Mr. Grey’s Red Room of Pain (18+)

From the website: Amid an evening out on the town, your friends are interrupted by an urgent call from Anastasia.  She begins to apologize for not being able to make it, but suddenly her voice goes quiet.  You’re not quite sure what’s happening, but it sounds as if a struggle ensues, and all you hear is a faint “help me” before the call ends.  You and your friends rush to Mr. Grey’s estate, only to find Anastasia all tied up.  Free her before it’s too late!

I have to admit being asked “Who’s the freak of the group?” caught us both off guard, I owned the title when we couldn’t decide. Normally we try not to give things away but since it’s in the teaser video on their website I’m totally giving away the fact I was the one who got bound in the leg spreader which was amusing and not much of a deterrent for me despite being the first time in one 😀

Props & Decor:

First I have to bring these up as they were the first time I saw them… “Don’t Touch” stickers… they suck on two huge levels for me, first now I know where I don’t need to search for puzzle pieces or clues. Second they completely kill the emersion aspect I mean no one has these stickers in their homes or well any location an escape room my be happening.

The props were in good to decent working order and well kept. I was honestly surprised by how much touching in some cases I was allowed to do but then again maybe those stickers affected me subconsciously. Some were well not something I would have been digging around but that surprise was hilariously welcome.

The décor was well… it’s an escape room in a sex shop and it’s 50 Shades of Grey… in other words the cheese and taboo was delivered upon.

Puzzles:

The puzzles were all over the place… The bat “cheated” one solution before I could even finishing my first look around the introductory room simply because she recognized a prop as a puzzle mechanic. In one sense that made it easier for us than may have been intended but I also think that’s a cool little bit of a bonus for escape room workers or aficionados.  There were a few puzzles that were easy enough to figure out just by exploring but then there were several puzzles that had a lot of red herrings which either led to wasting a lot of time figuring them out or required using a hint.

Input from the Bat

My only comment has to be a bit vague to avoid spoilers, but using one type of device for almost every puzzle in the second room was a bit of a hinderance to the non linear style of that room. While the group could split up and solve multiple puzzles at once, since the locks don’t have to be unlocked in a particular order, the reuse of the same thing for at least half of the puzzles was a bit overkill. Otherwise, it the room did use some unusual puzzle styles I have not seen before, so kudos for that.

Theme:

I’m not a fan of 50 Shades of Grey as a book series or movie series… seriously there’s so many other options that are good references in relation to kink and B.D.S.M. community/life styles. Anyway since that isn’t the main point I’ll move on, what I think 50 Shades franchise did decently was be a cheesy romance novel and the theme and Mr. Grey’s Red Room of Pain delivers in that quite well. I mean you’re friends with Mr. Grey’s romantic partner and you’re the one to help save her instead of Mr. Grey and his money paid security team? I know, you’re gonna say “what about suspension of disbelief?” I guess that leaves the door vaguely open however in my personal opinion it was far fetched to be friends and not a security team or detective type of group.

The rooms held to the theme well enough I’m still a bit bummed the toys were bound to the wall (I mean come on… such an easy way to cause a group to fail by letting them play with the sex toys).

Input from the Bat

In their defense, Dragon, you did distract me just by pointing them out a couple times….

But overall I agree. Just the right level of campy to get the laughs that I hope the creator was going for.

Overall:

I think they did a great job delivering a cheesy romance novel themed escape room. In terms of a hard room, debatably they delivered… I say that because personally I don’t think the game would have been that hard if it wasn’t for all the red herrings throughout the room… Despite the confusion from some of the mechanics it was still a fun room to play and experience.