In the small town, Eureka Springs, lies a small operation with a big heart named Escape Room 13…read more(ER13). But wow, anyone who is a fan of escape rooms should make a stop here. I've been to my fair share of them; however, I wouldn't dare consider myself an avid connoisseur--mayhaps an avid enthusiast.
But the near perfect rating is no joke. There's a reason they're rated so highly and are so successful. A great team is built of great members. William who ran the room for us was amazing and just downright hilarious. What a character! He definitely weaponizes a brilliant and proper British accent. It's essentially an escape room and stand up comedy all-in-one.
The flavor of the month was a bank robbery placed in 1922--but that's all I'm going to say! Again, wonderful story, props, and mechanics. The clues weren't super vague; you should never feel like it would be nearly impossible to make connections (and trust me, I've walked out of some rooms feeling like I absolutely could not have figured out the puzzle without needing the host to point out the clue).
For a duo, the price seemed reasonable (the room has to meet a minimum price point per hour of operation, so expect higher $/per person if your group is smaller.
In terms of difficulty of the puzzle, it fell on the harder side (maybe like a 7/10 for me). We've definitely had some brain farts and dumb, small, but impactful mistakes, and we were ready to take the "L," refusing to blatantly ask for clues from game master William. I could be wrong, but it seems like the room has clues that are automatically thrown on the screen at certain intervals (cleverly timed to still give groups that just need a small push to succeed) a lot of times we were almost always a step ahead of the clue. But, if you truly want to beat the puzzle with zero help, just simply ignore the audio signature and don't look up at the monitor... I, however, shamelessly looked--I've successfully convinced myself that we were at a disadvantage being a duo, and there was no way I was getting stuck in 1922. Though most would probably cry like babies for their cellphones, I, on the other hand, absolutely need my ramen, modernized sushi, french fries, and--hell, electric toothbrushes weren't even invented yet. No, no. I'm taking the help. The clues were definitely designed to get you back on track, however, it still needed you to meet it halfway with some critical thinking. We were able to escape with 28 seconds left to spare. I don't know about you guys, but I'm ok with failing a room so as long as I feel like I've accomplished a lot. I didn't even bother to ask where we landed in the statistic--haha.
To wrap things up, we really, really enjoyed this escape room. They've obviously worked very hard on this room. It was a beautifully designed project, and I hope they keep their doors open so I can revisit them when I come back into town next year to visit "me mum." We were so happy with our visit we decided to buy a paper escape room recommended by William.
Thanks for a great time, William! Sorry I'll be missing any re-skins happening within the next year.