Saw Escape Room

Anytime I tell a fellow escape room player that I am from Vegas, they ask if I have played the Saw Escape Room. And surprisingly, up until now, the answer has been no. Only two of us normally play, and Saw has mostly open bookings. But with the help of some of The Dragon’s friends from out of state, we finally decided to give it a go.

Getting there is somewhat of a puzzle itself. Parking is limited, so I would suggest carpooling. Also, the front doors are not on the front of the building. The building itself is part of the set. It looks like an old meat packing plant, and the sign says City Butcher,

with a smaller logo on the side specifying the company name as Egan & Co Meat. (Egan is for Jason Egan, the owner of the escape room. He also put on Fright Ride in October 2020 and the now-closed Fright Dome at Circus Circus)

To enter the game, your group must proceed together through the big gate and into the lobby. They have lockers for your stuff, waivers to sign, and the usual bookkeeping things. Then they put on the intro video, which tells you that you are taking an after-hours tour of the plant, and tells you the rules in an old-timey video style. It’s in black and white, and I guess supposed to be from when the plant was open? Or are we in the past? Or are we in the present watching a super old video?
Well, either way, now we have the rules and are shown into the room, told to go down a hall and to the right, and abandoned….

Props & Decor:

Since the Saw escape room was made with the film company Lionsgate as a sponsor, top-notch sets were the expectation. In that, they did not disappoint. It was very fully immersive. While it did not have the smell of a meat packing plant, impractical in the Vegas heat anyhow, the sets were full floor to ceiling rooms with dark hallways in between. No TVs for the hints, they were given by a live actor put in to act like one of you.

While knowledge of the movie is not essential to play the game, there are several geekgasm moments for fans of the films. The voice on the recordings at the start of each room was done by Saw actor Tobin Bell. Also, some of the rooms were replicas of scenes in the movies, and those were definitely fun to see. This was especially true for the Bat, who has always wanted to crawl into a full size cremation oven. And of course, the key bathroom scene does come into play. Just like a band playing its top hit at the end of a concert, they will make you wait awhile, but it is in there. Even the gift shop had this hidden jem

The authenticity of the scenes was somewhat assisted by the fact that the puzzles were integral to the film. There is no disrupting thoughts of “Why would someone put a puzzle here to help escape if they want to keep us prisoner?” or “If someone wants to help us get free, why are they making this so hard?”

Puzzles:

This was the low part of the adventure. Before I went into the experience, I had heard that their mechanic was to put a timer on each room, and if you don’t finish the puzzles in that room in time, they push you on to the next room. That made me a little wary, as it seemed like kind of a cheat to push more players through the experience. However, once you’ve played their game, it is obvious that the mechanic actually helps the players. It allows you to get to all of the rooms and see all of the sets, even if some of the puzzles are too long or just plain broken.

I usually don’t like to do spoilers, but in this case, a small spoiler will help you have more fun in the game. The first two sections are not part of the real game. They are like warm-up rooms. They do not have a hint system at all. They can be fun to try to solve, but the puzzles are not too intuitive, so do not get discouraged if you just run out the timer in both. The real game starts when you receive the first Jigsaw message and your actor/helper joins you in the room.

Once you get into the rest of the sections, make sure to listen to the Jigsaw messages. They do give hints to the room. Most of the puzzles are basic escape room style; some search and find, some wordplay, one black light. There was one room that had 3 puzzles in it, but a broken joystick stopped us from getting past the first one. That was a little annoying. Another one seemed like a lot of guesswork, but I can’t tell you more without spoilers. I will say that the rooms do involve all the players in most of the puzzles. There are not many that can be done with just one person, and almost all of them include multiple people at once.

Theme:

The creators picked the perfect theme to make an escape room out of; Saw is pretty much an escape room in a film. This led to the puzzles fitting into the theme of the game seamlessly. After the game, our guide did confirm that knowledge of the movies does help with the game, but is not necessary to complete it. I agree with her in both cases. The game does not tell you explicitly why you are being given clues by this mysterious recording. The victims in the films do not get that knowledge either. But having watched the films, the players will know that they should listen to that voice. The victims in the films know the same thing if they have heard about Jigsaw on the news.

Of course, there is usually one person in the game, just like the one in the film, that knows what is going on. They will tell you to listen. And if none of your group knows, the actor probably would play that role.

I will say that it lacked a bit of the danger/horror aspect of the game. We were in a place that was inherently spooky and unsettling. The corpses of dead animals, the grime of an abandoned plant, and the old machinery did lend to the vibe. And there were a couple of puzzles where you have to put yourself in positions that some of my groupmates did not want to do. You have to crawl, put your hands in places your mind tells you aren’t right, etc. And there was a pop scare actor that moved you from room to room. But I guess with all the hype, I had expected screaming victims or something. Having to choose if an actor or a pretend person lives or dies. If you jump in haunted houses, you might jump here but don’t expect this to be scarier than a haunt.

Overall:

This game was more fun than I was expecting, but not as fun as the price and the hype make it out to be. One of my teammates said it was like an escape room combined with Hollywood Horror Nights. I don’t entirely disagree. Well-made and well-funded sets, decent acting, and a lot of hype.

Our game master/actress Bambi was great to work with. She gave hints subtly and only when we needed them, which is exactly what we requested in the beginning. She also blended with the group perfectly. It was awesome to work with her. When I asked her about working for the escape room she said her favorite part is

“bringing people out of reality. People come here to escape. It means more than you think it does.”

I feel just the same! No wonder I liked her!