Variety is the spice of life, and just the way everyone has different preferences for food or movies, people also have different preferences for escape rooms. Since personal opinions vary so drastically, we have an important piece of advice for you: beware of reviewers!
That’s not to say that reviewers don’t have value, they absolutely do. But we would advise you to take their critiques with a grain of salt. What they are looking for in an escape room experience may or may not match what you are looking for. It’s important that you know what kind of experience you want before checking out game reviews. For example; is the flow of the game important to you? How about the set design? Do you like challenging logical puzzles or interactive mechanical ones? All these features define an escape room and while they are not mutually exclusive, some escape room facilities are better at providing one type of experience over another. Knowing exactly what kind of experience you’re looking for when reading reviews will help you to find a room that caters to your preferences.
Another important factor to consider when you look at a review site is that these people are experts. They play tons of escape rooms–it’s their job to. That means that the way they perceive a game is probably very different from the average escape room player. It’s important to keep this in mind when reading the opinions of reviewers. They are looking at nuances, like how a game flows or the intricacies of how the puzzles are designed, but those things might not matter to the average player. So look for key terms in the reviews, make sure the review mentions whether there are multiple spaces to explore or what they say about the set design. Make sure they are observing the things that are important to you when you play an escape room, otherwise that review is not at all helpful to you.
Just remember, when you find yourself reading an escape room review, that person has their own perspectives on what an escape room should be and reasons for writing that review. That’s not to say that reviewers should be dismissed, they offer valuable insights and often discuss details and nuances of games that may otherwise be overlooked. What is important is to make sure that any review you choose to give attention to is talking about the features of escape rooms that matter to you.
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