Great Room Escape

I have done over 10 escape rooms and this one was by far the worst! It wasn’t clever or interesting and the staff was rude. I’m glad this wasn’t my first room because it made a very poor impression. I would never try another room by this company.

Houdini’s workshop was a bust for us. The actor in our room playing houdini’s widow was terrible. She was cleaning up and moving things around while we were in the middle of our experience. We wasted a lot of time looking for things she moved or put away without telling us. The puzzles were boring and unoriginal and had nothing to do with the theme.
The brief beforehand was very unprofessional and put us off from the start. The worker clearly hated his job.
After we failed to complete the room in time, they gave us signs to hold saying things like «loser» and «stupid» and wanted us to take pictures. They don’t appreciate or respect customers.
I’ve been to other escape rooms and they were much better. Go somewhere else or save your money. This place sucks and the staff are very unpleasant.

Be aware the strategy applied to this escape room is very different from others. There’s a paid actor in the room the entire time. You NEED to use them in order to solve the puzzles. You NEED to go in the order they mapped out. The «widow» of Houdini, which is the theme we played, had a big sense of bitchiness in her tone when one of our group members «went out of sequence» to solve clues and puzzles. This could’ve been better executed without alienating the team member and tearing apart the group dynamic.
Nicely decorated roim, like Disney’s haunted mansion calibre.

We had a large group and the final amount of people changed about 5 different times. They were very nice and accommodating with all of our changes. We did The Lab and it was soooooo much fun. We thought that we would be answering trivia questions to find the clues, but it was actually finding codes and math problems and then putting it together to unlock everything. We went in very confident because we had 13 people of different ages and experience/​jobs, but it was a lot harder then we thought it would be. One piece of advice– do not wear anything that you love and would be upset if it gets messed up. One friend tore his shirt and another destroyed a shoe. This was definitely our fault because when the zombie came near us, we would shove each other out the way and clothes got caught on things in the room.

This was my first escape room game so I have nothing to compare it to. It was alot of fun! My mom was in town visiting so I brought here and a friend along. We were put in a room with another group of people and it was amusing trying to work together with people we didn’t know. I did The lab room. There was a live «zombie» in our room who chased after you and made things harder, but more fun. This may not be suitable for everyone. My mom was rather scared by it all and wanted to leave within 5 minutes of being there. (I told her no way since I was the one who paid for it!).
We ended up not escaping, we were supposedly 2 – 3 clues away from unlocking the door. There is a scientist in the room who helps by giving you clues when you need them. You can’t directly ask her, but she tells you hints in a round about way.
I’m not sure if I will come back to do the same room since we basically know how to escape, but I would love to try out a different themed room!

In our quest to «escape» reality for fun, we totally scored with this GROUPON. This is by far the best room out of the 5 we have attempted. Our wins are 4 out of 5 rooms so far. So hopefully we will get more experiences like this one in the future.
First of all, let’s start with the ease of scheduling our appointment. It was easy to book our room and reschedule if needed. Inputting our GROUPON was super user friendly too.
Next the location is at the «THE HAUNTED HOTEL» in Gaslamp which is a Halloween Tradition. I am not sure of the affiliation of the two but definitely worth going to both at one time or another if you are in downtown SD. We did the Houdini Room which once you get in it feels like you are transported to old Hollywood.
The experience with the staff and «escape room» was efficient and professional. They give you a clear storyline, rules and help without handing you the clue out right. We were joined by a family group of maybe 7 — so we totaled to 9. With such a large group we finished with 45 secs on the clock. Maybe not a great room for a rookie but nice for a decent size group. The special effects, the actress, the storyline and the puzzles make a 5 star review — LEGIT.
P. S. I live in downtown (so we walked), if you are visiting or not familiar with this area street parking is hard, but you can park at Horton Plaza.

Well… The concept is good. However, just like many things the execution portion is lacking. Some of the clues lead to props that were missing and the host had to hand it to us. Some of the locks got stuck so it also caused slight delays. One of the rooms was really hot and lacked fresh air or AC. The clues are… Slightly difficult and the host had to give us some hints… I think there should be a limited amount of times she can help. Just a suggestion. We did it though, we got the spirit to pass over.

Five stars all around for this place. The actors, puzzles, and set up was just great. I’ve been to one other escape room in LA where the set up had more of a logical flow whereas this one was a «FIND ALL THE CLUES» and then we’ll figure out it out.
Our group of 9 did «The Lab» for a birthday and lucky for us, we escaped with a few minutes to spare. «The Lab» has a chained zombie in the set-​up so it adds a bit of a scare factor to it so if you can’t handle pressure, this probably isn’t the escape game for you. I found myself running around trying to avoid the zombie while also trying to piece clues together. It was definitely a rush. There’s also a «scientist» who’s in there with you trying to help you with clues. Our scientist was pretty helpful and she never broke out of character, which definitely added to the illusion.
A few things to note:
It’s in the heart of downtown. Be prepared for parking issues. There’s a $ 1/​hr parking lot a block from the place.
Their sign says «Haunted Hotel» and not the Great Escape Room.
Arrive 30 minutes prior to your scheduled time to sign waivers and such.
Find a groupon or living social deal to minimize costs. We bought one and it slashed the cost almost in half.
If you do not want to be grouped with a bunch of strangers, go to another escape room that allows for smaller groups. Our room allowed a maximum of 12 and luckily with a group of 9, we were able to have the room to ourselves because no one else signed up for the same time slot.
Have fun!

A «Must Do» experience! Found out about this online and took a chance having never done something like this before, and blown away by the fun, simulated terror, and logical yet challenging series of puzzles. An hour never went by faster! The staff was professional and enthusiastic! The website details teams up to 6 people but I wouldn’t go with anymore than 4 — or you might be in each other’s way!
Don’t think, sign up, and prepare for a unique and memorable experience!

This was my second escape room & I had high expectations because my experience was great with Escape Game SD. My friends & I had purchased The Lab for last Friday at 8p. They are extremely anal about punctuality because although they say 8p, there is a fine print that says to come 30 minutes early so they expected us at 730p. If that is the case, then they should say 730p. Because of that, they called us at 730p & asked us where we were… This location is in the heart of downtown & on a Friday night, it was ridiculous finding parking so we were rushing in traffic. We got there around 755p & the other group who was doing the room with us was not even there… 2 other people in our group did not even make it in.
We signed a waiver, the host ran down a list of what to expect & an even longer list of what not to do or else you will get kicked out. We entered the room & it was small. We were not even settled when a video came on & the room was a rectangle with me being on the opposite end of the television that I could not hear a thing! & of course, the video had crucial information to solve the game. This game has 2 rooms & a lot of the puzzles were intricate & fun. & the zombie was a nice touch! There was a worker in the room that gives you fair hints & puts you in «time out», asks you several trivia questions, & makes you do funny things if the zombie touches you.
The downfall of this game was the other group because to be honest, they did not do anything & were freaking out the entire time. We would find a clue, & 5 minutes later they would find the same clue. Super unorganized & frustrating for our group… I recommend trying to go with a group of your friends or seeing if you can reserve a room for just yourselves.
In the end, we did not solve the game & were rushed out to take pictures with props that depicted we were losers. I wish they would have told us how close we were to solving the game but instead they just took the picture & kicked us out.

As this was only my second escape room experience, I have little to compare to. But, I thoroughly enjoyed my first escape room experence and had high expectations for Great Room Escape. Overall, I was underwhelmed and slightly disappointed with the experience.
The experience was immediately brought down to 1 star when my group of 4 adults was told we’d been matched up with a group of 6 teenagers who had to be signed in by their parental unit. We expressed our concern with this and were offered to move to another time slot but our night had already been planned and changing times was not going to work. Bad start.
My group was in the Houdini room. As already mentioned in some other reviews, the theme, scenery and detail of the room itself was great, 4 – 5 stars, and the inclusion of some special effects and a live actor was good too.
The puzzles themselves I have to give 3 stars. There were too many decoys and the sheer number of people (and teenage chaos) in the room was disjointing and actually hindering to our progress as a group. The details of most of the puzzles that did end up solved still remain a mystery to me because I didn’t get to personally experience them. Additionally, the chaos of that many people in a room seemed to be challenge for the live actor to keep tabs on and offer more valuable assistance when needed.
All said and done, I would probably want to visit again IF small groups were allowed and encouraged (read: do not have to pay for 10 spots just to ensure you don’t have to share your experience with rambunctious teens.)

This was so much fun! I’ve done a breakout game before in Lexington so I knew the general idea around what we needed to do but the game was a lot more involved than I expected. That revolved mostly around the «zombie» that was locked in the room with us. If you scare easily I wouldn’t recommend The Lab room because the zombie does try to tag you. Other than that, the clues were difficult but not impossible and I think the added element of running away from a zombie is the real reason why we didn’t escape. But even though we didn’t beat the clock, it was still a very fun hour and I will definitely be back to try this room again as well as the other themes. Such a good time!

Escape Rooms are basically computer adventure games that take place in real life. Which means that, at their core, everything you do basically comes down to unlocking locks. (Having to find a sled to slide down the snowy hill in King’s Quest 5? That’s a lock and key.) Better adventure games tend to make the key finding more interesting usually through having an interesting plot that develops as they keys are found and locks unlocked. Great Room Escape’s zombie room unfortunately is almost thing but naked literal locks. And a zombie that occasionally growls.
What plot there is basically over and done with two minutes after you enter. Then it’s you, your team and the locks for the rest of the hour. The zombie can make the situation a little stressful at first until you realize that, if you’re actively involved in the unlocking process, the zombie usually leaves you alone. Most of the locks are of the combination variety meaning you scour the room for numbers that are obfuscated and/​or encoded to varying degrees. And that’s basically it. Well, with the addition of the fact that it wasn’t always clear what lock went with which combination/​key (in contrast to being presented with a sled and a snowy hill) and the annoyance of entering numbers in combination locks when one’s hands are slick with sweat. The one other escape room I’ve done, in LA, made the the unlocking process much more engaging and plot-​oriented. That is, it wasn’t just literal locks.
The best thing I can say about Great Room Escape’s zombie room is that it’s fun to see one’s close friends get scared out of their minds by the not-​so-​threatening zombie. That makes the experience entertaining at least and arguably worth the money, provided you come with a Groupon deal.
Summary: Damn locks.

My group and myself had a grand time. There was only 6 of us, which was plenty. I can see why people say 12 is too much because the room size is so small. Especially, if you do the «lab» because you add in two more bodies (person helping you out & a zombie). Just letting you know that the puzzle is HARD and without the help from the «lab guy» we would have been dunzo. Our zombie actress did a pretty great job at scaring all of us. I will def. recommend this activity to small groups of people! Oh and we lost… big time.

We had a great time! Make sure you check living social or groupon for a deal before you buy it because you might save close to $ 100!
Being my first time and none of my friends whom I went with had any experience of the kind, we went in there without knowing what to expect. All I know is we’ll be using our brains to solve puzzles before the one hour mark is up.
The Escape is located at the Haunted Hotel in Gaslamp where they had the haunted house around Halloween but they took it all down (don’t worry), although on our way to the restroom at the back we passed by some remnants of their props which reminded me how I lost my voice from screaming at the haunted experience haha.
The waiting area is like a shack with a big fan and a bunch of folding chairs… I was a bit skeptical and everyone was sweating because there was no AC in the waiting area! But I’m glad the actual escape room was nicely decorated, except the fact that the bottom of the candles in the Houdini room still had the $ 1 price tag on it Hahahaha!!! No, that was not a clue to solve the puzzles…
You cannot bring anything, not even your cell phone, into the room. They have a giant tub outside to keep all your belongings safe while you’re playing the game.
The Houdini game was very engaging and all 10 of us, including the 4 strangers in our group, all collaborated really well and we made it out with 7 minutes to spare. It is NOT lame or straightforward at all. It does have mostly word and music riddles and some simple math problems. It can be confusing the first 15 minutes or so as you don’t know where to look. But make sure you look everywhere for clues! Touch and move the small things. You don’t have to move any big furniture. Also to avoid confusing yourself, focus on the clues that you find and not trying to find problems to solve.
It makes a huge difference to have a fun group so make sure you go with friends who like to discover and solve puzzles. Lazy and dependent people will get nothing out of this game and will bring the whole group down.
I knocked out one star because the waiting area sucked and the regular prices were quite expensive, so make sure you look for any online deals.

I got the groupon to go here with 3 friends for around $ 60 bucks and we had such a blast!!!
We rushed here because of the 30 minute prior to start time requirements and we were 10 minutes late. Thankfully they were flexible with us.
We got there and there was suppose to be another party of 2 or 3 but they were no-​shows so we go to do the mystery on our own.
We solved the mystery in the nick of time with only 15 seconds left and got a lot of praises from the workers there who said they have yet to see only 3 gals solve it on their own before because they’ve had the room filled with 12 people before that couldn’t solve it. :) yay us!
It was our first Escape room and we had a blast and got to put our brains together. We definitely want to do more Escape rooms in the future!

I’ve done both rooms here, here’s my 2¢
Houdini’s Hidden Workshop:
This room was well decorated and had some cool puzzles that involved finding clues then working them out from there. A cool plus in this room were the hidden passages and hidden compartments; it made it possible for players to search for new clues while others worked out what had already been found. This room had enough space for everyone to move around and concentrate on what they were doing. The majority of the puzzles were word related and/​or riddles.
The Lab:
This room is much more intense with the addition of a frickin’ zombie on a chain that chases you around the room. This room had more math than word puzzles and there were far less clues to find, so there was a good amount of people standing around while others worked on math problems. Granted, you could kill time by trying to lure the zombie away from the people solving but it made me feel sort like an idiot for spending 20 minutes playing tag with this chick in makeup and realizing that I paid to do it.
The room got hot real quick because of everyone running from the zombie and as the game wears on, the zombie’s chain grows longer making there less space for players to work on their tasks which becomes tough to work around. At one point, I just went and stood by the A/​C unit and let the other 10 people mess with some math problems because there was nowhere for me to stand.
Long story short: This place is fun but I’d skip The Lab and opt for Houdini’s Hidden Workshop.

This was my second escape room (first with this company) and I was really looking forward to it since my first experience was so great, but i left disappointed. Our group did the lab room and although we failed, I didn’t leave with the feeling of «ah man! That was a fun challenge and we just missed a few things», but instead it was mostly annoyed.
The puzzles were mostly interesting and that would have been enough to keep things fun but it means something when the first reactions at the end of my entire group of friends was more negative than positive.
Here are the reasons I’m rating it a 2:
1. Too many people are allowed in the room, in our case 12. I was interested to see how they could keep that many people engaged simultaneously for the whole hour but the fact was it didn’t work. With that many people we had people standing around, people moving things while others were working on figuring out the clue, and it felt extremely cramped and over crowded. (–1.5)
2. Similar to the too many people is that they fill up the room no matter how many groups of people. We had 7 of us 3 in another group and then a group of 2. Team work is important in these things and I know we could have done better as a whole but with that many different groups the feeling of having fun with a group of my friends solving a puzzle was missing. So unless you have a group of 12expect a few random people that may bring down the whole experience. (–1)
3. The arrive 30 minutes early or lose your spot is completely false. We had 3 separate groups of people for our room. My group of 7 got there the 30 minutes early, got checked in about 5 minutes and then just sat around for 25min. The next group arrived 15 min before the start time and that seems reasonable to me. The real problem is the last two people held us up because they called saying they were running down the street to get there. Now I really don’t care that we waited but don’t tell us to be there 30 minutes early and have us sit around for 25 minutes if there really isn’t anything to do other than sign a waiver that we could print out and bring with us. (-.5)

Go Team Top 10%! (the real ones)
Rob bought 12 Living Social deals, so we were able to get a room with a bunch of his friends and not have to partner up with other groups. Please note that check in is 30 minutes before your session. We all arrived about 10 minutes beforehand and between the waivers, rules, and bathroom breaks, we were pushing the group after us out about 15 minutes (sorry).
The Great Room Escape is located in the Haunted Hotel, next to Hooters. You have to go down the stairs and to the left to find the podium with the staff. The introductory area is a circle of chairs where one of the staffers with hand out tablets to e-​sign their waivers. The waiver pretty much says that you enter at your own risk, you or your family cannot sue them if you die or get hurt, and they can use footage and pictures of you for social media/​marketing.
If you’re going to book the entire room, try to come up with a cool name beforehand. We were all stumped, but due to another review on Unilocal,we heard that the success rate was only 10% and based our team name off of that. Well, this statistic is actually not true anymore — the staffer who helped with with the waiver and rules said that the success rate is actually lower than 10% now.
The room gets pretty hot — I wore shorts and a short sleeved sweater and was still warm. Make sure to hydrate beforehand as you cannot bring food or drinks inside. You actually cannot bring anything inside — all of your belongings are stored in a closed trunk before you enter the room. For fellow locals — I know its hard to give up the flip flops, so don’t — almost our entire group wore flip flops and had no issues. There is no running allowed and the rules don’t ban flip flops.
Cam and the other guys had a blast trying to solve everything. We almost gave up hope around the 20 minute mark, but everything came together in those last 20 minutes and we made it out with 3 minutes to spare! There was another Team Top 10%, but they didn’t make it out, so we’re the real Team Top 10%. You definitely need to work as a team as the room’s puzzles can’t be solved by one person alone.
I was really scared at first since I didn’t know what to expect and I’m still coming down from the adrenaline rush. This was not really my cup of tea, so I wouldn’t want to do it again, but I can definitely see Cam and the guys doing the Houdini room later this year — maybe for Cam’s bachelor party?
Overall, if you are looking for an entertaining hour to spend in downtown, this is not a bad choice if you like puzzles or scavenger hunts. It’s a little pricey at $ 35 per person, but there are some deals out there that can bring the price down.

A doctor, a lawyer, two educators, a social media marketer and a personal trainer walk into a room.
Best fun ever! if you love those click and find video games, this is the game for you… but much harder since you can practically click everywhere!
Sign up was easy and if you don’t have the max amount of folks with you in your own party then they set you up with another party or two. Luckily it was two parties of 6 so it was not too much of a communication dynamic.
not wanting to give away any clues, puzzles or insights… don’t overthink it, work as a team and do not wear flip flops or open toed shoes! It does get pretty warm in there with all the bodies and the adrenaline pumping.
The puzzles start from easy and progressively get more difficult as you proceed. I learned that there is an only 10% success rate so we didn’t feel completely bad not getting out.
There will be a special room called the «Houdini» just for comic-​con and they are planning on making another game for returners!
Sign me up!