RATING: 2 Keys          RESULT: Win          REMAINING: 10:43

A quality chain that we enjoy on the west coast just doesn’t measure up on the east.

According to PanIQ Room’s website, the story here is that you’re a member of a research team, and your duty is to find out what caused the death of hundreds of people in an abandoned hospital.

Unfortunately, once you enter the room there is nothing to connect to that story beyond the vague hospital motif. At no point do you ever discover what caused the deaths – or even try to.

PanIQ as a brand does tend to have decent quality scenic – and Miami is no exception. Sadly, it’s the one category where the venue’s three games actually shine.

Haunted Hospital has a fairly generic theme (and as such, somewhat generic decor) but at no point did they skimp on the blood. Dim scenic lighting does help add to the overall ambiance.

If you’re somewhat on the timid side, it may be in your best interest to play one of the venue’s other two rooms.

PanIQ does consistently have a bad habit of puzzles for puzzles sake, rather than incorporating them in any sensible way into the story world. Miami is perhaps the worst venue for this problem.

Each room has at least one puzzle so brain-dead dumb that neither of us had any desire to complete it. Mind you – not because it was too challenging – but just because it had no place in the game or in the story. In Haunted Hospital, be prepared to play the most primitive video game you’ll ever see – and don’t expect to have a second of fun while doing it. Clearly meant to be a pure time-sink, playing it makes you wonder what you *could* be doing instead to sensibly further the story or even just the gameplay itself.

I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me why playing a video game in the operating room connects in some way to finding out what killed all those patients. But then again, I suppose we abandoned that storyline somewhere around when we abandoned the hospital years ago.

After visiting two venues in Southern California, PanIQ Room was the place we were most looking forward to experiencing once we arrived in Miami.  Sadly, PanIQ Room Miami didn’t come close to measuring up to its California cousins.

Unfortunately the list of cons for this location outweighs the pros. The games lack the intuitive forward motion that PanIQ as a brand tends to consistently maintain elsewhere. Some puzzles are so out of place and downright lazy that they verge on insulting.

Another thing of note – starting each room by blindfolding the players adds nothing to the experience here and comes across as goofy. There’s no reason in any of their three story worlds that blindfolding you makes any sense. I’ve played games where it does – but PanIQ Room Miami’s are just not one of them.

I will continue to recommend PanIQ Room’s California locations, but would advise anyone in South Florida to look elsewhere for a higher quality escape room experience.

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Venue:  PanIQ Room

Location: Miami, Florida

Number of Games: 3

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 60 minutes

Capacity: 6 people

Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers.

Cost: $32 per person weekdays, $36 per person weekends (a minimum of two people are required for booking, prices vary depending on group size.)