Event Recap: Masquerade Manor | Exodus Escape Room (Rowland Heights)

Exodus Escape Room presents...

"MASQUERADE MANOR"

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VENUE INFORMATION

Company: Exodus Escape Room (Rowland Heights Branch)

Company Website: Click Here & Here

Address: 19271 Colima Rd Unit E, Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Game Name: Masquerade Manor

Game Website: Click Here

Time Limit: 60 Minutes

Difficulty: Challenging

Capacity: Recommended For 4-10

Room Type: Public

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GAME OBJECTIVE

"Wealthy and famous composer Ludovico Manin is the prime suspect in a recent, high-profile crime. Tonight, during his annual Masquerade Ball, is your best chance to look for evidence against him. Disguised as guests, you must infiltrate the ball, find proof of Manin’s guilt, and leave without being detected. Can you find the stolen object and escape in time?" (via official website)

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YELP ELITE EVENT RECAP

Here is a carbon copy of my Yelp Elite Event recap post, posted originally on 08/16/2019:

This is a somewhat unexpected but very welcoming sequel to the last Yelp Elite Event hosted by Exodus Escape Room, Rowland Heights branch. I attended the last one (the Part 1, if you will), and was fairly certain this one would be just as fun and gratifying. (And it was!)

Hence, first and foremost, I'd like to extend thanks to those who made it possible:

Always and forever, thanks to our community manager, Margaret, for planning and organizing events for us Yelp Elite members to enjoy. Extra appreciation for allowing plus-one, which made this event that much more special for me and my loved one. Again, I'm super thankful for Exodus to welcome Team(s) Yelp with open arms for the second time, granting us the chance to experience their newest creation "Masquerade Manor" free of charge. Finally, Domino's Pizza, Olipop soda drinks, and Vegan Rob's chips, you guys were all delicious. The latter two, thanks for being vegan but not ruining it. Lol. Nom nom nom.

To those who are reading this review who are not familiar with me, my name's Matthew, and I actually got my start in Yelp review-writing almost exclusively from escape room visits. I frequent (or used to, a little more sporadically these days) escape room businesses and have a strong passion for writing about them, sharing them, and recommending them to fellow fanatics. For this reason, I *REALLY* wanted to attend this type of event, and making it onto the guest list made my day.

(Side note: feel free to contact me for tips/tricks/recs/all things related to escape rooms.)

What also made the day was my awesome, awesome 8pm crew who foiled Ludovico Manin's string of high-profile robberies in our masquerading adventure. Unlike my previous teammates from the first event, this 10-man task force was 80-90% escape room veterans (well, at least moderately experienced), and we zoomed through our puzzles with, dare I say, copious ease, even somehow landing ourselves second place on the leader board. (We achieved all our objectives with almost half an hour left, with no clue given.)

Whereas I needed to do some light leading and guiding for our more novice participants in the Part 1 event, there's no such necessity tonight in Part 2. Everyone's got. It. Down. I got to, at times as a spectator, see many people just get up and go, springing into action with no hesitation. It was honestly quite impressive.

Pat yourselves on the back, masquerade ballers.

Flexing about our great performance aside (ha ha), as someone who has done close to 80 escape rooms, I felt nothing but joy, excitement, and admiration when working with my Yelp Elite family. Being grouped with "strangers" in an escape game does not always translate into smooth collaboration and team work. In fact, the very opposite happens often in the real escape room market. And yet again, Yelp Elites proved me wrong. Much like my previous experience at Exodus, everyone was super nice, chill (yet passionate), and just all-around bright. Everyone contributed in solving riddles quite evenly, and the end result was nothing but a huge success.

As to the escape room itself, "Masquerade Manor" leans towards beginners level on the difficulty scale. This makes it a very suitable introductory room for anyone who's interested in playing an escape room for the first time, or just curious to what the fad is all about. A what the industry calls a "gen 1" room, Masquerade relies on mostly lock and key schemes to formulate a series of challenges for the customers to examine, ponder, and overcome. Fans of classic escape rooms would enjoy a collection of delightful but somewhat light puzzles, working those brain cells just enough to elicit that well-sought-after ah-ha moment. Those who prefer a bit of technology sprinkled throughout may be a tad disappointed, however, even though it was in no way a bad game.

Time remaining; not bad, not bad at all | Exodus Escape Room (Rowland Heights)

Nonetheless, I gotta say, that last puzzle got me good. It's got an extra layer of sophistication and trickiness to it, and therefore, despite stumping me well, it was, hands-down, my favorite puzzle of the evening.

The overall production value was consistent with what I've seen in "Sherlock's Study", with Masquerade's being an improvement due to the extra details they've put in the first room. The lighting, the brick wall, and the crawling plants were in particular my favorite accents of the entire set. The less urgent backstory and the whimsical nature of a costume ball distinguishes this room as the most family friendly of the 3 available options at this Exodus location, and if bought out as a private game, would also possibly make a respectably enjoyable date.

And yup. I think I've covered everything. (Great to see some of my Elite friends that I've interacted with in the past, and here's looking forward to many, many more adventures together in the rest of 2019 and 2010!)

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POST GAME PHOTO

Another win for the Yelp Elite fam. Almost everyone's an expert in this group! | Exodus Escape Room (Rowland Heights)

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Signing off,

ESCAPE MATTSTER

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