RATING: 4 Keys          RESULT: Win          REMAINING: 4:02

The curse set upon this room is that in exchange for stunningly beautiful scenery, some of the puzzles must suffer a terrible death.

You are part of an archaeological excavation of a CURSED Egyptian tomb. Traps have stripped your fate. Doors have closed and you will run out of air in less than 60 minutes. Egyptian head pieces, real sand, lighting, pneumatics, and other special FX and props work together in order to create an extravagantly detailed environment like no other! The Curse of the Mummy escape room creates an experience that feels like you’re right in the middle of a movie!

Just when we thought it was safe to put our archaeologist boots back in the closet, we must again dust them off to join the excavation of a tomb in progress. But, this is no ordinary burial chamber. This is – insert evil laugh, “Muhahahaha” – a cursed, Egyptian tomb, and we must find our way out before our oxygen runs out.

That sounds pretty daunting, but never fear – this is a family-friendly adventure and there is nothing to be scared of except not finishing the game and missing out on any of the spectacular sights. Talk about full immersion: this is one of the best examples of full immersion into a story we have ever seen. Unfortunately, the story comes off the rails a few times (more on that later), but players will want to climb back on and stick with it.

There really is no better way to describe the scenic environment in this room than to say it is truly worthy of a movie set. The scenery is stunningly beautiful and camera ready. Upon entering every chamber of this adventure, we are transported into what looks like the real deal. If not for the few necessary game-related elements (i.e. camera, theatrical lighting, etc.), we’d seriously consider the possibility that we were actually inside an Egyptian tomb.

There is lovely, but unobtrusive lighting. Genuine-looking artifacts and Egyptian figures are littered about the room. Real sand gives way under our closed-toed shoes, given that we read the website disclaimer before we came and left our sandals at home. Okay, so even closed-toes shoes won’t keep all of the sand out, but believe us, the scenery alone is worth a few grains’ worth of exfoliation.

As if the setting needs anything else to make it even better, ambient sounds immerse us even further into the experience. Granted, these sounds are coming from bulky speakers mounted on the walls, diminishing that immersion factor somewhat. It would be nice to see in-wall speakers or perhaps have them blend into the awesome set design behind a faux stone façade.

There are great uses of tech and some pretty cool things happening in this room. Unfortunately, and much to our disbelief, some of the puzzles fell terribly flat and were on the low end, with a handful of puzzles that kept this room from shining to its greatest ability.

The main culprit for this outcome were the riddles. Amidst exquisite surroundings, we found ourselves at the mercy of solving riddles. Well, the Riddler, we are not – especially when they do not pertain to the theme or story of the room. We never thought we would say it, but we would rather be asked to do math. At least with math, there is a solvable answer. Riddles, on the other hand, have an answer we have no way of calculating. Either it makes sense and we know it, or we do not have a clue and have to ask for one.

Another disappointment was the double use of the same task. Having already completed a solution for one of the previous puzzles, we half-jokingly tried the same thing on another task in the same chamber, only to discover that it was indeed the solution for that step as well. We’re pretty sure this breaks some kind of unspoken escape room design commandment – or maybe it was just a lapse in creativity.

While some puzzles were somewhat choppy, the technical implementations and other spot-on challenges definitely helped make up for it.

This experience used walkie-talkies to dispense clues, but while we absolutely loath them because the reception is usually so horrible, we could actually hear what the gamemaster was saying most of the time. Despite picking up some chatter of a random nearby conversation, the walkie-talkies did fit the setting, so we did not mind them so much.

We finished with a little over four minutes left. Unfortunately, we did not know we had finished the game and were in the middle of investigating what to do next when the gamemaster popped his head in the door saying we had won. Needless to say, it was a bit anti-climatic since there had been no fanfare of any type when we solved the final challenge… a little bit of a bummer.

We would be thrilled if some of the puzzles that did not align with the story and theme could be revamped – then the true curse of this mummy room could be lifted.

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Venue:   Xscape

 Location:  Hudson, NC

Number of Games:  2

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 60 minutes

Capacity:  2-10 people

Group Type: Public / You may be paired with strangers.

Cost:   $20.00 per person on Thursdays; $25 on Fridays and Saturdays; Discounts for military, EMT, seniors and children.