This is quite possibly the hardest review I've ever had to write for an escape room, particularly…read moreas escape room fans, we really want the industry to thrive and endure. We've had a few bad experiences before, with many of those having to do with our gamemasters being less than present. With those businesses, we were able to say, yeah, we had a bum time, but you should still try them out because the room was great. So what happened with Entrap?
We tried two rooms with Entrap, both booked together, because we were staying at the Old Town Hotel (wonderful stay) and Entrap was just a short way away. It was not a terribly pleasant walk - everything was brick and tar, and it was a hot summer day when we booked our game. Parking was free, though, in an industrial complex, so it would be an easy drive if you did not want to walk.
The first room we tried was LiCastro's Lair. We had wanted to book another room, but that had been taken off the in-person site but not the website, and it was disappointing to start. LiCastro's Lair sounded intriguing, though, and we were excited when we were ushered in immediately upon arrival, with no offer to use the restroom. It was a pretty good story which was presented via video in the room both as part of the game and introductory video.
The room was dark - as we found out in the course of the game, which worked to hide all the duct and electrical tape that was used to put the different props together: the theme elements were eclipsed the moment we turned on our phone flashlights because we could see all the electrical taping everywhere - but we could not see the clues. We are generally not fond of overly-dark rooms, but here you need Superman vision with glasses. There was a timer in the room, but the mood music playing the entire time interfered with our hearing of the dropping of clues, quite frankly. We considered this mid-to-high tech, but with the clue reveals drowned out by the mood music, and scary effects over-shadowed by darkness, what we couldn't see did not scare.
The puzzles were. The. Worst. They were printed on laminated cards that were so inconspicuous as to be invisible even when available in a dark room. We know vampires do not wear glasses - but bats are blind, so perhaps the clues should be less hidden from the average eye. One puzzle required three people, but since they took our reservation on the website when we booked for two, we should have been, but were not, reminded beforehand. We felt trapped, for sure ... And we were quite ready to stake someone through the heart after jumping up and down for ten minutes to get our gamemaster's attention and failing. Even when the gamemaster finally came in, to stand in as our third, and later, to pick up a paper clue smaller than half a wallet from the very dark room off the very dank floor, we were not given time to make up for the time we lost while our gamemaster stood there, being our third, not in costume, clearly quite nonplussed that we needed a third person.
No, we did not escape this room: but instead of acknowledging defeat, we really felt this was quite a rip-off! We paid a lower price at Entrap than a lot of other places for an hour of fun, but we did not get the fun. We did not pay to be frustrated - but we got way more than bargained for in the way of true annoyance.
There was ZERO Small Group Friendliness. This should have been made clear on the web site. If the minimum was for three people, not two, we should not have been allowed to make the reservation. In other professional establishments, games planned for three or more, but booked for two, would be scaled down to accommodate smaller groups or booking fewer would have been prohibited. In other words, those businesses were interested in the customer having a good time and getting good value for their money.
The game master ignored the chances to make the experience enjoyable even while letting the room win, but we were not even offered a photo at the end of the game - we had to ask twice for a photograph, and there were no props, no loser cards to hold up - nothing. It was only at the end of our second game that we found out that players get to write on the wall to remember their time there. ...
More to come ... (See photo)
