Brandon Chow
- Nov 9, 2021
- 3 min read

Escape The Room DC (Midtown) - "The Submarine"

Updated: Apr 6

LOCATION:  Washington, DC, USA

Photo above is property of Escape The Room

Photo above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: The Submarine
📅 DATE PLAYED: November 9, 2021
🎬 GENRE: Adventure, Espionage
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 9/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-8PPL
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins
💰 PRICE: $27-42/PP (pending on group size)
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: No

📖 THE STORY

You have just been informed that 8 members of your team are trapped at the bottom of the ocean! In order to save them you must board a submarine and descend to the depths of the sea. This rescue mission is extremely dangerous as you've just been briefed that the captain has gone insane and the oxygen supply is running low! And who knows what else is in the deep sea? It's going to take more than just your navigational skills to find your teammates, rescue them, and return to the surface!

Video above is property of Escape The Room

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

We love the walkway leading to the submarine. The rusty metal submarine body led us all the way to the entrance. The lighting was perfect for the scenery.
Sound was done really well throughout the game to constantly remind us that we're under the ocean. You were even able to see fish swimming around the circular windows. Of course there were more surprises revealed to us as we continued on with the rescue mission.
The "urgency" feeling was constantly reminded during the game play. It almost felt like we're completing missions in chapters.
The graphics used during one part of the game was done really well. We thought we're actually traversing in the bottom of the ocean.

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

This room is extremely difficult for two people. We almost feel like suggesting that it should be a min 3 people type of game. At one point during the game, one person will need to be actually stationed some where as a certain puzzle will need to be attended to the entire time or else the other members won't be able to work on the rest of the room. Perhaps there could be a bypass for that mechanism when there's a small group.
There were a couple of challenges that had a lot of repetition. You'll need to do a string of actions in order to receive something. During a 60 minute game, it was pretty difficult to achieve considering this room had a lot of puzzles that needed "divide and conquer" type of collaboration.
Some mechanisms did not react right away and we had to waste time waiting for them to react. This also caused game play time.
There's too much intuition (like we were suppose to know how a submarine should operate) and hand holding in the game. The GM basically narrated to us what the next step should be and how we should accomplish it. This could be easily fixed by implementing these commands into the game itself as clues rather than having the game master tell it to us. Immersion felt lost through this type of interaction.

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

Escape The Room has a lot of locations and so far we've played "The Dig", "The Agency", "The Clock Tower", "Cartman's Escape Room", and "Jurassic Escape". "The Submarine" was definitely their most difficult game in our opinion. If you like to give this game a try, we recommend going with a large group. If you like mechanics and the feeling of operating a submarine, then this could be your chance to make that dream come true!

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

Street parking will be pretty difficult to find. There is a parking lot one block away from the escape room. Metro station is right outside the facility. Take one flight of stairs or elevator down to the lower level. There is a lobby with seating area and it's large event to host a group event.

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 Escape The Room DC for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.