RoomEscape Los Angeles: The Bunker
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Negatives
Bottom Line
A super fun military themed room where you’re not trying to escape but instead save the world. Great for beginners though even more experienced players will enjoy the ambiance and well crafted logic puzzles.
Posted
September 30, 2015 by KC
Full Article
I have a normal crew that I usually do escape rooms with. It’s a group of friends who are smart, smell nice and don’t argue with often. You know, all the qualities you want when trapped in a small confining space with for an hour. However, this time I did something a little different. I went with my parents instead.
Now don’t me wrong my parents fit all of the aforementioned criteria, but they’re also my parents. I was really unsure if they’d like going to an escape room. Not only did we kick this escape room’s ass but they’re asking to go to another one when they’re here for Christmas.
This means if you were wondering if your parents would like to do an escape room with you the answer is, “yes” so long as they’re as cool as my parents are.
As for the room itself I really liked this one. The story of the room is that you are a group of FBI agents in the Cold War era. You’ve discovered an underground bunker of a Russian spy and your mission is to not escape the room but stop a nuclear bomb from being launched.
The ambiance was really well done. When we walked in I really felt as if I had stepped into an underground bunker. We were greeted by a medium office space support poles, lockers, lock boxes, a desk with many colored phones on it, maps on the wall and of course a locked door off to the side. There was a lot to try to open and search through right off the bat, and my best advice is to keep your eyes open and double check the things you find and the places you find them.
These puzzles ran in sequential order, when you finish one puzzle it logically leads you to the next and you only ever use a clue once. The logic of their puzzles was very good, made sense and there weren’t really and red herrings.
The equipment, aside from looking neat and authentic, never jammed or failed. You’d think this would be a given, but I’ve been in plenty of rooms where jammed locks and faulty mechanisms cost us time or even worse, made us fail the room. The Bunker was not one of those rooms.
This is a room that will give you unlimited clues should you want them. They’re more about people having fun than they are about anything else. Pro-Tip: If you don’t want any clues, make sure to tell them ahead of time. They’re watching you with cameras and there’s a PA system IN the room so they can talk to you at any time and might help you out if you seem super stuck. We got one clue, we had missed finding a piece of equipment we needed and it was right in front of our faces so they popped on the speaker and gave us a hint to keep looking. I actually really prefer this hint delivery system over the walkie talkies that are impossible to hear through. There was also a “hint mail slot” on the door. We didn’t ask for any more clues so I have no idea what would have come through it.
All in all we stopped the bomb and saved the world in just over 30 minutes. We were about 8 minutes from the all time record.
The location of the room is in West Hollywood off of Sunset Blvd. It’s located in a nice neighborhood, in a very nice and safe building. The staff is friendly, and they have an ample waiting area and bathrooms inside. They take your picture when you’re done and post it online for you as well. The only downside to this location is the parking. Parking in West Hollywood is UGH. Bring cash for the lot next door or be prepared to use the metered parking that takes quarters or card.
I highly recommend this room for beginner Escape Room players. It was on the easier end of difficulty, great ambience, great location, well trained staff and very well put together. They have another room, The Vault, that’s done all in darkness and three more rooms that they’re building to be opened in the future. I will definitely be back!
Learn more about this and other rooms by RoomEscape Los Angeles at their website: http://losangeles.roomescapelive.com
Puzzle Types: WARNING POTENTIAL SPOILERS highlight the text in the black box below to view.
Lock and Key, Combination Locks (word and number), Hidden Objects, Map Puzzles, Dexterity Puzzles, Black Light Messages, Word Scrambles, Math Equations
