I've done around 150 escape rooms and while in Orlando for a Disney trip, I was really curious to try A Knight to Escape, given that it was Escape Effect's newest room, has a castle theme (medieval fantasy is cool), and is 2 hours long (!). My escape room partner and I ended up tacking Encore and Sherlock Studies onto the crawl as well.
A Knight to Escape (4/5):
The team is split up into two groups for most of the game, where you're trying to help each other break out of a castle. This room physically requires at least 4 people, though I think that it could reasonably be adapted to accommodate 2 (but still recommended to bring more given the length of the game and sheer amount of content). This game was quite the doozy for our group of two enthusiasts and three beginners. The puzzles were challenging but fair, diverse and on theme with good use of castle props, and required good cooperation between groups. Fitting with the medieval theme, locks were of the key/padlock or dial variety rather than standard combination locks, which was kind of neat. Each of the puzzles had a unique layer that fit with the medieval theming and made them better than standard. The set was great, each side with a distinct feel. Good props and polish, except not a smooth wood finish (I got a splinter or two), so watch out for that. A major area that was lacking was the story--not much going on here other than a bit of story at the very beginning and very end.
A few things in particular irked me about this game -
1) One group is stuck in very low lighting for their entire split portion. While there are light sources, they're still pretty dim. I generally dislike low lighting like this, tending to think games should have strong, easily accessible light sources if they're going to go with a darker room, since the tradeoff of needless frustration at not being able to see is rarely worth the immersion of a dark environment.
2) There was nothing to write notes on, which would have been quite helpful for multiple puzzles. I don't think giving us a pen and parchment would have ruined the immersion, and I think this would have been worth saving us some frustration.
3) There was a lot of downtime where one side was just waiting for the other side to solve something. I think this could be improved by either parallelizing more of the puzzles or by changing the format of the puzzles to require simultaneous cooperation from both sides rather than mainly passing objects back and forth.
That said, A Knight to Escape had overall good content and polish. I'd recommend people check it out, but mainly for more experienced players rather than beginners.
[Needed a couple extra minutes and a fair number of hints as a group of two enthusiasts and three beginners.]
Encore (3/5):
An overall decent room with a unique, polished set, but the lack of interesting story and puzzles kept it from hitting the 4/5 rating benchmark.
Set - Really cool lighting system that fit in with the overall theatre setting. Great polish and felt a lot like backstage at a theatre. This is one of the more unique sets out there.
Story - Pretty weak, not super relevant, and I honestly forgot that there even was one.
Puzzles - The puzzles were fairly one-note once we knew what to do, but the interesting bits came from making connections between things we saw in the room and from one of the more complex puzzles in the game. There were a bunch of combination locks that involved some amount of trial and error, which was fine but not ideal. This was a search-heavy room, which is also fine but not our strong suit.
[Completed as a pair of enthusiasts with 9 minutes remaining and 3 or 4 hints.]
Sherlock Studies (3/5):
This game is great for those who enjoy logic puzzles and for fans of Sherlock. It's a good game for beginners, but the level of difficulty and lack of noteworthy aspects makes it less interesting for an enthusiast. Nonetheless, it's an overall enjoyable game.
Set - Polished old-time study set with a bunch of Sherlock references around the room, including the signature newspaper clippings. Nothing in particular stood out, but it was solid.
Story - There wasn't so much a story as much as there was a clear objective, which speaks more to the puzzle metric in this particular room.
Puzzles - Most of the puzzles in this room were fairly simple and low tech (combination locks with a couple questionable design decisions, except for one puzzle that I really appreciated), but the meta mystery really connected the dots, making Sherlock the most enjoyable out of the Escape Effect games I played. However, given the generally simple puzzles and lack of something spectacular in the set and story, I don't think the meta puzzle was enough to bring the rating of this room to 4/5.
[Completed as a pair of enthusiasts in 50:54 with one hint.]
Escape Effect's games each had its own distinct flavor, and I wish I had the chance to play At Odds with the Gods! read more