To put it kindly their hint system is trash. You have to put your answers as you complete each puzzle into an iPad in the room but the introduction to this system doesn't make it clear that you are required to do this if you want hints later. It sounds like the Gamemaster moves you forward as you go but that is incorrect. So not only do you have to solve the puzzles then you have to correctly guess the answer the ipad wants to get a hint for the next puzzle if you need it. We did not have this system explained well to us and by 15 minutes in when we wanted a clue we realized the ipad had not been activated at all so we had no idea how much time we had left as it started from 60 minutes. We asked the kind young Game master Liam for help but he didn't know how to fix it and didn't have time to assist us entering former puzzles to catch us up on the hint system. This issue with the hint system slowed our progress to a literal halt about 30 minutes in when we thought we had a correct answer but couldn't get to the right point in the hint system to confirm and called on Liam again (where he was running intro video for a new team) and he also didn't know what the answer to the puzzle was for the ipad but then had to finish helping the new group. We did not escape but were three puzzles from the end (we had Liam show us which ones we had left to solve). They were not hard puzzles. We would have been able to solve them if we hadn't wasted time with the hint system issue.
Other things- the Throne game is dark in some areas where clues are hidden or glued down and they don't provide flashlights. They provide a slate with chalk for a note pad which is very small and not useful.
We were a group of 4 very experienced (30+ games won between us) players. This was so infuriating to all of us we have vowed not to come back. We entered excited for a new escape room in VT but finding out they've been open for a year and are proud of the fact less than 5 groups have succeeded out of hundreds of groups is frankly narcissistic. To not succeed because you don't give your players the one on one guided assistance of a human game master to communicate with is trash. The entire point of a GM is for someone to watch you, pay attention to what you've done and give you gentle hints- 'look under things', 'have you found all the pieces? Check again in this area for the last piece' etc. An ipad can't do that. Liam was very kind and I feel bad that he did his best to help us but he could only do so much. The star I have to give is certainly for his kindness. Reading the reviews on Google they don't mention the bad hint system but they have similar one star experiences from other seasoned escape room players. This only reinforces the fact that something is intrinsically wrong with their system and not that the hundreds of people who have played are simply not good enough. A game should be fun and challenging, not frustrating full of unnecessary obstacles (not being about to physically see the clues in the darkness). The responses to those Google critiques are also unprofessional and turned us off of the company as they hear the complaints but have not adjusted at all.
We do hope the owners take our criticisms and change their system. It's sad, we were so ready to play all three games but due to their terrible infrastructure we didn't even stay to play a second game or take a photo to remember this game. We just left angry and annoyed by the whole experience and felt we had wasted time and money. Simply heartbreaking, we will have to wait for Escape Room 60 to come out with a new room to enjoy I guess. read more
