About: You hop on train heading to Central Park for a fun day, but before you know it you realize that the train has been abandoned by it’s conductor and is now moving at high speed without a driver… You must figure out how to activate the emergency systems and stop the train… before it’s too late!! High Speed NYC is an advanced hi-tech game that is guaranteed to give you an escape experience like no other!
About: It has been revealed that there is a double agent in the international intelligence agency IIA. You and your team were selected to take on a top priority mission and expose the double agent. In order to complete your mission you will need to follow a trail of clues. Attention to detail and team work will help you along the way. The mission is a thrilling escape game that will put your detective skills to test.
Full review: 3 different, unique rooms that were creative and fun to figure out. The first room is an office where you need to figure out who the criminal is and where they fled to. The second room mimics that of an airplane and you get to sit and go for a “ride” to where the criminal fled. This was one of the more unique rooms we’ve experienced in the city, as the seats even vibrate to make lift off feel authentic. The third room involves figuring out where in the city the criminal is located and when. You then have to shoot them with a sniper gun. The storyline is clear throughout the experience and is a Whodunnit. Recommended for different types of puzzles, uniqueness, and challenge.
About: A terrorist attack has been carried out on a NYC Power Plant trapping your team of engineers inside and cutting off all means of communication to the outside world. Can you neutralize the threat and save millions of innocent lives?
Full review: Fun? Eh. Challenging? Yes. Recommended? No. There are 30 puzzles in this room, so it will be helpful to have a medium to large group. Many of the puzzles rely on other puzzles though, meaning some group members may be standing there doing nothing as they wait for their team members to complete a puzzle. It was basically just doing non-stop logical work for an hour with no real story line. It was definitely a challenge seeing how far we could get with just the two of us, which we ended up getting pretty far, but we were ultimately disappointed that it was 30 puzzles and locks and nothing else.
About: Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock…this crazy adventure is a fabulous trip through time. The crazy timekeeper has been stuck in a time warp and needs your help to get things back on track. This time loop is for 8 players. It will be time well spent!
TLDR: There are three rooms total in this experience, with each room growing in difficulty. There are no locks or keys, but rather the rooms rely on technology such as buttons, switches, and putting things together to unlock the next step. The rooms are nicely set up. Overall, it was a fun challenge that we recommend.
Full review: Upon entering the room, it’s obvious that the experience relies highly on tech rather than locks and keys. There are five sets of different technology that require you to press buttons or flip switches. There were a few clues and two hidden items around the room that were unexpected and nice.
Once completing the first room, you move into an even more high tech room. There are multiple puzzles and gadgets to play around with, which makes this room a good experience for groups of 4 people or larger. The way to figure out each puzzle makes sense, and there are even a few cool surprises, one of which involves the large suitcase-like box on a table. Most of the time spent was in this room.
One finished the second room, we were sweating with nerves as we realized there was a third room. This was the toughest one to crack, for a few reasons. There were puzzles that force you to use your brain and think. One deals with putting magnets together and the other involves the periodic table.
Overall, we thought this was an interesting, high tech room that had numerous puzzles to keep us busy. The rooms were also put together nicely.
About: You’re in a Roaring Twenties speakeasy and the cops are banging on the front door. Do you have what it takes to find the secret back exit and escape the long arm of the law?
Full review: This room relies heavily on five number or letter combination locks, which became exhausting. The set of the room was probably our favorite part of the experience, as the music and walls really set the tone. There is a variety of different classic escape room components, such as multiple rooms, finding hidden items, and solving different tasks such as a puzzle, decoder, and searching on pictures for clues.
About: In the outer reaches of the galaxy, can you and your fellow space travelers escape from a life threatening force?
TLDR: Everything in this room is written in Russian. You are given a cell phone with translation apps and when pointed at words and symbols around the room, you can either read everything in English or hear sounds relating to the symbols. At times the apps were frustrating to work with. You don’t do much searching around the room, as everything is pretty much out in the open. There are four main puzzles to solve which range from intermediate to difficult, which made escaping difficult for two people. This one was a challenge but it was mostly frustrating rather than rewarding, due to the unique high tech involved.
Full review: Upon entering this room, you can pretty much tell that you’ll be in the one room the entire time, meaning everything you need is just about visible. You are handed cell phones that contain two apps on them that you definitely need to complete the game. One app is used to translate Russian words to English by scanning (if you know Russian, you’re in luck!), while the other app involves scanning images around the room, which triggers a sounds and clues on the app. Overall, the apps were frustrating, as sometimes words wouldn’t appear properly.
There are four main puzzles in the room, each having nothing to do with one another, so if you like breaking up into groups to solve separate puzzles but not really working together, this room is for you.
Once the four puzzles are solved, you are given blocks that were hiding under each puzzle, and you must put them together to create something that will help you escape. I won’t go into much more detail than that.
Overall, the room was OK. I appreciated it trying to be unique by using translation apps, but it just wasn’t the most ideal experience for an escape room.
About: Manhattan is under siege and chaos abounds! Can you rescue the city within 60 minutes? The Big Apple is counting on you.
TLDR: This room is easy and can be done with two people even though four is recommended. There are eight easy mini puzzles to solve, which leads to the final two tasks. There is only one room in this game and it is not immersive. There is nothing hidden or any secrets to uncover. Everything is already out in the open for you. Overall, the experience was pretty bleak but is recommended if you like completing multiple small puzzles that bring everything together.
Full review: The two of us arrived at Escape Entertainment as walk-ins and were strongly discouraged from playing the game, as it is recommended there are at least four players. We decided to play anyway because we like a good challenge, even though they were trying to convince us it would be impossible to escape.
Walking into the room, it was easy to notice that there were no other secret rooms in the experience, which is usually a let down for us and takes away the magic of escape rooms in general.
10 minutes into the game, I was surprised by how easy the room was, based on what we were told by the employee. With seven easy mini puzzles around the room to complete, which together gives you answers to the second to last activity of the room, we were breezing through.
With 25 minutes left, we entered the final phase of the room, which was putting together four puzzles with blocks. It was actually pretty difficult to figure out what the puzzles were trying to form, and ultimately we weren’t able to get out in time, as we could only figure out 2/4 of the puzzles.
We were proud we were almost out of the room despite the odds we thought we were going against, but we believe this room is much easier than Escape Entertainment is making it out to be.
Even though the room fits 10 people, 10 people is way too many and most people will be standing around bored. We recommend 2-5 people for this one.
Overall, we weren’t too impressed with the set up of the room or the puzzles.
Escape Room City: New York 