Review: Star Trek: Quantum Filament, Escapology, Los Angeles
Escapology
Los Angeles location - 9301 Tampa Ave, Northridge CA 91324 (Mall parking lot)
Date played July 11, 2024 Group size 4
Booking size 2 to 8 (private booking); We recommend 2 to 4
Objective: Repair the U.S.S. Discovery
Overall Fun Factor: 6
Difficulty: Advanced
Good first room? No
Why this rating? We enjoyed this escape room. The set was high-tech and true to the Star Trek world. The locations were impressive in scale with high quality displays and touch screens which changed as the game progressed. However, we felt the puzzles had uneven quality and enjoyment. The feedback for solving was at times, subtle and confusing…which had us spinning our wheels and attempting to re-solve a completed puzzle. Overall we recommend the room for its set and theme. We introduced two family members to escape rooms - and they both had a blast playing this room…however we do not recommend this as a good starter room for a group of all-new escape room players.
This game was at Escapology’s Los Angeles location (Northridge California). For those unfamiliar with Escapology they have many locations around the country - this was the fifth location of Escapology we visited. This location has loads of rooms and is worth a visit. It is located in a Mall and thus has access to ample free parking - with many nearby restaurants. We had a delicious barbeque dinner at Wood Ranch restaurant which is right next to Escapology.
The premise is that your group has come aboard a starship for a tour, specifically the U.S.S. Discovery…and, you guessed it, trouble was encountered and its down to your group to repair the damage and save the ship and crew!
The game is played in a space which is not that large by escape room standards - but our group of four did not feel cramped or tripping over each other. For the most part this is a linear progression of puzzles requiring one puzzle solved before moving on to the next - however, fairly early on we encountered a non-linear element with different members of our group working simultaneously. Feedback for completed puzzles was uneven and after discovering that we solved “something” we were not sure if it was one or the other puzzle we were working on.
One of the very fun elements of the set are the many display screens - which change as you interact with them. Escapology has thoughtfully designed the interactions that screens can only change once you no longer need the “old” information. An odd note for the set design is that we can recall only one input screen with a reset button…all other screens required us to completely enter a wrong code before we could correct the input.
We also enjoyed a rather cinematic moment which occurred unexpectedly in the middle of game which caused us to change our focus and deal with a task that definitely required our attention. This unexpected twist - while challenging…and initially concerning…proved to a clever, thoughtful and very immersive element!
Overall however it is the set and experience which makes this a recommended room - the puzzles and puzzle-feedback were uneven. Uneven in the sense that some were well-designed and in keeping with the theme and others were - well we are in an escape room and could have been (and have been) used in other scenarios.
The staff at this location were friendly and helpful. They employ a push button hint system - whereby a hint button is pressed and the hint is provided on the display screen. It was clear that our game host was watching and listening to us as the hints were spot on - including one where we were only asking for clarification. The location was comfortably air-conditioned - which was welcome for such a hot day in the San Fernando Valley.
