Escape Room Review: Batman now open at the new Escapology in Kissimmee
The Attractions Magazine crew was invited to try the all-new Batman: The Dark Knight Challenge escape room at Escapology: Sunset Walk, their newest location in Kissimmee, Fla.
As guests at the grand opening party for the new location, we got to be the very first team to attempt this room after its soft opening phase. Batman is the second officially-licensed intellectual property we’ve played at Escapology after recently trying their Star Trek room.
What is Escapology?
Players are locked inside a themed room and must complete their mission before time runs out. During the 60-minute experience players must find hidden clues, crack codes, and solve puzzles to escape.
Batman: The Dark Knight Challenge
In Batman: The Dark Knight Challenge, players take on the roles of potential trainees in the Gotham City Guardian training program. To test if you have what it takes to join the program (and explain why there are random puzzles scattered around the city), Batman has devised a simulation you must complete in (wouldn’t you know it) exactly one hour.
Using the conceit of Batman creating a simulation to test your abilities gave a decent rationale for why players are in a situation where they must solve puzzles – though one of Batman’s most iconic villains, The Riddler, famously uses puzzles and riddles to confound Batman, so we wondered why that approach wasn’t taken instead.
Our team consisted of six players with a range of experience, from having played dozens of rooms to this being their very first. We felt six was a good number of players for this experience, with fewer definitely being possible, but additional players would have led to situations where not everyone had something to do or work on. We escaped with about 20 minutes left on the clock, and ultimately, everyone had a good time.
The room itself is attractive with good scenic design, though a little cramped at times. The excuse of Batman creating a simulation makes sense as to why the Batcave (where you start) leads to the next room it does and how that room leads to the next, so we didn’t have a problem with that logic.
As this was a grand opening, we experienced a few wrinkles that we expect will be ironed out with time. Occasionally, audio files were played with actors portraying iconic Batman characters, but the volume was very low. We missed parts of the dialogue more than once because we were talking and solving puzzles and didn’t realize someone was talking. There was only one monitor located in the first room that provided closed captioning for the dialogue, so between that and an audio cue being sounded when the game master wanted to relay clues to us, there may be some accessibility issues for those with hearing impairments.
There were also big glowing green “push to open” buttons attached to locked doors that were apparently a real-world safety requirement, so no one could really get locked in a room. However, we were never told these were not part of the game, and we accidentally bypassed doors on more than one occasion by pushing these buttons and opening a door prematurely. We were also disappointed in one specific puzzle in the opening room that, even though it had only been through a soft opening so far (and without spoiling anything), was already worn down by guest use in such a way that the solution to the puzzle was given away. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved soon and won’t hamper guest enjoyment going forward.
There was one more issue we encountered related to the final puzzle’s design that I feel is worth mentioning but does contain spoilers about that puzzle, so I will leave it for you to read or not.
Batman: The Dark Knight Challenge – SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL PUZZLE
We were a little surprised that the final puzzle in the room actually contained a “loss” condition. Looking back, it was signposted beforehand, but we assumed the “dire warnings” were just a part of the immersion and not a literal warning that failure would end the room prematurely. In fact, we failed the last puzzle before we figured out what it was trying to get us to do – and then still sat there a while before actually figuring out the next step to end the room. We did learn (after the fact) that the “ending” we saw was identical to what would have happened if we succeeded, so we still consider this an “escaped” room, but the fact that we only had so many tries before we were locked out entirely when we still had plenty of time left was a little disconcerting.
SPOILERS END
We all still had a good time playing the room and solving the puzzles within the world of Batman. None of the problems in our experience were truly “game-breaking,” but they did stop this from being a top 10 experience. Some more polish to the room and some TLC for the game play components would go a long way to pushing the game higher in our personal rankings.
As perhaps the largest escape room franchise company in the world, Escapology has always offered a consistent experience. None of Escapology’s rooms are my favorites, but with recognizable intellectual properties, simple puzzle design, and locations everywhere, Escapology offers a good entry point to the world of escape rooms. The accessibility allows anyone to try an escape room near them and learn quickly if this is the kind of hobby they want to pursue further.
Batman: The Dark Knight Challenge is $39.99 per person Monday – Wednesday and $44.99 Thursday – Sunday (minimum two players). You will always have the game room exclusively for your group. Minimum recommended age is 10 years old. Group package options are available for larger groups. Click here for details.
Batman: The Dark Knight Challenge is open now at Escapology: Sunset Walk and is expected to roll out to more locations soon. For more information or to book a room near you, visit Escapology.com.
