A few months ago, I had the chance to check out an escape room in Palm Springs as well as spend some time in a city that seemed to have been torn from the pages of your favorite mid-century modern magazine. Nestled in the heart of Palm Springs is a new escape room, appropriately called Escape Room Palm Springs, that offers an array of escape rooms to choose from. At the time we went, we were able to choose between either a room based off the SAW franchise or one based off the television show “Dark Shadows”; since then they have added two other rooms, The Titanic and a Mystery Room. Deciding to go for something different, we decided to check out the “Dark Shadows” room, and boy were we in for a real treat.
Once settled, we met with two other participants that would be joining us on our adventure – a father and his daughter. My boyfriend and I had only done one other escape room prior to this and lucky for us, this father/daughter duo had much more experience. We were first led to a small room, upon where we were told the story surrounding the Dark Shadows escape room. Our goal was simple, to help a vampire who had been cursed by a scorned witch by solving the clues that would unlock the vampire from his coffin so that he may be able to reclaim his home once again. After learning about this tragic tale, we were then led to the main room where we were instructed that we would have 45 minutes to escape. Our game master then bid us farewell, turned around, and locked us in and at that moment, the clock started and the game begun.
Obviously, with escape rooms you don’t want to give too much away so I’ll try to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible. First and foremost, I always look at the design because it’s an indicator of how much time and effort the owners put into their games. I’m a sucker for a well thought out design, and Escape Room Palm Springs did not disappoint. The room was decorated beautifully and made to seem as though we were in an old and forgotten mansion on a rainy evening. The lighting was low and I felt immediately at ease in the room. Honestly, had I not had to escape in an hour, I probably would have wanted to hang out here. As for the clues themselves, they were successfully hidden throughout the space and it really took all of us as a team to solve them. This was the first time, and the only time, I’ve done an escape room with strangers, and my experience doing so was extremely positive. No one had any egos and everyone helped each other for the greater good of escaping. A word of advice I give to everyone who is about to do an escape room – when it comes to deciphering what to do, as always, make sure you don’t over think it. This has been my downfall since day one and something I keep trying to get better at, but honestly, sometimes the hardest clues are actually the easiest to solve.
As I mentioned before, working as a team was our greatest defense against the game, but alas we were not able to escape; however, this didn’t deter us from all having a great time. We made it far enough to see where the vampire was being held hostage, but unfortunately we were not able to release him from his coffin. His location is something I’m purposefully being vague about, because you should see it and experience it for yourself, but I promise you, it’s well worth it. One of the best parts about having an escape room in Palm Springs is it’s a great way to get out of the heat and enjoy time with your friends and/or make new ones. I think it’s smart for the owners to have opened up an escape room here because it gives people options of fun things to do while in town, especially since Palm Springs is a big tourist area at certain times of the year.
Overall, my boyfriend and I had a fantastic time at Escape Room Palm Springs. The Dark Shadow room was inventive and though we weren’t able to escape, it still made us want to come back in the future to experience the other rooms available. What sets Escape Room Palm Springs apart from other similar experiences is that it doesn’t follow the same trope as a lot of other escape room do. Most importantly, every one of us had fun and the “Dark Shadows” room is definitely a good place to start if you are just getting into escape rooms. All in all, Escape Room Palm Springs ended up being an unique and mind-boggling experience and for that I will definitely be going back.
For more information on Escape Room Palm Springs, check out their website http://escapeps.com/and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Shannon M.
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