RATING: 2 Keys          RESULT: Loss          REMAINING: X:XX

Scenic expectations were certainly low upon arrival to “the venue” – two side by side 18 wheeler trucks – but The Purge: Breakout proved why one should never judge a book by its cover. Unfortunately terrible operational procedures completely ruined this experience for us.

Following the established story of The Purge film series, Blumhouse created this traveling attraction as a means of promoting their latest movie.  If you’ve seen any of The Purge films – you’ll walk in with a pretty good idea of what to expect here – The annual Purge is about to begin, and you’re in mortal danger. Trapped by Big Daddy, you’ve got 30 minutes to find a way to escape his house before he comes back to put bullets in your hide.

The experience takes you through multiple rooms of his home and features a live actor – another hostage – as your guide of sorts to oversee the game and provide clues when needed.

Contrary to meager expectations set by the 18 wheeler exterior, The Purge: Breakout actually had fantastic quality scenic design. Really incredible attention to detail in virtually every corner of every room – perfectly aged and distressed to give a clear feeling of disrepair and neglect.

Dim lighting and background audio, including the occasional Purge warning sirens only further enhanced the already superb mood throughout the course of the attraction.

Puzzles throughout The Purge: Breakout were fairly true to theme of the film franchise, making for an enjoyable experience. Many of the steps were logical things one might do if the scenario were real life – fore example fishing for keys to escape the cage you find yourself trapped in at the start, cracking security alarms, etc.

Though no puzzle was truly ground-breaking or one of a kind, they fit the story world and were enhanced by the stunning scenic production quality.

We were truly surprised by how good the quality of scenic, effects and overall experience of this traveling escape room was! There’s far more scenes inside the trailers than you’d expect could fit by looking at them from the outside. If that’s where our experience had ended, they likely may have received five stars. Unfortunately, poor operations caused things to take a very unnecessary turn.

We were well on our path to escaping in time. While working on one of the final puzzles – a common black light flashlight gag found in nearly every escape room, we realized there was nothing to be found in the last room. After searching it top to bottom four or five times, we asked the actor if we should be moving backwards through the experience to find our black lit clue. She clearly and explicitly told us no – that it’s in this room, and that we cannot go backwards. We realized pretty quickly that this became a “run out the clock” situation because it was obvious that the clues were not in the room she insisted they were in, so we ultimately stood around for the last four plus minutes of the experience just wishing the time would run out faster as there was literally nothing for us to do.

Upon exiting, we asked one of their operations staff exactly what just happened with that final clue. They openly informed us that we had to go backwards, but if you don’t go backwards with more than five minutes left on the clock, they don’t allow you to go at all. We asked them why we paid for a 30 minute game if we were only allowed to play 25 minutes of it. They informed us that it was “more important” that we have our picture taken at the end than play the game. No. No, no, no, no, no. This attraction could have been truly spectacular – but unnecessary and dishonest operating procedures completely killed it.

The Purge: Breakout is gone for good (in fact I think their trailers still sit abandoned in the empty lot of their last location in LA) – but if somehow they did come back, they’d need to make serious changes to their operating policy before I could in good conscience ever recommend this experience to others.

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Venue:  The Purge: Breakout (CLOSED)

Location: Los Angeles, California

Number of Games: 1

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 30 minutes

Capacity: 6 people

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

Cost: This attraction is closed forever.