For my first experience it was an absolute blast. We didn't solve our room in time but the overall experience was fantastic. read more

We did the Christmas-themed escape room. It was a lot of fun with the right mix of challenge without being too difficult. We escaped with 10 min to spare. We only needed to inquire once about one of the locks to ensure we had it aligned correctly. We will definitely try another room. It's a little pricey but it was a great family outing. read more

We have completed almost every escape room here, and each experience has been better than the last. On this, most recent visit, we did the Blitzkrieg and room as a party of 3 (me, my husband, and my 9 year old). The experience was STELLAR! The puzzled were challenging, but thoughtful - and the general feeling upon solving was "that was awesome" - rather than the frustration that can come with subpar puzzles that fail in the execution. The difficulty level was perfect for three players, and my 9 year old was SUPER engaged - with something to contribute to almost every puzzle. The lighting and sound effects were super immersive, and the gameplay made so logical that we needed very few hints. Best of all was our game master - who was super encouraging throughout and even let me go back in the room a second time to take a family picture after retrieving my phone from the car. He also helped us with some purchases of "at home" escape rooms and let us know "unofficially" about some new games in the works. What I appreciated most was how much he made my neurodiverse son feel like a rock star, giving him a high-five at the end of the game and telling him he was the smartest 9-year old in ever. I highly recommend Clue IQ for anyone 1 especially families. Customer service is top notch! read more

Clue IQ An Escape Room Experience - Family of three with 9 year old after completing the Blitzkrieg room at Clue IQ - Escape Games Near Me - Frederick, Maryland

We've tried several escape rooms that were just meh of an experience... NOT ClueIQ! Crane Manor was Ah-MAZING! The props were well designed which made the overall experience a great one! We had such a blast that we'll be back to play the rest of the games! read more

Clue IQ An Escape Room Experience - With 10 seconds left to spare, we found the head of the headless horseman! - Escape Games Near Me - Frederick, Maryland

ClueIQ has so many "kid friendly" rooms and claims to be a family friendly escape room option. However, their policies ensure this could not be further from the truth. The no exception 48 hour cancellation window ensures it cannot be family friendly despite their claims because sicknesses don't give 48 hours notice. We were signed up for the Operation Jingle Bells room today, hoping for some pre-Christmas fun. We have been planning this since October, and officially signed up last week due to the cancellation policy. Then my daughter began vomiting and running a 102 degree fever. We called ClueIQ over a day in advance once it happened, and they refused to reschedule us knowing our daughter's illness. The person we spoke with when we called openly encouraged us to leave our 9 year old daughter at home alone while me, her dad, and her brother were 2 1/2 hours away doing the escape room. When we called, they had PLENTY of time to re-book the room as it is the most popular one they have this time of year. Do I understand the 48 cancellation policy? Yep. But is life black and white? No. Exceptions have to be made, or they are going to end up with kids actively contagious in their rooms because the company refuses to reschedule in times where it is truly unsafe for participants to be there. We are choosing to stay home because now both my son and daughter are running high fevers, but not all parents will choose to light money on fire to do so. So if you want to catch the flu or Covid or any other illness right before Christmas, go to ClueIQ, where parents who tried to keep the germs away are guaranteed to be there anyway because of non family friendly policies and absolutely unprofessional and rude staff. Editing to add response to the business owner's reply: Thanks for your response - it alone proved my point to what I was saying. Your POLICY is not family-friendly. You cannot claim to be a family-friendly establishment and then be nothing but inflexible when the customer is doing everything they should be doing. We should not be in your establishment today. In having folks with 102+ fevers (now 3 of the 4 of us), others would be exposed to highly contagious germs...around the holidays nonetheless. Additionally, we should not be charged money by your establishment for having the "audacity" to get sick. That is the whole purpose of this review - people need to know of your inflexibility and lack of willingness to work with customers. We didn't ask for a late refund, we simply asked to reschedule to an open slot. As you stated regarding the person who answered the phone, they admitted that did say they suggested leaving our daughter at home. Regardless of our distance from the escape room or her age, that is an inappropriate suggestion. Did the woman who answered the phone further explain to you that she told us to bring my daughter sick because it was a private room? Because she also said that to us. That is why we brought up that staff at ClueIQ encouraged customers to bring sick kids into their rooms and why very communicable diseases are likely to be transmitted there. For those reading through these reviews, our situation is very relatable. Sickness happens to everyone and strikes out of nowhere with no warning. If you book here and happen to get sick, you will be met with arguments (that make a bad situation even worse), accompanying with an attempt from the company in question to make you seem like the person in the wrong. read more

Not a paid post, just thorough . Looking for great SFX? Do you have a keen eye for detail? Big rooms? Downtown Frederick? This is a spot to check out for sure! ClueIQ has 4 rooms, 3 are 1 hour rooms and their 4th is a 75 minute room. Your game master plays into the theme and all of the rooms are beautifully put together. The props for clues are really cool too! It is pricey, they do charge more for smaller groups but they do provide a discount for booking a room before leaving after completing your adventure. The price is worth the experience. Our combined favorite room was Crane Manor. My personal favorite was Operation Jingle Bells and my husband loved Excalibur. What's great is they send you an email with a video briefing about the room story line and they do go over it again before you start the room. Parking is a little wonky but it's a small parking lot so not much to do about that. They do also sell escape room themed games. Overall an AWESOME experience! read more

The Operation Jingle Bells game was perfect for our party of nine with ages 9-77. The cool thing about this setup was that the younger crowd could get a clue on a screen in the corner of the room and those who didn't want the clue didn't have to see it and could keep on working. This is the third escape room experience we have done together as a family. This one was arguably the best. The puzzles were complex but not impossible to solve. The variety spoke to multiple talents and abilities. The room was large enough for our crowd without us getting in each other's way. My only recommendation, and this applies to all escape rooms, is to always provide at least one seat in the room for that older player who has trouble standing for extended periods. We travelled an hour to get to this escape room because it could accommodate both the size of our group and the age variation. We would love to return. It is not easy to find rooms that can handle both kids and super sleuths. read more

I am in a group of four that has attempted every single room in all three Frederick area escape rooms. This company has some of my favorites. We just did Crane Manor, which is a 75 minute game. This is longer than the traditional 60 minute allotted game. This game in particular was awesome. It was huge and lots of puzzles. I definitely recommend a seasoned team doing this room. Excalibur is also a great room. The room is very nicely constructed and the detail to the room is impressive. The staff is always friendly here and I would highly recommend you go here. read more

Clue IQ is such an easy escape room to recommend. Their games are well-crafted, and maintained. I took my aunt, uncle, and cousin to play their first escape room at Clue IQ, and it was the perfect place to introduce them to the concept. The staff were especially skilled at instilling them with confidence. Afterwards, I went back and played the rest of their games. read more

This was so much fun, especially as first time doing an escape room. Game Master Jasmine was really great!!The room kept us busy the whole time, and even asking for hints added to the fun. It was so satisfying to unlock each puzzle down to the very end. Definitely coming back to try more rooms! read more

Clue IQ An Escape Room Experience - Our victory shot! - Escape Games Near Me - Frederick, Maryland

We did Excalibur, and it was pretty good. It was a lot of logic driven puzzles, which isn't really my thing. However the two engineers in our group loved the room. This room is 5 stars for excellent decor and theme. It felt immersive, and the staff was friendly. I do wish there were surprise elements to this room. Nothing really shocked me, but it had a nice flow. Overall the puzzles were alright and we were able to get out on time. I appreciate they actually use a legit camera to take group photos. We had a positive experience it was overall a solid escape room. read more

Great place for an escape room. We've been here twice and it has been by far the best experience we've had.

After deciding to do a day of fun surprises for husband's 40th bday, I made reservations for our family to embark on this adventure. Nestled in downtown Frederick, the location was convenient. Upon arrival (a couple of minutes early) we were pleasantly greeted and then given a moment to use the restroom. The directions and rules were easy enough and then the fun began. We were a group of 2 adults, 2 teens and 1 child (8 yo) and everyone was able to solve at least one clue. We finished with seconds to spare- literally seconds and had to ask for some clues, but overall, we had so much fun and would definitely return. We did have a slight malfunction at the end when we got the crown but the sword wouldn't release, but this one thing was not enough to negate all the fun we had. This part, take as you will: Anyone who has multiple kids (especially teens) knows that a family event 95% of the times equals some type of bickering/ fighting. Maybe it was something in the air, but as a parent, it was amazing to see how well they worked together and encouraged each other- definitely a bonding moment for sure, so I highly suggest it for team building purposes. read more

What an amazing experience!! Lisa was amazing to work with both before and during the game. Two of my friends and I entered the excalibur room and we have done many escape rooms together but this might be one of my all time favorites. All of the clues were well designed and thought-out. Everything tied together so well and the room itself was perfectly decorated to fit the King Arthur theme. One of my biggest pet peeves is when clues are just thrown together and don't make sense but all of the clues worked so well with each other and with the theme. We got out with 7 minutes remaining with just the three of us - and we had a blast Very very impressive. Highly recommend. I'd love to come back to check out their other game experiences. read more

My first ever experience with an escape room was in NC, it was awful. Finally agreed to try one again and did the Crane Manor room at Clue IQ - holy moly, it was so much fun!!! So well put together, loved how one thing would trigger another and make you backtrack. I'll be honest, i would not have made it very far without my kids, but watching them in action was great, they said it was their favorite escape room to date! Definitely recommend, will be going back to try a different room soon. read more

A great escape room experience. I do wish that the levels of difficulty were more clearly identified. I accidentally choose the most difficult for my fist room. Overall I love Clue IQ and I have completed almost all of the rooms they have. All of the rooms are very well thought out and very enjoyable. I will be coming back for the final room that I haven't completed very soon. read more

We did the Conspiracy Escape room. It was very well put together. However, we were only able to get thru about 90% of the rooms challenges, with 4 people. I would recommend this site for a neophyte experience. But do the Conspiracy escape room once you've done some of the others. I didn't know what to expect and it may have had an impact on my team participation. They have an Excalibur room! I really wanna try that. read more

Clue IQ An Escape Room Experience - Escape Games Near Me - Frederick, Maryland

As a disclaimer my wife and I are Escape game enthusiasts and have done over 130 rooms across 9 states at the time of this review. We have a high escape rate. We judge rooms on set quality, story, puzzles, and a variety of other factors. We don't get free rooms or discounts in exchange for good reviews, so you only see what we truly thought of the room. We have completed all of the rooms at ClueIQ in Frederick. At the time of this review they have Blitzkrieg (WWII bunker meets Indiana Jones kind of - think Nazis and artifacts), Conspiracy (think of things like moon landing, JFK, etc), and Excalibur (knights of the round table etc). I am so glad we made it here on our road trip. I coordinated with Steve, the owner, prior to arriving for us to jump into rooms on our way through. We played them in order that I listed above. I am going to say that Excalibur is my absolute favorite room, or absolute favorite tied with The Ruins in Jackson, MS with Enter/Locked, and in the top three sharing with Enter the Imaginarium's Inventor's Paradox in Pittsburgh, PA. Pros: - the set. The set. THE SET. It's true you can have awesome puzzles and crappy sets, and have fun, and have awesome sets with crappy puzzles, but in this case you get both. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE this set. It's high quality. I wouldn't consider the room space to be huge, but yet the space is maximized to enjoy every inch of it. All of the sets were good but really do Excalibur. - the theme. Different takes on themes. I like the different stuff. If I rob one more bank I'm gonna lose my mind. - the puzzles. The puzzles were awesome in all of the rooms. They made sense. There weren't any that really were problematic from a logic perspective. In many cases there are connections between the puzzle and what it opens so you're not really trying combos or other things in nonsensical locks. The puzzles in the Excalibur room were even a level above in terms of very cool riddles of sorts that pointed you in the right direction. Plenty of stuff for people to do in all of the rooms. Excalibur and conspiracy are more non-linear meaning you can all work on different puzzles at once in many cases - story. I always felt like I was a part of the story the entire time I was in each room. There were props and other things that kept you engaged. - tech. There was the right amount of tech here, with some stuff we had never seen before. - staff. Staff is awesome here, super friendly, very accommodating. - location is great as well in terms of heading downtown before or after. Cons: - I swear I really tried and tried to think of something negative to say. That sounds bad but negative comments really help improve experiences if given constructively. I couldn't think of anything. Nothing. This really is a place that I expected to be decent because of reviews but it blew me away. read more

My friends and I are very experienced with escape rooms with several dozen rooms and a good number of providers under our belt and Clue IQ delivered one of the best experiences I've ever had. We played the Excalibur room with a group of four - myself, my wife, and a friend, all of whom do escape rooms together quite regularly and another friend who had done one before. Overall, it was fantastic. This review will discuss puzzles but will be spoiler-free. Let's start with the room itself, which was absolutely gorgeous. A LOT of work was put into this space with fantastic decorations and set pieces, realistic-looking props, and great lighting. It created a very immersive space that was beautiful to look at and whose clues and puzzles felt like they belonged in the room rather than just being tacked on. Lighting was dark but sufficient for the puzzles and (electric) candles provided a mobile source of illumination. As is common in these rooms, the decorations were important and even the lighting proved relevant, so these touches were appreciated not just for the atmosphere but for the actual puzzle experience. Even the hint system was well-implemented, requiring players to address a suit of armor in the room (I was actually disappointed we didn't need to ask for any hints, although at towards the very end we were warned we had one component in the wrong place). Speaking of puzzles, they were excellent. Nothing required any unintuitive leaps of logic so in many respects this wasn't an extremely difficult room, but even knowing how the puzzles worked still required a decent amount of effort. I was particularly pleased that the room was set up so it was usually possible to work on two puzzles simultaneously. We always appreciate this as it allows everyone in the group to be involved in the game rather than waiting for one player to figure out a numeric cypher while everyone else is stuck. Several puzzles even included instructions that warned you not to waste your time until a specific earlier puzzle had been solved; while some hardcore solvers may be turned off by this, it made for a very stress-free experience and I greatly appreciated it. We solved the puzzle with slightly over 20 minutes left but no hints requested (one given unprompted). The only problem we had was one lock where we'd entered a code correctly but wouldn't open despite several attempts, though it eventually clicked open (perhaps the tumblers were slightly off?). That one lock not-withstanding, things were in excellent repair which is not always the case in these rooms. The staff were quite pleasant and remained masked the entire time we were in the facility. The aforementioned unsolicited-hint suggests that the game was being actively-GMed and monitored. Games are spaced out to allow more time not just for resets but to sanitize the space. Overall it was a fantastic time. Due to our late start time we didn't have time for a second room but we purchased a gift certificate at a discount for a future visit. You can bet we'll use it. We had a great time and are looking forward to one of the more difficult rooms. read more

We've done all the rooms (successfully). The whole family really enjoyed them. Excalibur was our favorite!

Had an amazing time in their Excalibur escape room!! Would highly recommend for a fun day out. Staff was pleasant and so helpful. Will definitely be going back! read more

Great all around experience. Really one of the few times we've been out during the pandemic. The Excalibur room was simply fantastic. The kids lit up and reveled in the fun and mystery. So if your looking for a Covid safe experience for a birthday or any day check these guys out. read more

I believe I'm up to having been in 8 escape rooms currently, so I can pick favorites now, right? Clue IQ has been the best experience out of all of them. The owners/couple are super friendly and truly enjoy creating fun themed rooms with unique puzzles. They take vacations to go to escape rooms, so that tells you the level of experience and ideas for creativity they have when it comes to these. We always end up chatting and talking about the experience after. I look forward to seeing what they come up with next! read more

What a great experience. Puzzles are interesting challenging. Had a blast with my three kids who were amazing at figuring the puzzles. I would do this again in a heartbeat. Great team building experience. read more

Clue IQ An Escape Room Experience - Escape Games Near Me - Frederick, Maryland

I've done over 2 dozen escape rooms and I think Crane Manor is my absolute favorite. Frederick is a bit of a drive for us but we're definitely planning on returning! read more

My wife and I had never done an escape room before and chose the Blitzkrieg room. What a great experience! It was just the two of us, which made it difficult, but we never felt like it was impossible. The staff was very attentive to the questions we had and even helped us when we were clearly missing something. Staff took the time to answer all of our questions before and after our time in the room. All of the props and equipment in the room worked well for us. We can't wait to come back and try the other adventures! read more

Really friendly owner who greeted our group when we got in. Clue IQ is a really fun place. We did the WWII themed room, Blitzkreig. Without going into great detail, the room did a great job of integrating physical props with technology. It's hard to describe an escape room, so in the words of Nike: "Just Do It." read more

We had a girls night out yesterday day and had tons of fun. This was the fifth escape room experience for me, but first at Clue IQ. We chose the conspiracy room. It was laid out nicely and really made you think! It was a two room sequence. We made it out with four minutes to spare!! A few minor recommendations I'd like to see...1) have a photo prop opportunity at the end. We did get a picture but enjoy being goofy with funny props at other places I have done. 2) Music came on at the end but we were confused and weren't sure if we'd won or not. We just knew it was different. Maybe have a blaring horn or door unlocked if we cracked the code. Overall, great time and we will be back! Highly recommended. read more

I brought a group of kids. They had a blast. Recommend doing these with 4 or more people.

Only my second escape room and loved it. We did the Blitzkrieg room. Fun theme. Challenging but not impossible. Staff was helpful and friendly. This is a great activity for friends or family. read more

Clue IQ An Escape Room Experience - Escape Games Near Me - Frederick, Maryland

Did the Blitzkreig with my gf and several friends. Had a fantastic time. Slightly on the pricey side, but it's readily apparent where that money goes. There was real love put into that room; it was very immersive. Staff was very friendly. We escaped! We definitely plan to go back. read more

One of the best escape rooms I have ever been to! My husband and I travel and do them and this by far is at the top of the list. A must try for sure! read more

First visit here and the whole experience was great. I highly recommend this establishment. There is free off-street parking, the staff are friendly and knowledgeable. We were in a public room so we worked together with some newly met, very smart people. Super fun and yes, we escaped! read more

Our family has done quite a few escape rooms and Clue IQ is among the best we've done. Super immersive with Hollywood-level decor and excellent, creative and inventive puzzles. So much fun for all ages! Excalibur is our favorite room of any we've ever done anywhere, but all of the rooms are excellent. read more

I had a wonderful time with my family and friends this evening in the Christmas themed room. I've never been to an escape room so it took me a little while to catch on, but I loved the concept! I can't wait to go back and try another room. Steve is great and super helpful! I def recommend! read more

We were in the area for a few days and played one of their games. It was so good we had to do another! I've played over 40 games - these two are both in the top 5 best! Great experience: friendly staff, clean environment, easy parking, reasonable price, very immersive games, great game flow and challenging puzzles. I loved it! read more

We started a different and fun 50th birthday celebration for my wife at Clue IQ, with 7 other couples. It truly was a good time, and Steve and his staff were super-friendly and accommodating. It's also very close--within walking distance--to bars and restaurants, so we followed up with dinner and drinks in what has turned out to be a cool downtown Frederick scene. I highly recommend Clue IQ for a challenging and fun experience. read more

Love a good escape room, clever and well designed!

So this place is awesome..Firstly the location was very good. The owner really knows his stuff. My group was a test group and we tried the Blitzkrieg room and the props were authentic and made you feel like you were in a bunker in Germany. Well thought out traps. You really need to put on your thinking cap for some of these puzzles. When you figure out something you really feel a sense of accomplishment. My group failed to get out of the room but it was a great time. I've done a few rooms elsewhere and this was by far the best. Can't wait to come back and try the other room which will be opening soon. read more

This place is great! My cousins and I have done escape the rooms in Philly, Richmond and Faifax multiple times. This place was one of our favorites. We did "Excaliber" and the room was set so you felt like you were in a medevil time period. The puzzles were challenging and well thought out. There were also fun things thrown in that made the experience more interesting! Furthermore, the staff is very kind and the establishment is very clean and put together! Will definitely go back to complete the other rooms! read more