2017 Achievement unlocked Medalists

Finally, we are proud to announce the Escape Rumors Achievement unlocked Medalists for 2017!

Achievement unlocked medals are given to the top escape rooms played by Escape Rumors every year. On top of being solid escape rooms, these rooms also distinguished themselves in the following categories:

• Best Immersion
• Best Technology
• Best Storytelling
• Best Puzzles
• Best Set Design
• Most Creative
• Most Climactic
• Most Clever
• Most Shocking

Quicksand Escape Games: The Diner (San Diego, CA)

When you run out of props and use a chair as a decorative element

Quicksand's "The Diner" room had a unique diner (surprise!) theme which was refreshing to see. The decor, down to all the furniture, was spot on and there were some awesome elements that perfectly utilized good old fashioned props. There was a nice mix of fair puzzles that blended in well with the surroundings and storyline. The story was as follow:

"After a wild night at a mob bar a few decades ago, you took up with the wrong crowd and now you find yourself about to rob the local diner.  This isn't your first gig and you're hoping it won't be your last.  The boys didn't give much detail, but said the prep work is all set; just be in and out in less than an hour.  If you can pull it off, you'll be in the "Money Honey".  On the other hand, if you mess this one up, you'll be writing your own version of "Jailhouse Rock", ya dig?"

Unlockables: The Informant & The Escape (San Diego, CA)

This post was written by Mio! The Unlockables is a relatively new set of rooms in San Diego with a very friendly owner/operator who is himself very well versed in playing escape rooms (+100 rooms). He actually took over part of the space from a previous operator so his own "The Escape" room was added in addition to the existing "Informant Room". As a result, the Informant Room makes for a pretty good introduction room for beginners, but will likely be a breeze for more advanced players. Even though it was your typical investigate a murder scene setting, it still was an above average game. "The Escape" room, on the other hand, is a great deal more immersive and challenging – one that our crew enjoyed a lot and kept us well occupied.

Steal and Escape: Mysterious Stranger (San Diego, CA)

We saved America!

Steal and Escape's Mysterious Stranger was highly recommended by everybody as a "must do" room in San Diego. Located south of San Diego in National City, we made the trek to see what this room had to offer. The story was centered around breaking into some random dude's home in order to either save or end America as we know it.

The room had above average decor and there were a lot of things to solve. There were a few crafty puzzles that were quite fun and we appreciated them a lot. We also liked the heavy searching element of the game as that's exactly what we like to see in a escape room. The weird part about the room was that there were bottlenecks that made it hard to move about the space and we were constantly bumping into each other with four players in the game.

Escape Era: Deja Vu (San Diego, CA)

The Mad Scientists are at work again

Escape Era, a newish location without many blogger reviews, was located a little out of the way, north of downtown San Diego. The story for their only room, "Deja Vu", was as follows: "It feels like you've been here before, but you can't remember. Can you solve the mysterious case of Deja Vu?". The theme of losing your memory and trying to figure out what happened was rather common but Escape Era did a good job in making their room a lot of fun. 

Escapology: Shanghaied & Budapest Express (Las Vegas, NV & more)

Flying to victory!

Escapology is an escape room chain with 7 different rooms in 12 cities (soon to be 21 cities) and it was one of the places that seemed really polished in terms of production value. We played two rooms at Escapology, the "Budapest Express" and "Shanghaied" with four people. The first thing that you notice when you walk into the lobby (at least in Vegas) is the beautiful decor. The seating area was large, comfortable and lavish and while it's not that important, it's a nice to have while waiting between games.