Escape room vs. Puzzle room
First, a clarification: what’s the difference between an escape room and a puzzle room? Answer: absolutely nothing. The term “escape room” tends to be more common but more often nowadays the room themes have little or nothing to do with the actual escaping of the room and more to do with solving the overall problem, like locating an artifact or discovering someone’s identity. Although “puzzle room” may be more accurate and widely understood to mean the same thing, “escape room” will be used here and seems to be the more universal term.
Things That Affect the Escape Room Experience
There are quite a few elements that have a significant impact on the experience, some obvious and some surprising. Many of these are not consciously noticed by the majority of players, but they will make the difference between a good, possibly frustrating experience, and an exciting, satisfying experience that you keep thinking about long after the hour is finished.
Staff
While having friendly staff during the check-in and check-out process is certainly a plus, it is separate from the actual experience. What does make a difference in the game, however, is the attentiveness of the staff monitoring the room. Getting the right clue at the right time can be the difference between feeling like you’re progressively gaining momentum or feeling like a room full of basset hounds doing Sudoku.
Hints
Hints are absolutely essential to the escape room experience, and while nearly every company has some form of hint-giving system in place, there are several pitfalls that can make or break the experience altogether. One of the most common is putting either a limit or attaching a penalty for hints, both of which negatively affect the flow of the game and often leave players frustrated. Another is using a system that doesn’t allow for direct communication, like not using in-room microphones or using handwritten hints, as it wastes time and limits the amount of guidance the staff can give.
Strangers
One of the biggest lies that escape room companies will try to tell you is that their rooms “are more fun with more people,” i.e. that being put together with other groups in the room is all part of the experience. And sure, there’s a chance you could be put with a group of personable, fun-loving puzzle geniuses. But there’s also a chance you could be spending good money to escape with a crew of rowdy tween knuckleheads. Some escape rooms solve this problem by offering private bookings at a higher per-ticket price point, which is usually more practical than the suggestion to just “book out the whole room.” Oftentimes, booking last minute or at less popular times can amount to a private booking without the increased cost, though this is virtually never possible with special offers or Groupon (see discussion on Groupon below.)
Puzzles (Best puzzles, worst puzzles)
This is certainly the most obvious factor of a good escape experience, although it can be more difficult than it seems to determine what makes a good puzzle in the context of an escape room. Consistency with the theme, originality, and logical solutions are features of some of the best puzzles, while over-complication, difficulty by obscurity, and excessive seek-and-find all tend to make puzzles more frustrating and not enjoyable.
Theatrics
Often one of the most underutilized components of escape rooms, theatrics help build excitement and offer more concrete ‘rewards’ for solving puzzles that help to move the experience along in a satisfying way. Although sometimes it seems like the bigger-budget chains have the upper hand in theatrics and cool technology, it can often come across as showy and unnecessary if it isn’t well-integrated and built up with quality puzzles.
Flow
One of the most difficult aspects to describe objectively, the flow of a room is nonetheless a large part of what makes an escape room feel satisfying. Ideally, an escape room with perfect flow would take just under 60 minutes to complete, would be engaging for all players throughout, and would offer sufficient challenge without players feeling lost or overwhelmed. Achieving this perfect flow of puzzles and momentum is more of an art than a science, and it can be all but impossible to design the same room for novice puzzlers as for experienced ones, or for two people and for ten.
Success
Referring to whether or not players successfully escape or complete the mission, many escape rooms maintain that the experience is just as fun whether or not you actually get out. This is definitely a lie. While they may take pride in and post their room’s low rate of success as a measure of difficulty status, no escape room owners can compare groups that escaped and those that did not and honestly say they both had the same level of excitement and positive experiences. There’s no doubt that some groups are just destined to fail no matter how steady a stream of hints are given, but the majority of the time if an escape room company truly cares about your experience they will do everything they can to help you get out successfully.
Set Design
Good set design is, like theatrics, often the product of a large budget, so it follows that the more well-funded escape room companies (i.e. franchises) are the ones with the better looking, more realistic rooms and props. While not necessarily essential to a good experience, a well-designed setting contributes to the overall immersive-ness of a room and can make the difference between attractive, intriguing puzzles that players can’t wait to start solving, and a boring, predictable office room with a desk full of paper and math and dread.
Things That Don’t Affect the Experience
Admittedly these are a bit controversial and maybe up for debate, but experience is knowledge and eventually, knowledge turns into wisdom and the wise say that these are the things that really don’t matter.
Theme
With few exceptions, the theme of the room almost never has anything to do with the quality of the experience. Choosing a room based on which theme sounds the most fun or interesting is about the same as choosing a pet based on stock photos of somewhat-related zoo animals. You might have a general idea of what it will look like, but you really have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.
Story
Having a story behind and throughout an escape room is really a nice idea. Some players will even swear to you up and down that it’s important to them and they notice when the story is lacking or underdeveloped. The truth is, no matter how engaging or well written, nobody will pay attention and nobody will be able to follow anything more complex than the plot of a greeting card. There’s just too much going on in the room, too much brainpower devoted to puzzle-solving, and too much pressure to beat the clock. A bare-bones, simple story or plot is good enough to give some purpose and a push in the right direction, but anything more is just wishful thinking.
Location
This might be a no-brainer, but whether or not an escape room is located in a sketchy industrial complex or a stuffy office building has really no bearing on the quality of the escape experience itself. However, if the escape room is perhaps too conveniently located, such as inside a shopping mall, you may be paying some of that premium rent with the cost of your ticket.
Other Things to Keep in Mind
Cost
Escape rooms have fairly similar prices, give or take a few dollars, and it usually ends up being around $30 or so after tax. A cheaper ticket doesn’t necessarily mean a lesser experience, but there may be some instances where you get what you pay for. Many escape rooms offer group rates or student discounts, and some have private options that guarantee you the entire room, but cost a little more per person. There are some escape rooms that rely on Groupon to bring in customers, and, while that does bring the overall price down, it often guarantees that you will be playing with a full room of strangers if you don’t book all the spots. You may also miss out on some of the best escape rooms around since many rooms don’t use Groupon.
Chains / Franchises
As escape rooms have grown in popularity, a number of regional and national chains have popped up. These range from companies with 3-4 locations in a state to larger ones that have upwards of 20 locations across the country. The fact that they have multiple locations generally indicates some degree of success, and because many of the franchises use the same rooms from city to city, you can be pretty confident that any room you choose will have been tried and tested and will be at least decent to great in quality. Chains also tend to have a little higher budgets than smaller companies, which can be reflected in the quality of the props and sets within the room.
You don’t need a “Shop Local” bumper sticker to decide to choose an independently owned escape room. Local escape rooms usually have the upper hand over chains when it comes to customer service, quality of staff, and creativity and uniqueness in puzzles, particularly since they don’t have as much pressure to try to appeal to the masses. While local, independent rooms are often more hit-or-miss, they’re usually where you can find the best rooms – if you know where to look.
Reviews
A large number of escapees are first timers. With nothing to compare it to, it’s difficult to give anything less than stellar reviews, meaning that most escape rooms have fairly high ratings on Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor (as in, almost all between 4.5-5 stars). With the numbers skewed towards the high end, it’s best to read through a few reviews, looking for those written by people who have done multiple escape rooms from different companies in order to get a more experienced perspective.
Experience Is Key
Ultimately, the best way to know for sure that a particular escape experience will be worthwhile is to take it from an expert in the area. These elements of good and bad escape rooms are helpful but unfortunately, you won’t know most of them until you’ve actually paid for and completed or attempted the room. Guides to specific local rooms are invaluable for this reason, so we recommend taking a look at roomescapeartist.com or even asking different escape rooms which rooms they recommend from other companies. Most local escape rooms love to talk about escape rooms and usually have good relationships with at least some of the other rooms in town, so if you find a room experience that you loved, ask them for recommendations. Especially if you’re visiting or have a limited budget, it’s worth your while to take the time to do a little research rather than jumping into the first room that catches your eye.