America’s Escape Game – The Caretaker.
Location: Orlando
Game Date 21/09/2016.
Team: Amy & Ian
We had a couple of hours to spare, and as I was browsing around the internet, I spotted AEG. Their “Caretaker” game was billed as the hardest escape room in the country. and only has a 1% escape rate. Fancying a challenge, we booked and went to play! As we booked so close to the start time, there was only the 2 of us there, which was perfect!
The waiting area was spacious and well lit, and whilst we were waiting for our game, a team that were going in were doing a trivia session as a sort of “ice breaker” for their game, I think this is a great touch to get to know your team mates a little bit before being locked up with them for an hour!
Theme:
“Deep within the dark recesses of the forests in Oregon lies an evil like no other.
A disbarred geneticist named Dr. Vermillion has unleashed a terror that has left a trail of death and destruction in its wake. A once decorated scientist, Vermillion has now been disgraced for conducting immoral experimentations on humans and animals. Seeking revenge for his disbarment, Vermillion has unleashed his brood of giant wolf-like creates onto the town of Fair Oaks. Military and law enforcement efforts have failed as the death toll continues to rise.
Deep within these same woods lives a hermit the locals have come to know as The Caretaker. He has no hope to escape the terror that lurks in the woods around him without your help! Move quickly and quietly – as Caretaker’s life depends on it.
The Caretaker is one of the hardest and scariest escape rooms in the country and we challenge you to escape when you’re visiting Orlando!”
Theming was very good, you start off in the woods, having to find a way into the cabin. It was VERY dimly lit, which went with the theme. Once within the Cabin, the theming again was nice, fairly immersive but a little bit bare, there was no WOW factor walking in to either room, but it was good!
Game Play:
Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles. There are SO many in this room, it really was overwhelming, especially in the Cabin itself. The actual puzzles were not hard, and were nothing we hadn’t seen before, but the sheer number and non-liner game play left us reeling. There was also a moment with a shooting the target puzzle where the gun was misaligned causing us to spend all our bullets (Ian as a rule doesn’t miss when shooting) so the GH had to come in and unlock the cabin door for us…. this was a bit of a meh moment. There was also a puzzle that was clearly missing a few pieces (they obviously don’t check from game to game) and a puzzle where all the sections failed to turn over…Over all it was a decent room, The first room had a lovely flow but the cabin… that didn’t flow all that well to me, definitely a room designed for the maximum capacity!
Clue System:
Clues were 3 free and 3 minutes added for additional clues. They were delivered over the sound system in the room, which frustrated me as it was sometimes hard to hear over the loud soundtrack in the room.
Game Host:
Dylan was our game host, he was friendly and ran the game very well, helping us out when we got stuck!
Did we escape?
No, this was down to the sheer amount of puzzles in the room! Apparently we came a lot closer than most people get though… I don’t know whether or not that is true, but I’ll take it!
Website: http://americasescapegame.com
Price: $39 pp (please note, AEG is a shared experience, unless you book out the entire room you MAY be paired with strangers!)
Brit of an Escape Habit 