Escape game Apartment^[Closed]

Reviews of escape game "Apartment"

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• I've done several escape rooms across the country and I can say, by far, this was my worst experience. It is my impression that they are allowing their "celebrity" to cloud their judgment just a bit and have forgotten that value and customer service are still important in operating a successful business.
  
  Our group of four arrived 15 minutes early to play "The Apartment" and after having an excellent experience at the midtown location, were quite excited. Though we're not fans of being paired with other individuals, we understand that it is a necessary evil and do not dock rooms with this practice. However, in this case, we were grouped with 6 others on a corporate, team-building retreat. With this came a few glaring issues.
  
  First, "the apartment" was most certainly not large enough for a group of 10. Even if we knew everyone in the group, there just wasn't enough room and it was extremely difficult to keep up with the communication necessary to play well. The quarters quickly became cramped and hot making for a deep physical discomfort.
  
  Second, the entire group of six did not arrive on time. Only the first 3 were there at the beginning. The remaining members of the corporate group arrived with just 23 minutes left on the clock and were escorted into the room by the clue master! Not only was this distracting, but these people had no chance of understanding where we were in the game and it took a long time to try to catch them up, forcing us to lose time. This was unfortunate for them as well as they kept finding clues that were already used and it caused them to be disinterested. A few of them actually used this time to just stand in the corner and talk about business. One gentleman even jumped on his cell phone and made phone calls!
  
  Escape the Room, please, do not pair corporate groups with individuals. Admission into the game was paid by their corporation and they were not taking it seriously, so much so that they didn't even show up on time. Our team, however, paid for our own tickets and valued every ticking second on the clock. Though I cannot fault Escape the Room for the poor attitudes of our fellow puzzle-mates, I can blame them for the pairing and actually thinking it was smart to let 3 new people into the room with only 23 minutes on the clock. This was a complete waste of our time and money.
  
  The last item revolves around the clue master. Though he was very nice and helpful, the way clues were handled in this room added insult to injury. You had to request a clue by holding a white board up to the security camera in the corner. This then called in the clue master who would spend several seconds looking around at your progress and he would then offer a suggestion based upon where you appeared to be in the game. This is very clunky, especially with 10 people in the room. When the clue master enters, it becomes even more crowded with an eleventh body. Also, it's not very exciting to be "locked" into a room with the exception of a person who keeps coming and going. It removes from the excitement of the whole experience.
  
  I would love to comment on the puzzle aspect, because I do think it was one of the better games we've played, but we honestly cannot say how much we enjoyed it due to all of the distractions. With a few minor policy tweaks, I'm sure these incidents could easily be avoided and the result would be a much better, valuable experience.

  Mak M.

• We've heard a lot about this and decided to try it out. We successfully completed the "Apartment" scenario this Sunday night. It was a lot of fun to put our heads together to figure out the clues. Before reading further, I DEFINITELY recommend trying an Escape the Room scenario - just perhaps not this location.
  
  Reasons why I'm only giving 3 stars:
  
  1.) We bought 7 tickets and were really looking forward to working alone with our group. (We problem-solve on a regular basis in our job and were really looking forward to putting our skills together). We didn't realize until we were ready to go in that we were to be paired with not 1, but 2 other groups. Both were foreigners. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against foreigners, but in a game designed around communication... well, you get my drift. When I go to a restaurant I don't expect to be sat at a table half-taken up with another party, even though the restaurant would make more money that way. I personally see this as no different, but, who am I.
  
  I overheard the girl at the directing booth say they've been sold out every slot from noon until midnight, every day... so don't expect to be in there with just your group. Buy all 10 tickets if it's important to you. They WILL squeeze in other parties if at all possible.
  
  2.) One of the 2nd pair was not there at the start. The clue master let them in 20 minutes into the encounter. They had to be brought up to speed as to where we stood and they did nothing but get in the way because they were so confused - totally not their fault. This is a fast-paced event with clues being solved and then discarded (or placed appropriate to indicate "this solved that"), so to have someone come in and start picking up and moving things around is not only distracting, but unfair to the other parties.
  
  3.) The Apartment scenario was very small and a super tight squeeze for 10 people. 6-7 would be more reasonable. We were literally standing over one another in the kitchen area. Fine with a group of friends, less fine with a group of strangers.
  
  4.) The clue master being in the room with us, sitting on the couch, looking at her phone, etc., kind of ruined the 'scenario' part of it. What a cool concept, but she was as distracting as a Oxyclean commercial in the middle of an epic movie. There has to be a better way to handle that... The introduction into the whole event was also a little....blah. "Don't touch this, don't touch that, don't move this, don't break that". I understand that is important, but it was clearly said by someone who repeats the same thing 30 times a day. There could be a bit more immersion I guess.
  
  That all said, we liked it so much we are already planning to take another group of friends to the newer Philly location (and I'll be sure to leave a review on that). Unfortunately, we will have to buy all 10 tickets to ensure we're working alone.
  
  Even with the problems, I still recommend ETR for a fun and unique night out with friends!

  Gabriel A.

• Escape the Room is a great team bonding game!
  
  I did The Apartment scenario, which has 10 people per team and is $28 per person. You are locked in a room (in this case, The Apartment) and you have one hour to figure out how to escape the room! The room is filled with all sorts of puzzles and you and your team have to solve these puzzles to keep getting new puzzles and eventually solve everything. It's an intense game and you have to think on your feet and overall you'll have a great time. It's not about being smart, but it's about being aware of your surroundings and picking up on clues around the room.
  
  This is the Downtown location (in LES), which has Apartment and Theatre. The Midtown location (near Ktown) has Agency, Office, and Home. Each one is for a specific group size, varying from 6-12.
  
  I went with a friend group of 8 and two random people were slotted in with us. I think the two random people have done other rooms before because they were quick to solve puzzles. Yes it did help us advance, but in the process, several of my friends and I were left behind and thus were really lost for a good 10 minutes of the game (which kind of ruined the beginning for us). Eventually we all caught up and I even managed to solve a few puzzles myself! :) In the end, we failed to escape the room and the worker showed us the rest of the steps.
  
  Afterwards, they take your picture and give you cute signs depending if you win or lose and post it to their Facebook.
  
  Each puzzle is a one-time thing, since you would already know the steps if you did the same room again.
  
  Definitely give these puzzle series a try and I can't wait to try the other ones!

  Jasmine W.

• I did the "Apartment" themed room with a group of girlfriends for my birthday and it was so fun but SO hard! It was much harder than I was expecting, but in a good way! You really have to look at every little detail and think about how it could be used as a clue. Thank goodness there is someone there to give you clues when you get stuck. I don't know how they come up with this stuff! Now that I have a feel for how it works I look forward to trying out another room and trying to Escape in a quicker time :)
  
  The only thing I did not love was that there were 3 girls in our room from outside our group of friends (no problem there) but they showed up a half hour late and were still let into the room, which was only an hour long to begin with. To have them come in halfway through was a bit of a distraction to the momentum we had going, but we picked back up and worked together to get out!.

  Louise