Escape Room Reviews: The Diner

Company: Quicksand Escape
Room: The Diner
Location: San Diego, CA
Date Played: 2/19/17
Player Count: 2, could easily be 4
Success:  Success!

Premise: You’re running with a wild crowd, baby, and if you’re gonna act like a mob goon, you’re gonna have to rob a place now and then.  A place like this diner!

Immersion: This diner looks great! Like a peppermint sundae. Like so many escape rooms, it's set in the past, and nothing weirdly anachronistic is going on here. There are dozens of locks, and by and large the puzzles lean more toward reasonable and real things that could be in this setting to secure items or pass messages, and away from games and puzzles included for their own sake or to make the room longer.

Highlights: I won't say more than this about it, but the end game is super fun and exciting. The puzzling was a good mix of the easily understood that just requires a little elbow grease, and the 'flash of insight' variety that are so satisfying when they click in.

Lowlights: I think when we first stepped out of this one, I was a little bit down about needing a couple of hints. Our most commonly received hint is 'keep going!' Especially in a room with a lot of Spot Hidden challenges like this one, and especially when playing with a very small group. (More eyes means faster finds!) One puzzle that I took point on, I took it in a totally wrong direction until a clue put us back on track. 

And Finally:  Pain is temporary! Those light wounds to the ego pale when I look back over everything The Diner has to offer and how well designed it is. Like a movie that doesn't waste a scene, where everything turns out to be important sooner or later. It's easy to see why this room is so highly ranked in the San Diego area.  Out of 19 games played, this one comes in at #4. 

How to book this room yourself: Visit http://www.quicksandescape.com/the-diner.html

Bat Night 5! This Friday!

It's our special Bat Night show, which is comedy performed in environmentally-friendly Complete Darkness! Starring Chaz Dean and more!

#2,326: Passengers

The Handmaiden - ★★★★☆
I saw this under perfect conditions– in a nice theater, and with no idea of what the movie was about. It's interesting, it's twisty, it goes on and on... and on... Maybe a little bit too far, in fact.

I'm torn between watching the BBC version to get more and never watching the BBC version so that I don't ruin something nice.

Hidden Figures - ★★★½☆
"What was that Kevin Costner movie with Octavia Spencer?"
"Hidden Figures?"
"No. Well... yes. But..."
"Oh, no no, Hidden Figures was the Octavia Spencer movie with Kevin Costner."
"Right."

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - ★★½☆☆
I've seen this twice and I still didn't catch the names of all of the main characters. That doesn't feel very Star Wars to me. With Episode 7, it was exciting to know that there are new people and new places and new things and we don't know what they all are yet, but we know who the main characters are. The audience around me seemed to care a lot more about the droid than any of the people. I think I'm less angry about it than I sound, but it still seems like such a wasted opportunity to go back to prequeling.

On a second watch, I did feel that mid-movie slow down. I like the ending though! (The ending, particularly, and distinctly from the epilogue.) Even if it takes all movie to get there, it does feel good to have the movie finally make a bold choice.

Also on the rewatch, everything involving Saw Guerrera is completely frustrating. None of it makes a lick of sense. So much of his sequence could be lifted out and nothing would be any different. He doesn't do anything that helps anyone, and then he dies because what? He's bored? He's like the Into The Wild of Star Wars.

Passengers - ★★★★★
I liked this one very much. I felt like the vision of the future resembled the cheerfully unhelpful future I like writing about. I hope this gets the production design Oscar™.

All of the think pieces getting written about Chris Pratt's 'problematic' behavior are like the open mic comic doing his bit about how weird it is that Garfield hates Mondays. Yes. That's not your joke, that's Jim Davis' joke. Also, that behavior is the point of this movie. It's the interesting thing! You were hoping for a movie where two beautiful people randomly pair off and just relax in luxury until they die of old age?

I don't want to see the first half re-edited into a rom-com, but I would like to see a more thoughtful third act that forces them to really get a grip on the situation.

Set List: Animal Photography!

Set List at The Pack is brought to you by Animal Photography!

You know, like the concept of taking pictures of animals.  It's like when there's an ad for all pork. I thought they'd be like glamour shots.  Look how the portrait doesn't even look like the bird being photographed! Her husband will hardly recognize her! He hasn't been the same since the accident with the wind turbine.

Escape Room Reviews: The Villain's Lair

Company: Exit Game
Room: The Villain’s Lair
Date Played: 2/4/17
Player Count: 2, more would have been better
Success:  Failure! Even with a bit of extra time!

Premise: You're in jail in North Korea, and it only gets worse from there!

Immersion: The jail is the most jail-like jail I've been pretend jailed in, and I guess I don't know that the rest of it is not what it's like in North Korea. The video introduction is... let's say a little broad.

Highlights: The set decoration and production design is quite nice. The glowy hall shown in promo photos on their website was fun to work through. There are several elaborate puzzles that would be fun for a larger group to work through.

Lowlights: We were unattended and/or forgotten during our game. Early on, something got stuck and after no response to our call for hints I straight up cheated to fix it with something I was carrying. At the end, time expired and nobody came to let us out. We weren't discovered until a host came in to start the next group. (Granted, we probably should have used those extra minutes more effectively to finish the escape, but it was kind of a confusing situation, and unclear whether the game was still functional.) 

Exit Game always checks players with a metal detector before letting them play. The first time we encountered this, I thought it was fake. This time it wasn't, but I don't know what the point of it really is. I feel pretty strongly that I would prefer to be treated like an adult at any company I visit, and trusted not to take videos or whatever. 

And Finally:  We sort of played this game out of desperation, trying to find an opening somewhere at the last minute. We were fixed on Exit Game because we liked visiting them in the pass, and we had been given a free ticket. Based on their website, this would have been the last game on their list we would have picked, and at least that intuition was correct - it wasn't a great time for us. I don't personally recommend this room, but I have and still do recommend Exit Game to others, and I look forward to trying some of their other rooms in the future. Out of 18 rooms played, I'm ranking this one #16.

How to book this room yourself: Visit https://www.theexitgame.com/m4---the-villians-lair
(We were given one free ticket at a SoCal Escape Room Enthusiast meet up event.)