Amazing Escape Room in Sandy Springs is one of the latest real-life room escape games to open in metro Atlanta. It debuted December 10, 2015 in the "Glenridge 400" office park at 5825 Glenridge Drive. Amazing Escape Room is located in Building 4. Drive all the way to the far back of the office park to find it.
There are several rooms in the works at Amazing Escape Room. On December 16, 2015, we tried "Escape from Experiment Alpha." At the time of writing this review, I've tried eight different room escapes in metro Atlanta: this one, The Study and The Hotel at Mission: Escape - Atlanta near Atlantic Station, Trapped in a Room with a Zombie at Room Escape Adventures in Tucker, Zombie Apocalypse and Inception at Paranoia Quest in Downtown Atlanta, and the Royal Room and Black Ops Room at Mystery Room at Sugarloaf Mills. My favorites have been The Hotel at Mission: Escape - Atlanta, Zombie Apocalypse at Paranoia Quest, and Trapped in a Room with a Zombie at Room Escape Adventures. Escape from Experiment Alpha at Amazing Escape Room comes in fourth, which isn't a bad thing. I had a lot of fun.
There were a few issues with our room, one of which made our successful escape anticlimactic. However, since this place is new, I'm willing to cut these guys some slack. The employees we encountered were friendly and enthusiastic. Due to the hiccups, the assistant manager Paris offered our group a complimentary future visit.
In terms of production quality, Amazing Escape Room falls below Mission: Escape and Paranoia Quest, but above Room Escape Adventures and Mystery Room. Amazing Escape Room has a mixture of high-tech devices (e.g. interactive widescreen displays and touchpads) and thrift store quality props. Overall, what I liked best about our experience was the number and variety of puzzles. There were *a lot* of locks to open and the style/method to opening many of them was different. In other words, we weren't monotonously opening combination lock after combination lock. It was a nice assortment.
I think the briefing portion could have been done better. All I gathered before we entered the room was that we were inside the CDC and we had to avoid getting infected with a virus. After we entered the room, I expected the employee to follow us in and finish our briefing, but instead the door shut and the one-hour countdown began. There was a keypad by the door, but we weren't told how many digits the code was or if escaping through that door was even the ultimate objective of the game.
The room was set up like a doctor's office/lab. There were various equipment, texts, notes/letters, safes, locks, etc. Like other escape rooms, our group was being monitored via camera. We could "talk to the TV" if we needed hints or advice. The TV responded with text messages to our questions/comments. That's different. At the other escape rooms I've tried so far, the escape room employees have communicated via speakers or walkie-talkies. Every so often, audio messages would play on the TV. These messages went along with the room's story and sometimes gave us clues or helped guide us to an answer.
The problems we had with our room were as follows:
1. One of the locked items was not re-locked when the room was reset. When we started the room, this lock was already open. This was both good and bad. It was good because it was one less lock to solve. However, it was bad because we ended up gathering extraneous clues (intended for this lock) that only served to confuse us since we didn't know what puzzle the clues were for.
2. A multi-digit numeric code was required to solve the final puzzle. We knew all of the numbers of the code, but one. That was because the number had been inadvertently wiped off of the item it was written on. When the room was reset, no one checked to see if the number was still visible. Luckily, since we knew all the other digits, we could just guess by trial-and-error at what the remaining digit was. We *should* have known what the remaining digit was since we found the hidden item that had the number written on it. (Sorry for being so vague, but I don't want to spoil anything.)
3. The lock where we input the final code did not work. The employees said we got the final code correct, but the lock wouldn't open. Before the timer ended, an employee entered the room and tried the correct code out for herself. It didn't work. She said it was the first time that's happened and apologized. While we didn't get the thrill and satisfaction of inputting the final code and unlocking the last puzzle, at least we beat the room! The big group before us did not. Losers (jk).
We had six people in our group and I thought it was an ideal size for Escape from Experiment Alpha. We purchased Groupons (https://www.groupon.com/deals/amazing-escape-room-ga) and it worked out to $21.25 per person for us. Tickets are normally $28 per person.
Despite the problems, all of us still had an enjoyable experience. We're going back next month. read more