RATING: 1 Key          RESULT: Win          REMAINING: 23:15

*POW!*  *BAM!*  *A-BOOGITY BOOGITY BOO!*

Have no fear good citizens, for the superheroes have arrived! Except they’re haunted, so, BE AFRAID (?)

Within the old house of your great grandfather lies a special room where he had hidden away his superhero collectibles, a place far from his everyday life. Since he passed away, a long, long time ago, nobody has dared enter the room. They say it is haunted. People keep on hearing creepy voices from within the room. Rumor has it that he had some very rare action figures in his collection, which were believed to have been lost forever. Recently, you spotted an odd looking old man selling something extraordinary at the flea market. He whispered that you are the chosen one and only you can take advantage of his secret spell. A moment after he placed the paper scroll in your palm he disappeared into the mist. After deeply investigating the spell you have learned it provides you a shield, or ward, from ghosts in haunted locations. This protection spell is not unlimited, however, and you have exactly 3,600 seconds to use it after casting. Use your time wisely! If your team can acquire these valuable action figures in time you could be the superstar of the next Comic Con! No collection on the planet could compare to your rare action figure collection!

So here’s a little something about me – I don’t drink alcohol; but reading the story of Haunted Superheros has got to be what it feels like to try to make sense of an episode of Scooby Doo when you’re really, really, drunk. I mean, talk about all over the place. Let’s try to digest this.

So your great grandfather died – our condolences, of course. And he collected superhero stuff. Ok – so this is like an inheritance. But to get it, you have to spend a night in a haunted house… ?

I literally have no idea if the house is haunted, or if the superheroes are? I don’t even know how a superhero gets haunted? Was dearest Great Grandfather… evil? Is that why he’s haunting us? Or were the superheroes haunting him? Wait, is that how he died? Did the superheroes haunt him to death?

Ok – ok, back on track. So we go to the flea market and meet this guy –

And now we have magic that allows us to safely go into our Great Grandfather’s rumpus room. And we’d better do it quick so we can… get rich at Comic Con? You literally can’t make this stuff up, except somehow, somebody did.

I need to preface this scenic section by stating clearly that everything I’m about to say is very, very real.

Haunted Superheroes exists within a single moderately sized room – apparently the sacred resting place of dear Great Grandfather’s most cherished treasures:  a handful of beaten up action figures, a small pile of fairly current comic books, a hodgepodge of DC and Marvel Comics posters taped to the wall and, of course, a costume rack with assorted pieces of every hero Great Grandfather dreamed of becoming: the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Superman and the Joker.

And speaking of taped to the wall, to truly bring Great Grandfather’s lair (?) to life, neon colored painter’s tape forms random stripe patterns all around. No, it doesn’t mean anything or serve any purpose. Just like my life at this point.

Now, I know what you’re thinking; we’ve covered the superheroes, but how about the haunted? Oh, have we got haunted for you. Dollar Store cotton cobwebs creep down from all corners of the room and literally cover the former office’s drop panel ceiling. Plastic hanging ghosts that Great Grandfather likely purchased from the world’s first Walmart certainly add something to the ambiance. Although we aren’t sure quite what.

Yeah, we’re three sections into this review. I’m pretty confident that you, just as we did on that faithful day, know exactly what to expect from Haunted Superheroes’ puzzles.

…

They’re bad.

This is one of those games so riddled with logic leaps that asking for hints more commonly results in “wait, why would we do that?!” rather than it does a simple “oh.”

Haunted Superheroes is a fairly low tech affair – mostly leading to numerical codes that will open the next padlock. Don’t expect any “ah ha!” moments here – especially if your goal walking in, like us, is to understand just what a “Haunted Superhero” even is.

https://youtu.be/tms-pac5yqE

Years ago, we visited Code To Escape’s original venue in Hallendale Beach – and all though their games were far from ever becoming our favorites, we appreciated the venue’s effort at creating unique enough experience around fairly uncommon themes.

And while uncommon themes carry over to their Daytona Beach venue, well, we can’t even say everything else falls apart because it feels as though it just wasn’t there to begin with. Code To Escape feels like a case of “doing the bare minimum just to get open and sell tickets.” And truthfully, there are many times were it doesn’t even feel like they did the bare minimum at this location.

At the time of our visit, Code To Escape had a whopping eight games to choose from, and we played them all back to back. With just one exception, they were exceedingly bad. Typically when posting about a “new to EA” location, we always try to lead with the stronger reviews – but in this case of seven to one, we felt that would be an entirely inaccurate representation of what you, our readers, would find if you make the trek to the end of I-4.

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Venue: Code To Escape

Location: Daytona Beach, Florida

Number of Games: 9

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 60 minutes

Capacity: 14 people

Group Type: Public / You may be paired with strangers (However, you may request a private game at no additional charge.)

Cost: $25 per person

We thank Code To Escape for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.