Category: Inland Empire

Without a hitch

Location:  San Bernardino, CA

Date Played: January 7, 2022

Team Size: 2-6; we recommend 2-4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $35 per adult, $28 per child

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: all players must climb a few steps

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Confusion Escapes’ The Last Job stood out for a very big reason: the room was filled with a full-size semi-trailer truck, impressively passing through multiple walls. This bold calling card was also echoed in Confusion Escapes’ lobby, where the front end of the truck appeared to be breaking through a brick wall. This brick wall and a nearby street scene were beautifully painted murals, and the illusory transitions from painted to real bricks and a painted to physical lamppost showed off Confusion Escapes’ cleverness in engineering and design.

From the moment we entered the room, we were taken by the sheer mass and realness of the truck. This carried over into a handful of puzzles that got us to engage with the urban environment and truck cab in enjoyable ways.

Yet as we spent much of the game reading papers and inputting numerical combos, the puzzles failed to really fill or take advantage of the vast physicality of the space. It seemed that more time had been spent building this cool truck than devising equally cool ways to engage with or transform it. Even the company’s lobby, with its intricately painted brick wall mural, functioning headlights, and a hidden smoke effect on the truck, somewhat outpaced the room itself in overall visual effect.

The Last Job‘s central feature, the truck, was undeniably awesome. It’s precisely because the truck was so great that I craved more magical interactions, more physical things to move and manipulate, and more unexpected twists in the space. The creators at Confusion Escapes have demonstrated some of their fabrication chops with their lobby and The Last Job. With a bit more attention to interaction design and player experience, they have all the skills to create some truly unique escape rooms.

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Crate training

Location:  Rancho Mirage, CA

Date Played: January 7, 2022

Team Size: 2-12; we recommend 4-6

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $35 per player

Ticketing: Private

Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Treasure Hunters: Station 13 was a puzzler’s paradise. If a giant room filled with puzzles that each opens a shipping crate containing an item of treasure sounds like fun, then this is the game for you.

But that description doesn’t really do Treasure Hunters: Station 13 justice. For essentially a room filled with boxes, the production value was high. And the recovered treasure was surprisingly heavy and intricate, a step above the cheap props you find in most escape rooms.

Oh, and there was also a life-size train cutting through the room.

Treasure Hunters: Station 13 was tastefully and historically situated without gamifying any trauma associated with World War II. The game was based around the actual urban legend of the Nazi gold train which was purportedly hidden in southwest Poland following the war — which has never been found or even proven to exist.

Escape Games at The River has created something quite unique with Treasure Hunters: Station 13. From the historical theme to the nonlinear, points-based gameplay, this was a standout game from a very promising company. Though this area is currently an escape room desert, if Escape Games at The River keeps creating experiences like this, they may very well soon become a destination for enthusiasts.

Continue reading “Escape Games at The River – Treasure Hunters: Station 13 [Review]” →