nite.

Each month Puzzles & Corks offers a series of puzzles and wines. We visited for the German wines.

Puzzles

Puzzles & Corks was rooted in paper puzzles, presented in slightly more tangle ways. Played in the absence of large set pieces, the puzzle components all fit in small boxes and on small tables.

All puzzles led to a lock… and another one ounce taste of wine for each player.

Standouts

Puzzles & Corks introduces puzzling by combining it with a more popular leisure activity, wine tasting. It’s an unintimidating initiation for anyone wary to spend an hour entirely focused on puzzles.

The gamespace, sectioned off from the rest of Trap Door’s lobby, was conducive to both tasting and puzzling. There was room to maneuver, crowd around a puzzle, or move off to an empty table with a tasting pour.

The pacing worked well. We didn’t spend too long on any one puzzle or any one wine.

The wine was delicious.

If you like the game, you can play it 12 times per year.

Shortcomings

While the wine was themed, we would have liked to see a more cohesive collection of puzzles, along the lines of Puzzled Pint. This would make the puzzles more engaging.

Some of the puzzles seemed not quite complete. For example, we’d derive numbers, but then guess at an input order. On multiple occasions strong puzzles had a weak finish. One puzzle was too imprecise.

Should I play Trap Door’s Puzzles & Corks?

Trap Door created Puzzles & Corks for a different audience – not the avid puzzlers who spend their weekends in escape rooms. The puzzles were less involved, non-immersive, and less engaging than what we’ve come to expect from escape rooms. For non-practiced puzzlers, they are also less intimidating, but certainly still challenging… especially if you aren’t an avid puzzler.

With Puzzles & Corks, Trap Door has a business model that caters to repeat business in a way escape rooms cannot. With less involved construction, the puzzle elements can be swapped out each month and the customers enticed with new wines. We hope that Trap Door can keep up with the puzzle design and play testing necessary for a monthly cycle because this idea is pretty great. We know that there is a large audience of people who are intimidated by the escape room concept. Puzzles & Corks provides a fantastic soft entry into the hobby.

For escape room enthusiasts and other more experienced puzzlers, know that Puzzles & Corks is not designed for you. It was a fun time, but it was a different sort of activity. It was as much about sipping wine as it was about solving puzzles.

Book your hour with Trap Door’s Puzzles & Corks, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Trap Door comped our tickets for this game.

Puzzle storm.

Location: Morristown, NJ

Date played: July 31, 2017

Team size: up to 6; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $35 per ticket

Story & setting

As a tornado approached, we needed to navigate a corn field and secure ourselves in the barn’s storm cellar to survive.

Trap Door created a ominous atmosphere for F5. An abundance of corn stalks rustled in the dim light and loud wind of the impending storm. We were equipped with only a handheld radio, our strength, and our wits.

F5 was part escape room and part obstacle course. A pair of massive fans blew and the projections of a tornado drew closer as we climbed, crawled, and moved heavy objects to navigate the corn maze towards the safety of the barn’s storm cellar.

Puzzles

F5 was both mentally and physically demanding. We determined how items interacted and then we exerted the strength or dexterity necessary to accomplish each feat.

F5 also included some more typical escape room-type puzzles that did not require feats of strength, agility, or dexterity.

Standouts

We loved the premise of F5. We don’t often escape into shelter and we had never been chased by a killer storm before.

Trap Door constructed a compelling Midwestern landscape into their suburban building. They minded the set details. The lighting, sound, and giant fans added dramatic effects. We could easily imagine the impending tornado barreling toward us, which motivated us to move swiftly.

The hint system was funny and served to further the fiction.

There was an incredibly satisfying Zelda-inspired puzzle. David was a little sad that the Zelda puzzle sound didn’t chime when we solved it… until one of our teammates sang it herself.

The physicality of Trap Door’s puzzle-by-way-of-obstacle course design intensified the experience. These integrated challenges made F5 special.

Shortcomings

The final act of F5 abandoned the obstacle course aspect of the game’s design for a more typical escape room-style series of puzzles. In doing so, it shifted away from what made it exciting and the tension cooled before we made it to the finish line.

Toward the end, the puzzles relied on “escape room logic” rather than continuing to work within the environment as the previous puzzles had. The puzzles worked, but they didn’t feel natural within the game.

Should I play Trap Door’s F5?

F5 was unlike any other escape room we’ve visited to date. It was an obstacle course and a puzzle game, dramatically staged, and integrated into one complete adventure. It was more escape room than Boda Borg and more strenuous than… most other escape rooms.

If you like both physical and mental challenges, you will enjoy this.

While you don’t have to be physically fit to succeed in F5, you will need to climb over and crawl through obstacles. Your teammates can assist you, but they can’t do these things for you. I recommend bringing at least one teammate who actively seeks this type of activity.

Do not wear a skirt, heels, or other impractical clothing to F5.

Trap Door has taken necessary safety precautions in designing and constructing F5. It was a safe experience. That said, you could certainly get hurt, especially if, in the excitement of the moment, you aren’t smart about how you move through this adventure.

The gymnast-kid in me loved F5. The decidedly indoor-kid in David loved F5 too. We each tackled it in our own way and left smiling.

Book your hour with Trap Door’s F5, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Trap Door comped our tickets for this game.

“She’s a witch! Burn her!”

Location: Morristown, NJ

Date played: February 13, 2017

Team size: up to 8; we recommend 4-6

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $35 per ticket

Story & setting

With an accused witch waiting at the gallows, we had an hour to search her residence to find evidence of her guilt or innocence.

Set against a fictionalized 17th century witch hunt, the game was staged inside a dark and creepy home. Witch Hunt flirted with horror, but remained approachably intense for all but the most timid of players.

The home itself was dimly lit and fairly compelling. There were a few brilliant details, but also a few modern items that stood out a little too strongly. Post-game we learned that the local fire marshal was very assertive in Trap Door’s design process.

Puzzles

Trap Door leaned heavily on narrative, but not at the expense of gameplay. The puzzling felt strong and kept our whole team involved.

We’ve knocked Trap Door for issues of gameflow and puzzle design in our previous visits to their Red Bank, NJ location. I am happy to say that those issues were not present in Witch Hunt.

Standouts

Trap Door has always leaned into their exceptional video production skills. This was absolutely true of Witch Hunt. Their use of video was brilliant.

The puzzles largely felt born of the narrative. This was true of the hint system as well.

The set and props had some magnificent details that both brought the room escape to life and tied everything together.

Witch Hunt instilled a sense of adventure in our team that lasted the entire experience, which ultimately escalated to a wonderful climax.

Shortcomings

Lighting was our greatest foe in Witch Hunt. We were provided with one lantern for our team of 6; dim LED candles could be used for light in a pinch. Making light into a scarce resource slowed the gameplay and created situations where a player’s primary role became light holder… and in the words of Errol of REDivas, “No one wants to be lamp holder.” Witch Hunt could benefit from either more lamps or the addition of some built-in lighting in key locations.

While the hint system was excellent, most of our team had a hard time hearing the hints or even knowing that they were being delivered.

I would love to see Trap Door continue to level up their skills as immersive set designers by finding ways to create smoother physical puzzle interactions and hide their tech a little more. If the wires, magnets, and seams were to disappear, Witch Hunt would have felt considerably more magical.

Should I play Trap Door’s Witch Hunt?

Witch Hunt feels like the game that Trap Door has been trying to make for 2 years. Each time we’ve visited them, we’ve understood their desire to make us feel a story through their room escape, but it just didn’t come together. Until Witch Hunt.

Witch Hunt is a force to be reckoned with in the ever-strengthening northern New Jersey escape room scene. It’s a game that could be enjoyed by both newbies and experienced escape room players as long as everyone is comfortable with the darkness and the intense theme.

Regardless of your skill level, play hard. Witch Hunt is a trial by fire.

Book your hour with Trap Door’s Witch Hunt, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Trap Door comped our tickets for this game.