Escape Room Review– Solve Escape Rooms– Waukesha, Wisconsin– Caper in the Escape Room
I have previously reviewed Solve Escape Rooms in Waukesha, Wisconsin and their first two rooms, Capone’s Cabinand 14 Floors Below. Yesterday, my friends and I played their latest room, Caper in the Escape Room, and like its sibling rooms, it’s a winner.
The premise is that there has been a robbery at a local escape room. You must find out WHO committed the theft, WHAT was stolen, and WHY the theft occurred. As you enter the room, you are let inside the entryway of the escape room. Inside this room are three doors, each leading to one of three escape rooms. You must find the three passcodes that lead you into the three rooms, along with the clues that will help you access the security footage to catch the thief. The three rooms are deliberately among the most stereotypically common themes in escape rooms, including a pirate ship, an Egyptian tomb, and a spaceship. The three rooms can be played in any order, and the goal in each room is to uncover a password. Collect three passwords and you gain access to the security footage that leads you to the culprit.
The puzzles are diverse and interesting. Only two require a minimal amount of physical dexterity and stooping. There is no need to crawl on the floor. Older children and teens should be able to play as well as adults. Most of the puzzles are intuitive and require observation, including sight, hearing, and color recognition.
Not to brag, but my three friends and I beat the room with over twenty minutes remaining without asking for any hints. If your team splits up, you’ll definitely solve the rooms with tons of time to spare, but that means that some players won’t enjoy the full experience. You have to decide what’s best for your group.
I would rate the difficulty of the room as moderate. The production design is once again high-quality. The main “front desk” area is very similar to Solve’s real front room. The spaceship room isn’t quite immersive, as it’s clearly a painted bit of office space, though the door leading to an endangered part of the ship is a great effect. The pirate ship room and Egyptian room are great– the only thing missing from the Egyptian tomb is a bit of sand strewn across the floor, and it’s just as well it’s not there, as sand gets everywhere. The pirate ship also looks like it could be part of a boat, with great decorations.
In the past, Solve Escape Rooms has donated $25 to a selected charity if you win your game. They’ve recently revamped their donations. Now, they donate a flat $1,000 to a charity each month, and each winning team gets to vote for one of four charities, with the monthly winner getting the cash. Current choices include charities for suicide prevention, diabetes, providing nourishment for those with food insecurity, and childhood cancer treatment.
Solve Escape Rooms plans to open one more room over the next year or so, and then they’ll consider switching out rooms. Bottom line, go to Solve Escape Rooms if you can– it’s well worth your time and money.
–Chris Chan
Chris Chan’s book The Autistic Sleuth, written with his mother Dr. Patricia Meyer Chan, will be released on September 19th! He is the author of the Funderburke and Kaiming novels Ghosting My Friend and She Ruined Our Lives, released by Level Best Books. He is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and Nessie’s Nemesis, published by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2. His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books. His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there). It is also available in a Kindle edition.
