Breakout Games Escape Room Review

Last month I reviewed Dispatch, a play-along subscription box from Breakout Games (read that review here). Breakout Games also has escape room games in cities across the U.S. and when I found that they recently opened a location in my hometown I had to try it!

*Disclaimer: Breakout Games provided me a coupon to try this service for free.

If you're new to escape rooms, they're an interactive, in-person game where you and your group complete puzzles and challenges to "escape" a locked room. They've become popular recently as teambuilding exercises for companies, or just a fun time with friends.

Breakout Games has rooms with unique storylines for people who love to solve mysteries by cracking codes, solving puzzles, and following clues. It's a real-life version of the Dispatch subscription box!

I visited the Rochester, NY location with my brother and a group of his friends and we did the Hostage room. This location has four rooms to choose from: Hostage, Kidnapping, Museum Heist, and Operation Casino. We had seven people in our group, which was the maximum for the room. If you have less you can still book your spaces, but the empty spaces will be left open for other people to join so you may have other people join your experience. The games costs $24.99 per person, so it's a pretty affordable game.

I couldn't take any pictures inside of the room, so that's why this post only has pictures of the waiting room. I got there 15 minutes before our game was to start so that I could sign the waiver, plus I wanted to get there early so that no one else in the party was the first to arrive (since it was my idea, I figured I should be there to greet people).

After everyone had signed the waiver, which you can also print out ahead of time and sign and bring with you, we were led into another room for an introduction from our game master. You're not literally locked in the room, so if at any point you have to leave, you can. The game master is watching from a separate room and is also connected via microphone, so they can see and hear everything you're doing in the room and assist with clues if you need them.

You have one hour to break out of the room, and I have to admit the countdown clock was a little stressful! We ended up solving the room and escaping in about 45 minutes though and I was glad we were able to say we "broke out!" The game was a lot of fun and we only ended up needing two clues from our game master.

My favorite thing about Breakout Games was that the experience was really immersive. We were blindfolded before being led into the room, and we took the blindfolds off once we had heard an audio introduction to the story and game (we were taken hostage while on an aircraft). Even though I knew it was a game, taking off the blindfold and seeing everything for the first time definitely made everything seem more real. The clues and props were high quality, just like in the Dispatch box. I had a ton of fun doing the Hostage game and would definitely return to try the others!

• Visit Breakout Games to see their escape room experiences
• Connect with them on Facebook and Twitter

Bottom Line: I had a ton of fun doing the Hostage escape room from Breakout Games! I highly recommend trying them out. Be sure to bring a group that you know you can work well together and have fun with!