Which escape room should I play?

Your friends have been talking about these for ages. You saw an escape room on Portlandia and Brooklyn 99, and you know what? They actually looked a little interesting. You sat through the Escape Room Movie, and it was okay, but now your curiosity is piqued. You did some googling, found the best escape room in DC, and you’ve come to the right place. But now you have a problem - we offer several different escape rooms - which one is best for you?

We get asked these questions all the time - Can we do a “hard” difficulty escape room if we’ve never played one before? Is this “easy” escape room only for kids? Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered. 

Before we dive into the rooms, here’s two things to keep in mind: Pick based on the theme that speaks to you the most, and don’t let the difficulty dissuade you from a theme you’re interested in. Rooms we rate as “hard” are easier when you ask for clues, and rooms that we rate as “easy” can be much harder if you try to escape without using any clues! We’re here to help you have the experience you’re after.

So here’s the scoop:

Mind Trap

Our horror-themed escape room! Mind Trap is a medium-to-hard difficulty escape room. Yes, you can do this if you’ve never played escape rooms before. While big, Mind Trap is not one of our biggest, so it’s good for smaller groups, too. This room features jump scares and mild gore, with dim lighting and an intention to scare players. Mind Trap has a good number of secrets to reveal as the room unfolds.

  • Play if: You like getting scared, or you’re up for a challenge. You want secrets revealed along the way.

  • Don’t play if: You dislike getting scared or you have younger kids in your group.

Poe’s Chamber

A silver padlock has a key inserted, and twine wrapped around the key. It sits on a bookshelf with blurred books in the background.

Which room is right for you? You should pick the theme that’s most interesting!

The gothic-horror-inspired masterpiece, Poe’s Chamber is touted as our most difficult room. The space is about as large as Mind Trap’s, which is to say that it’s also a good choice for smaller groups. While the lighting and aesthetics are designed to be eerie and spooky, this room is not intended to be scary. While we advertise Poe’s high difficulty, the room is not so difficult that those new to escape rooms cannot solve it - we’re there to help if you’re stuck! Poe’s chamber is a very escape-room-y escape room - it features everything you want in a standard escape room experience in terms of the types of secrets it holds. 

  • Play if: You like Edgar Allan Poe’s general vibes, if you want a traditional escape room experience with slowly revealed secrets, and you’re up for a challenge.

  • Don’t play if: You dislike dim lighting or you are a large group of younger children.

Supervillains

This batman-themed escape room is fun for all ages! This room is great for adult superhero fans, but not too difficult for kids (with a little help from our game masters). Supervillains is by far our largest space, and unlike our other escape rooms, you begin with access to the full space from the start. This means your large birthday party or team building event can spread out from the start to divide and conquer. This room is well lit and it is not scary. 

  • Play if: You have a large group of people, you’re celebrating a birthday, you have a diversity of age ranges, or you’re really into comic books!

  • Don’t play if: This is your first escape room and there’s only two of you. It’s a little overwhelming.

Secret in the Attic

What’s grandma hiding up there? Don’t worry, it’s not scary. Our attic-centered space is known to rotate themes depending on the holiday, but whether you’re investigating grandma or saving Christmas, the room’s intentions are the same. Secret in the Attic is our most beginner-friendly room: Whether it’s date night and it’s your first escape room or if you’re bringing the whole girl scout troop on a Sunday afternoon, this room’s got you covered. This room is always narrative focused and offers a variety of puzzles that will keep newer players engaged yet can still stump escape room veterans.

  • Play if: You’ve never played an escape room before, you’re interested in this room’s story, or you have a lot of younger players in your group.

  • Don’t play if: You’re a large group of very experienced escape room players, this room might be on the easier side. 

That’s a lot to scroll through, so let’s answer some common questions!

We’re a couple looking to do our first escape room as a date night! Which room should we do?

Pick whichever theme sounds most interesting! Mind Trap and Poe’s Chamber are the most popular choices for date night, and for good reason - Mind Trap is great if you’re into getting scared, and Poe’s Chamber has great puzzles. Be careful of Supervillains unless you’ve played a lot of escape rooms, as this one can be extremely difficult for only two players.

I’ve got a team at work of six stellar employees, and we’re looking to do an escape room for some back to the office bonding! Which room should we choose?

With a larger group, Supervillains is a very strong escape room - it’s got a large space to spread out in, the theming has universal appeal, it’s well lit, and it’s not scary. If you’re willing to get scared, Mind Trap is fun, too. If you’ve got a larger corporate or teambuilding group (in the 12-40 person range), give us a call or send us an email. We would love to set up a larger event for you!

My daughter is turning ten and we want to do an escape room for her birthday. Which one is best?

Secret in the Attic and Supervillains are both the rooms we’d recommend - the puzzles and themes are designed to be appropriate for that age range, everything is well lit, and both rooms are fairly large in space. Yes, we can fit a ninth or tenth person in on a case-by-case basis, just give us a call or send an email and we’ll answer all your questions!

Now you know which escape room is right for you! If it’s your next team building activity, bachelorette party, or just a fun night out with friends, we’ve got you covered. We can’t wait to see y’all next time you want to have an adventure!

Daniel Sprinkle