www.escaperoomla.com/the-alchemist
Three friends and I really liked this room in LA. We were teamed up with two other couples, and we got along with them pretty well. What is really nice, is that the second room you get into is somewhat amenable to multiple teams working in parallel.
Getting ready to go to ours - the Magic Kingdom in Koreatown. I was originally going to do the Alchemist but we wanted the room to ourselves :D I’ve read that one’s great though so it’s on the list for the future after we add a few more team members!
Did one of these on Friday with a group of 6, and it was a blast.
We also crushed it, completing their hardest room in 35 minutes. ALL FEAR MY MAP PUZZLE ABILITIES!
Escape room conquered! Followed by conquering some Korean BBQ a couple blocks away. That was a lot of fun but we made it through pretty quickly at 30 minutes (wasn’t their hardest room though!) Great production value though - I was really amazed at all the gadgets and tech involved. From magic wands that charged up when placed in certain items to a giant that visited from above, the whole thing was pretty impressive.
Yeah, I was pretty impressed with everything they were trying to do in the Alchemist as well. We were the first group through, so some things were a little wonky, but the designer was in the room with us and taking notes on what needed some work. He gave us a little breakdown on his development process as well after we finished.
We’ll definitely do the Alchemist too, though it’s for 10 people. One that big kind of worries me though. You did it with 8, right? The site says they’ll fill it to max with random public folks if enough sign up. I’d rather just do it with our group but don’t want to pay extra just to take the final spots.
Did you feel like too much was going on at once with that many people? Is the room big enough that everyone’s involved and yet you don’t feel like you’re missing a lot that other people are doing? Hope that makes sense.
There were 8 of us, and I think Escape Room couldn’t come up with another 2 that day. I’d say there certainly is some stuff you’ll probably miss out on, and that is why I appreciated the AAR the developer gave us. However, there is so much going on, that everyone will certainly have something to do. So, I think your concerns are justified, but it is also a really good one, so you’ll want to do it eventually. Maybe wait and see if you pick up some more players.
Just played an escape room in Whistler. Lots of fun. Started out handcuffed in a jail cell aboard a pirate ship. Busted out of the room in 33 minutes.
Handcuffed to start out sounds interesting!
We did Jack the Ripper in Culver City tonight and it was excellent. Got the 2nd fastest time with our group of 5. Really well produced and put together.
I’m sure the IRL experience with friends is better… but can this be done online too? I guess it would be hard to keep people from Googling the solutions.
Anyone have any first time escape room recommendations in Los Angeles?
My first escape room was The Alchemist
https://www.escaperoomla.com/the-alchemist
It was great, but I am a little worried I may have started off with too good of one. I’ve done two more since then, and while fun, they couldn’t compare to the Alchemist. The latter rooms weren’t at escaperoomla, so maybe they are just that much better than everyone else?
Magic Kingdom in Koreatown is a good first one I think. Really good production and it wasn’t terribly difficult overall. Less outright puzzles and more adventure game.
Definitely have this one on our to do list as it looks pretty good! A woman in the group after us last night said she was doing her 99th (!!!) room. Quite a lot of escaping!
Or you could get the escape room board game ;)
Got this one for Christmas, may try it out tonight
https://www.amazon.com/Thames-Kosmos-Exit-Pharaohs-Tomb/dp/B01NAXV1G7
What do you mean by “more adventure game?”
99 rooms is insane. They are kind of pricey.
Has anyone tried the at home version of these games? A friend of mine just kickstarted some escape room in a box project. Something like @CraigM references.
Obviously I have not at this point, but I certainly will review it up in here!
Along with this one my wife got for me, she also got one for my brother in law, so we’ve got two cracks at this.
Like adventure game type puzzles as opposed to codes or encryption, something like that. Felt more like King’s Quest in a way. Put this here, do that, etc. Hard to explain more without getting into spoilers. It was pretty neat.
My wife and I did all 3 of these. They’re fun but not quite the same as an in person one. I’d recommend doing the pharoah one last if you plan on doing the other two as well though.
Oh, that sounds like the bits from The Alchemist that I thought put it above the rest. However, it was a challenging puzzle to figure out what bits to put where and do what with them there.
@CraigM- definitely looking forward to your review and I’ll try to play my friend’s game when she gets it.