Category: San Diego

Escapism – Gallery 3919 [Review]

by Lisa Spira, posted in Closed Company, Reviews, San Diego

A colorful mission.

Location: San Diego, CA

Date played: December 4, 2017

Team size: 1-12; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $35 per ticket, purchasing 8 tickets makes the game private

REA Reaction

Gallery 3919 would be a fun and exciting entry point into escape rooms.

Gallery 3919 overlaid standard escape room gameplay with some exciting twists. Considering how long Escapism has been running this game, it was ahead of its time. While it sometimes tripped up on puzzle flow, puzzling through it was generally a lot of fun.

Who is this for?

  • Puzzle lovers
  • Families
  • Best for beginners

Why play?

  • Original art turned into puzzles
  • Fun twists

Story

We were summoned to an art gallery by a clandestine organization and given a training mission to either initiate or expel us.

In-game: A key covered hour glass sculpture in the middle of an art gallery. Massive colorful paintings hang in the background.

Setting

Gallery 3919 was a typically white gallery with colorful, original art on the walls. The staging also included a variety of unadorned pedestals displaying sculpture.

The large space was neither busy or bare.

Gameplay

Gallery 3919 was a traditional escape room.

Much of the puzzling was hidden within the art. We needed to make connections between artwork, unlocked items, and the locked spaces.

Standouts

The art in Gallery 3919 was original. We didn’t know the pieces or what secrets they might be hiding.

Escapism set up the experience such that their unassuming set would change. Escapism employed techniques that delivered the effects dramatically. This was an older game and in choosing these methods, Escapism was ahead of the curve.

Escapism assigned a few roles before we entered The Gallery. While their selection method felt random, it gave them a bit of control over key interactions for extra safety precaution.

The Gallery followed a narrative arc.

Shortcomings

While Escapism created overarching narrative, we didn’t experience it through the puzzles. The puzzles were disconnected from the purpose of our adventure. In general, The Gallery struggled against escape room logic where solutions only made sense in the context of a room of puzzles.

Most puzzle solutions led to a lock. There were a lot of locks, some of which were not clearly connected to their partner puzzles. It could be challenging to ascertain exactly where to input a solution.

One interaction required a substantial amount of force. More experienced players who tend to be delicate with props and sets will likely be tripped up here. We lost a lot of time despite having the right idea.

One of the coolest interactions would benefit from a locking mechanism to hold it in place after it has been used. In its current state, it could move unexpectedly as players move through the gamespace.

Tips for Visiting

  • Prepare for street parking; bring quarters.
  • There are lots of restaurants in the vicinity. The burgers and shakes at Burger Lounge were yummy.

Book your hour with Escapism’s Gallery 3919, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Escapism comped our tickets for this game.

Steal and Escape – Mysterious Stranger [Review]

by David Spira, posted in Reviews, San Diego

I thought my neighbors were difficult.

Location: San Diego, CA

Date played: December 4, 2017

Team size: 3-6; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $32 per ticket, minimum purchase of 3 tickets

REA Reaction

Mysterious Stranger was an intimate escape room.

Steal and Escape lovingly crafted Mysterious Stranger to surprise and delight players of all experience levels. It drew on well-established, successful gameplay tactics and combined these with original concepts. While it was search-heavy, search solves were unusually rewarding.

Who is this for?

  • Puzzle lovers
  • Any experience level

Why play?

  • Inventive puzzles
  • Surprises
  • Great execution
  • An amazing lobby puzzle (not kidding)

Story

Our quiet night was disrupted when we received a phone call from Government agents. They had detained our neighbor and believed that he was in possession of a device that would destroy America before they got there to stop it. They demanded that we break into his home and steal the weapon before it could turn the Cold War hot.

Setting

Mysterious Stranger was a break-in game. We began outside of our neighbor’s home, and had to find our way inside.

In-game: A front yard at night. A locked red toolbox sits in front of an ivy covered white picket fence.

Once within, we found ourselves exploring a home from roughly the 1970s, complete with the color pallet that has been the butt of many a joke.

Gameplay

Mysterious Stranger was a puzzle-driven escape room with a lot of interactions built into the set. One key difference: instead of escaping a room, we were breaking into one.

Mysterious Stranger also involved a lot of searching, but it was a lot more clever than in most escape rooms. When we found things we felt accomplished.

Standouts

The unexpected opening set up a sense of adventure. This was complemented by exceptional voiceovers.

Steal and Escape hid secrets well. Much of the intrigue was in uncovering oddities. While this may be an older, search-heavy style of gameplay, it was executed in a such a way that it was interesting and entertaining even for seasoned players.

The puzzling also relied substantially on mechanical and physical interactions. When Steal and Escape needed paper-style cluing, they found tangible ways to connect them to the environment.

In-game: A desk with a typewriter.

Our favorite puzzle sequence traversed set pieces that had initially seemed unrelated, and resulted in an unexpected open.

Mysterious Stranger required us to make a choice with consequences.

The lobby puzzle that is available before this game was fantastic.

Shortcomings

Mysterious Stranger could feel cramped. While there was a lot to puzzle through, the layout of the space made it hard to involve too many people.

Mysterious Stranger looked aged. While this was stylistic and deliberated, at times the game also showed signs of wear.

We didn’t internalize enough context from playing through the story to make an informed decision. Thus the choice wasn’t as impactful as it should have been.

Tips for Visiting

  • Steal and Escape had a fantastic mini game in a room off lobby. Get there early and play it.
  • Steal and Escape had ample free parking and plenty of dining options in the area.

Book your hour with Steal and Escape’s Mysterious Stranger, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Steal and Escape comped our tickets for this game.

Puzzalarium – The Parlour [Review]

by David Spira, posted in 2017 Golden Lock-In, Puzzalarium, Reviews, San Diego

A whole from fragments.

Location: San Diego, CA

Date played: December 3, 2017

Team size: 2-6; we recommend 2-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $35 per ticket, minimum purchase of 3 tickets

The 2017 Golden Lock-In award, the REA logo turned into an open padlock with a golden ring around it.
2017 Golden Lock-In Award winner

Story & setting

J. D. Howell’s mind was shattered and he was lost within himself. The scientists of Streeper Industries tasked us with entering the broken man’s thoughts and puzzling them back together.

In-game: a small chest covered in labeled keys.

Set within a bepuzzled parlour representing our patient’s mind, we worked to gain access to various compartments in beautiful antique furniture. All of this was overseen by an in-room and in-character gamemaster perched behind a casino card table.

The set wasn’t complicated or detailed, but it was atmospheric. It set a mysterious mood.

Gameplay

This was not a typical escape room; we had to earn everything within The Parlour.

In-game: A deck of cards and a stack of poker chips.

“Fragments of thought” in the form of poker chips served as our currency. We earned them by scavenging as well as solving puzzles. They in turn could be traded to our mysterious gamemaster for the keys to new puzzles or hints.

Our goals were to earn the door key and exit with as many “fragments of thought” as possible.

Standouts

The Parlour was almost entirely puzzles. The minimalist set and deliberate lighting focused all of our attention on the gameplay. The puzzles were engaging.

“Fragments of thought” were both in-game currency and a scoring mechanism. We played a game of puzzles and of resource management and optimization. The Parlour even included bonus options, to further complicate that puzzle. We enjoyed this additional dynamic.

Our gamemaster was a character in The Parlour. He was a gate to the puzzles, confirming solutions and distributing new challenges. With some he played a more involved role than with others. He was a calculating and mysterious puzzle purveyor.

The Parlour had an inventive and amusing introduction and conclusion. The fail state ending was hilarious. We escaped, but it might have been more entertaining to lose.

In-game: A beautiful antique with many drawers, cabinets, and 3 shelves covered in preserved butterflies.

Unlocking the puzzles through currency and a gatekeeper created a different dynamic, unlike most escape rooms. That said, the room wasn’t entirely for ambiance. When a new puzzle opened, we had to turn back to the room to start making sense of it. The Parlour merged traditional escape room dynamics with other forms of gameplay.

Shortcomings

Our gamemaster was a character, but his persona felt forced. He was not a natural actor. This strained the game at times because the puzzle purveyor was a pivotal part of The Parlour.

Some of the items we unlocked in The Parlour needed a bit more polish. Puzzalarium could enhance the overall experience by replacing scraps of paper with more refined components. This was especially true for the small and hard-to-read items written by hand.

Should I play Puzzalarium’s The Parlour?

The Parlour was a puzzler’s paradise. The setting was moody and atmospheric, but set wasn’t the show. The puzzles and gameplay were the focus… They more than carried the escape room.

Everything within The Parlour was an abstraction meant to facilitate gameplay. In a lot of ways, The Parlour was more akin to a tabletop game than it was to most escape rooms. We had currency and stakes; much of the gameplay occurred on a card table. It felt different because it was different.

If a puzzle-driven game in an elegantly simple environment sounds like a good time, then Puzzalarium’s The Parlour will be an absolute delight regardless of your level of escape room experience.

Book your hour with Puzzalarium’s The Parlour, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Puzzalarium provided media discounted tickets for this game.