Cognition Escapes - "The 4th Door"

LOCATION:  Seattle, Washington, USA

Photo above is property of Cognition Escapes

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Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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📝  ETR DECODER

• 🔑 GAME: The 4th Door

• 📅 DATE PLAYED: September 20, 2025

• 🎬 GENRE: Sci-Fi

• 🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 3 Players): 7/10

• 👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 4-9 ppl

• 🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 80 Mins.

• 💰 PRICE: $40.00/ pp (4-5 ppl), $38.00/ pp (6+ ppl)

• ☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private

• 🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

📖 THE STORY

It all starts when a mysterious box appears at your doorstep. Naturally, you poke at it… what could possibly go wrong? A flicker of light, a strange hum, and suddenly you’ve uncovered a journal that hints that the box is a device capable of turning any door into a portal to anywhere in the world! The catch? It was stolen from a shadowy organization bent on global domination. Now they can track your location every 20 minutes, so if you want to survive, you’ll have to keep moving, at least until you can figure out how to get them off your tail!.

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

• Unusual structure: This 80-minute room breaks from the standard escape formula in a way that totally works. You’ll race through four different spaces, each with its own puzzles, theme, and 20-minute ticking clock. If you don’t finish within that 20, you still have to move on…can’t let those ne’er-do-wells catch you! It’s a bit like 5 Wits in that way. However, solving challenges in the first three rooms earns you “key cards” that alter the difficulty of one of the puzzles in the last room. While there can be frustration if you don’t complete a room, the format kept things tense but exciting, and the variety between rooms made time fly.

• Backstory: Timed rooms can feel arbitrary, but here the story and sense of pursuit makes it feel justified, rather than arbitrary. Our GM also did a stellar job setting the scene, and the audience participation at the start added an unexpected bit of fun personalization. There were also some narrative elements in the transition between rooms, though we were too frantically trying to dive into the new puzzles to fully take them in.

• Something for everyone: This experience is full of cool set pieces and things to play with and lots of variety in your tasks. You’ll encounter everything from sensory puzzles involving smell and sound to dexterity-based and more classic logic and observation challenges. It’s the kind of game where no one player type dominates; every skill set finds a moment to shine. Each room offers a totally new theme and environment, keeping you alert and engaged from start to finish.
  

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

• Journal confusion: You’re given a journal alongside the portal device, filled with notes that offer context and nudges for each puzzle. We were told it sat somewhere between standard in-game guidance and outright hints, which left us unsure whether consulting it was expected…or a sign of surrender. Maybe our GM was just softening the blow for when we inevitably cracked it open (we did), but that ambiguity made it harder to gauge how self-sufficient we were meant to be. I love when games subtly scale their difficulty, but it works best when players don’t know it’s happening.

• A couple dips in the momentum: There were a lot of rewarding moments in the game, but a couple challenges became a bit tedious once we knew what to do but had to wrestle with tricky, highly precise execution. And after 80 minutes of excitement and tension, the conclusion once we succeeded could have had a bit more oomph.
  

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

If you’re craving something fast-paced, tech-forward, and full of variety, "The 4th Door" is worth stepping through. It’s a great fit for folks looking to test both their wits and reflexes. We played as a group of three and managed just fine (with one brief assist from the GM), but teams of four will have an easier time juggling the mix of tasks. This one’s not ideal for absolute beginners (who might get overwhelmed), but it’s an exciting romp for more experienced players who appreciate the different format (and can accept being moved forward on a schedule). So gather your crew, take a deep breath, and see if you can stay one step ahead of the chase!

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

• Cognition Escapes is located in downtown Seattle, (close to the Amazon spheres (~12m walk from Pike Place Market)l.

• There are some paid parking lots nearby, as well as public transportation options. Parking at the Amazon corporate lots is also free on weekends and after 4pm on weekdays.

• The space itself has two main waiting areas with some puzzles to fiddle with as you wait, lockers, bathrooms, and a water dispenser.

• You'll need to go down stairs to enter.

Photos above are property of Cognition Escapes

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BOOK NOW

(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Cognition Escapes for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

#KristaJones #IRLescaperoom #EscapeRooms #CognitionEscapes #SciFi #Washington #USA