RATING: 0 Keys RESULT: Loss REMAINING: X:XX
I thought we were here to rob a bank – but it turns out we were the only ones intended to be robbed on this day.
I feel like we need to start at the beginning. Upon arrival, we’re greeted by the staff who presents the backstory to us – by means of reading a TWO FULL PAGE typed document.
It was neither compelling nor sensible.
The cliffnotes version from their website states, “Your skills as an experienced bank robber will be tested as you and your team race to find the clues, open the safes and escape with the loot before the bank manager or the security guards find you!”
I think it’s reasonable to say we expected to find a bank, or a vault, or something.
What we did find, however, I will now outline in full detail within the SCENIC section of this review.
[None.]
Safe Cracker felt like a game of almost all discovery – and not very compelling discovery at that, paired with nothing more than a single Cryptex.
The few puzzles we did come across resulted in answers that drove us to something we ALREADY found in our own discovery. And worse, EVERYTHING required lengthy, tedious conversion with that single Cryptex.
Every single step – EVERY SINGLE STEP – produced twelve letters that needed to be entered into the Cryptex to then find elsewhere – in a different row of the Cryptex – how it comes together to spell out a word.
Spoiler alert, but you really need to hear this:
“jacket pocket.”
Well, what escape room player didn’t think to check every jacket pocket the second they walk in the room? We did. And then we had to recognize we just spent all that time with the Cryptex for nothing.
Much worse is the fact that by its nature obviously only one person from the team can use the Cryptex at a given time, leaving everyone in the room with literally nothing to do but stand around with their arms crossed and watch.
And watch an activity that’s not fun for the person DOING it, and as you might imagine, significantly less fun for their audience.
The Crytpex ultimately is a time waster – that forces your game to be longer than the allotted sixty minutes you have to play. Which brings us to a bigger problem.
Safe Cracker was simply one of the worst games we’ve ever seen. If there was an Island of The Worst Games™, this one would be somewhere off the coast, floating on the plank remains of the ship that sunk it there, not even welcome with the others.
The puzzles require no thought. Even less thought went into the scenic. In fact, it feels as though the venue could have a temporary lease and were not allowed to make changes to the room, because it’s hard to imagine this space looked any different before the game was installed.
As if that’s not bad enough – and it is – at the completion of the game we were given the option to continue playing, for a previously unmentioned additional fee of “just” $0.25 per person per minute. This tells me New Smyrna Beach Escape Room had no real intention of us completing the game, but instead designed it to be more tedious and time-consuming than one could reasonably complete in under the time limit.
We didn’t enjoy the game to begin with, so why would we ever even consider paying them more to continue playing it? This is nothing more than a cash-grab.
It may not be their intention, but it seems like they are here to just take money rather than provide a quality guest experience. And even if not their goal, perception is reality.
Venue: New Smyrna Beach Escape Room
Location: New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Number of Games: 5
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes
Capacity: 6 people
Group Type: Public / You may be paired with strangers.
Cost: $25 per person, plus additional fees of $0.25 per person per minute in order to complete this game.
We thank New Smyrna Beach Escape Room for inviting us to review this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.