The Escape Game (NJ) - "The Heist"

LOCATION:  East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA

Photo above is property of The Escape Game

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝  ETR DECODER

• 🔑 GAME: The Heist

• 📅 DATE PLAYED: June 16, 2022

• 🎬 GENRE: Heist, Mission

• 🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 5.5/10

• 👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: Up to 8 ppl

• 🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.

• 💰 PRICE: $42.99/ pp

• ☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private

• 🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

📖 THE STORY

You and your team have been called in to investigate an art heist at the museum. One of the masterpieces has been stolen and new intel suggests that it's been stowed away somewhere inside the Vincent Hahn's office, the museum's curator. One of your agents has managed to buy you one hour to get inside Hahn's office, locate and recover the painting, and extract it before Hahn returns. Can you complete your mission?

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

• We enjoyed a different type of storyline for a typical heist game that we would normally yet. The backstory focused on a heist that already happened and our team had to find a way into the office and steal the item back. So we were actually the good guys for once.

• Even though "The Heist" is one of their older games, it still outperforms a lot of the other companies in the maintenance of their props and tech.

• It's nice to be able to discover some hidden reveals as we had to find the secret hiding place for the art piece after all. There were several props used that were able to reflect this. It was nice to be able to see this in person as it's definitely a completely different type of feeling than playing this online.

• The use of alarm alerts (especially towards the latter part of the game) really heightened the intensity of the heist. It got us to think that people are coming back soon and we have to hurry to get out of there.

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

• There are a good amount of items that required search and find in this game. Some were hidden quite well. One of the puzzles felt like we didn't use the final product. If only that last piece was discovered earlier, we could have gotten the answer that way.

• The one thing that I wish "The Heist" had, was a more climactic ending or a surprise reveal. We felt the sense of completion, but I think having a little unexpected twist would really set this room apart from other normal exits.

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

This game has actually been used a lot during the pandemic as online avatar games. Besides their original heist game, they also collaborated with Amazon Prime to promote their new show "Truth Seekers" and revamped this game to provide "Truth Seekers Remote Adventure" with the same layout, but with an added supernatural experience and different puzzle designs. So if you've played this online before, you might recognize some similarities. We always love heist themed games and this would be a perfect game if you just started to get into escape rooms and want to discover some of the secret hidden within. So are you ready agent? Go get that stolen art back!

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

• The Escape Game NJ is located inside the American Dream mall on the third floor

• Parking is free for the first hour and $5 unlimited thereafter. We recommend parking in Parking Deck A. When you enter the mall, you want to walk to the restaurants Yard House and 1st RND. Head towards the right side of 1st RND. They are right in front of Angry Birds Mini Golf.

• Lobby with waiting area and merchandise for purchase.

• Bathroom available inside the location.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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

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