Horrible! First, we could not get into the building as it was locked and no one was outside to let us in. When we finally got in (after a few mins had lapsed someone who was going into the building let us in), we informed the staff that we couldn't get into the building and they claimed a code was sent to our emails for building entry. FAIL I searched my email in front of the staff and pulled up the only emails that I had received and NOTHING. This had caused me and an acquaintance to arrive about 8 minutes after our scheduled session was to begin. Then, during our "Escape the Room" experience, a computer in the vault did not work. I had put the clue together amongst my peers in the room and I had attempted to get the computer to work when we had roughly 35 mins left in the challenge. When there was about 8 mins left, the moderator came in the room to check the computer, only to realize it wasn't working! He put that clue on a digital display, but b/c the computer clue was integral to the remaining clues, we didn't finish the challenge before our time was up. We also discovered a clear film that was supposed to be in the clues was not present in either chamber of the 'Escape Room'. The moderator looked for it after our challenge ended and never found it. I am CERTAIN it was not there! 2 glitches that were integral to a quality "Escape the Room Experience"???? I was pissed off! I asked the moderator to correct the glitches by offering us an opportunity to return for another challenge at another date/time and he refused! I'd stay away! We paid over $30 each for a tainted experience??! UNACCEPTABLE! read more

This was so much fun! I came here with a group of people for a friend's birthday. Running around he room trying to find clues was a lot of fun, and it wasn't terribly difficult. The only problem I have about this place was that some of the clues were open when they weren't supposed to be, so the person monitoring our room had to come in and lock everything up. Other than that, all of us had a great time, and we escaped with literally 2 minutes before the time was up!! read more

Here's the skinny: great concept, great location, however, currently only two challenges to pick from and once you have done both of those challenges you are left waiting for another or visiting other locations unfortunately. I will say that I did find the customer service of the clue master and check to be top notch. Everyone was really polite and all challenges were tough but not impossible which made the game pretty fun. I would recommend bringing your own group of friends as oppose to joining a random group. Nothing wrong with joining a random group if you have too but you will have the instant clash of all the different personalities in the room which could slow your progress down a little bit if your a newbie and the others are somewhat experienced. One big tip for anyone looking to seriously pass each challenge, don't bar crawl before lol...another big tip is the entire game is meant to have fun and I certainly did, can't wait to go back... read more

Fun experience! Came with a Groupon and the staff was very friendly - it's a tad expensive but almost all escaperooms are. They give you hints if needed over the loudspeaker and you can take fun pictures after! read more

I played "The Agency" with a group of friends. I was amazed how much fun I had, and how we were all engaged every minute for the entire hour. To be honest, I was skeptical whether this would be cheesy, but I went along. I'm so glad I did, because this whole concept is implemented in such an effective way, it really works. I would recommend this to any group of friends or colleagues who enjoy thinking and a little adrenaline. read more

Fantastic time! I highly recommend Escape A Room. My wife and I tried it for the first time yesterday at their D.C. location, and it was a lot of fun. We did "the Dig" with eight randoms and had a blast. You have 60 minutes to work through some non-linear clues to eventually get the key that unlocks the door. Only 20% of teams succeed. We made it out in 59 minutes and 44 seconds. read more

Definitely lots of fun! We went as a work group and it was challenging even for Business Analysts

Some friends were coming to visit and asked if we had ever done an escape room challenge. We have never done on and after looking at the options in the DC area we decided on escape the room. There were 6 of us and we decided to do the agency room. It was difficult but so hard you couldn' t figure the clues out. When you got stumped we were given clues to help point you in the right direction. We did escape! With 7 minutes to spare. We will be back to do another room. read more

Our group had a great experience trying to escape The Agency. This was my first escape room so I have nothing to compare it to, but overall we had a fun time. Our group of 4 got paired with a random group of 4, and we all worked well together. We didn't take it too serious, which allowed us to have fun with it, but serious enough that we tried to solve all the puzzles. We didn't manage to escape the room but were extremely close. I will say that we definitely would not have gotten to where we did without the hints given throughout the challenge. Not sure it was worth the $30/person but I think that's the going rate for these things. Also as a heads up, use the call box to get into the building. read more

I organized a staff retreat at Escape the Room and it was amazing. We have 40 people and Mike and the team opened at 9 am to accommodate us. Bakri and Taylor were great clue masters and helped us negotiate a large number of people and catering in a small space. Everyone here is very friendly and flexible, they will make sure your event is just right. Our staff loved both of the rooms (Agency and Dig), they were all able to escape with time to spare and said it helped them with their teamwork skills. Can't wait until Mission Control opens! read more

This place only gets five stars because I can't give ten! Hands down most creative escape room I've done! Cluemaster was helpful without just giving everything away. Hopefully going back for another room soon. read more

The reason for the 1 star is because I had accidentally booked the wrong day for my fiancées surprise birthday gathering and immediately called Escape the room to try to correct it and rebook for the correct day but I wasn't able to get a hold of anyone so I left a voicemail. To prevent the actually day from being completely booked I just went ahead and scheduled again and paid a little over $300 both times (the wrong date and the actual day of the celebration). I figured hey it was an accident I'm sure they will just return my money back. Fast forward to the next day I didn't get a call back so I just went ahead and called them again. I believe I had spoke with the manager and I was told that it was ok and that the money would be returned. They never returned the money so I went ahead a filled a dispute with PayPal and they did return the funds but then the money was removed again because of escape room. I am very upset about this, they are extremely dishonest. I will no longer support this business nor will I recommend anyone of my friends and family. It's so unfortunate that this had to happen, I wish they handled things better. read more

We had a great time- 9 of us in "The Agency" with ages ranging from 11 to mid 50's and all of us were fully engaged and helped solve the puzzles and figure out the clues to get out with 4 minutes to spare! Highly recommend for a fun family/friends activity. read more

Done The Agency last year in July (It was still new at that time!), going to do The Dig this week and am overly excited. We did not finish the Agency last time since we forgot to look at the tip given to us... but we almost made it! This place is well-designed and puzzles are carefully created. Much much better than the escape room live DC, like if this one is a 8/10, live is at most 3/10. I can see the efforts been put into the design of the rooms. Highly recommend read more

What an amazing adventure! I went with friends for my sister's bachelorette party and it was a blast. No, we didn't escape and turns out we weren't as close as we thought (we were frantically trying to finish the last puzzle because we thought that was it...nope!). I loved the hints, we got stuck on one puzzle for a very long time so we received multiple hints for that and a small part of me wish the final hint came earlier...but others liked not being told too soon so it all depends. I recommend finding a group of friends so you know everyone in the room. It was nice knowing everyone so we could divide and conquer and assign jobs to people. We loved our moderator Jacqui, she was awesome, fun, and friendly. I hope to have her again next time we go. read more

I have been to 4 escape Rooms now. I did mission control at Escape Room DC. I can not comment on their other rooms, but this was by far the worst experience I had at an escape game. It was completely linear, the puzzles were not creative and the staff seemed unhelpful. I would not recommend mission control. read more

Call before because what you see online isn't what is available. We got there and thy booked a private party but didn't block off their schedule online. read more

Avoid this Room! Last week I intended on having a fun and interactive date with my girlfriend, however due to lack of oversight and rude staff it turned into a nightmare. When we arrived we were told that we were to be paired with a three other adults and 2 young children. Now I am sure you can imagine that getting trapped in a small room with misbehaving children isn't an ideal situation, however once you book the tickets it is very apparently there are no refunds. So we decided to grin and bare it. This was akin to be locked in airplane for an hour as the children ran around ransacking the room and pressing all the buttons. The fact that we were relegated to effectively watching these children, ruined the entire experience. I understand that this is a family friendly experience, but no effort was made to accommodate us at all. When we were finally freed from our confinement, a member of the staff, Jaqi, asked how the experience went. When my girlfriend replied that it unfortunately was not very enjoyable, Jaqi went off on a tirade on how this was a family friendly event and yelled at my girlfriend for being dissatisfied with the experience. This berating went on for over 10 min and brought my girlfriend to tears. I was so enraged by the situation that I called the manager, who assured me that she would email me an apology. This however never came and again speaks to the poor level of service at this establishment. In terms of content, while my experience was limited it seemed about a 3. I was not blown away by the puzzles (and one of them was broken when I went through so the hastily replaced it with haphazard padlock). The entire experience was shameful and not worth it. I guess there was a reason 2 of the other places I tried were sold out. read more

Four friends and I went to Escape the Room for my husband's birthday. We had a blast. I definitely think the gaming is best with a group of people. Lexi was our "game master." She was great and helped us when needed. I definitely recommend asking for clues. Don't what to long as your time may run out. We accomplished our mission with 7 seconds to spare. We will definitely do this again. read more

What I was most worried about before I went here was that it would be too easy (since the promotional stuff shows kids, etc.). But I was very pleasantly surprised that the level of difficulty was medium-difficult. I would have preferred very difficult, but I won't hold that against them because I'm sure most people would prefer easier. There were some technical problems with the countdown clock and "clue displayer", which were worked around in a manual way. I do not like that clues were given at all. Perhaps it should be an option? I highly recommend the experience, and will be back again. The props and production values were excellent. read more

I went with a group of friends just for fun a few nights ago (we did The Dig) and it was so much fun! The room can accommodate up to 10 people but we had 5 and that was a perfect number for us. The puzzles were fun and it was just the right amount of challenging but not impossible. I would highly recommend! It was also really helpful that they had someone monitoring our progress who could give us hints when we needed them. And since they were just projected onto a screen (with a few chimes to let us know there was a new clue) we had the option of looking at it if we wanted to or not looking at it if we didn't want a hint. And though we looked every time, it was nice that we had the option! That being said, I probably wouldn't bring any kids under the age of 12. Some of the puzzles are a little more complicated and I don't think young kids would do well with this. I think it would be a bit frustrating for them and then, when they couldn't really participate, kinda boring. But for anyone else, it's super fun and I would definitely suggest giving this a try! read more

Definitely not worth $30. Not sure what justifies that price. $15 would be a fair price. Reminds me of the kind of activity you'd do in Cub Scouts. But people these days are desperate for distraction, so places like these fill that niche. read more

We brought our family of 9 ranging from ages 8 - 45+ and did the "Dig" room. It was an Indiana Jones themed room. It was an amazing experience. The room was well decorated with fun and surprising clues. Everyone participated and contributed to escaping the room successfully! Our host was wonderful and gave us clues at just the right times so that we didn't get frustrated. Would definitely recommend it. I have done other escape rooms and this was the best so far! read more

This was my second Escape the Room experience and it was better than the first! I highly recommend The Agency scenario. In addition, the staff were great and it is easy to get to the location. read more

Heather from Escape The Room was the perfect example of customer service. I had to call with a unique situation and cannot express how much I appreciated her help. I have not actually gone yet, but needed to express my gratitude to her and Escape the Room. I look forward coming in the future. Thank you again. read more

Compared to the other escape rooms in the area, the pricing and the room are nothing too special. I was severely disappointed in the layout of the room. I've been in rooms with props and gadgets galore and this room looked like it was put together an hour before we got there. I'm talking like-- one table, two chairs, standard key, numerical, and alphabetical locks. That's pretty much it along with a couple twists. Some of the puzzles flat out did not make sense. Deliberately misleading and not in the fun, adventurous way, but in the tear out your hair way. Which brings me to my biggest contention point- the game master. In addition to looking like this was the worst job on the planet to her, she was not responding to our requests for clues. DO NOT TELL THE GROUP IT IS UNLIMITED CLUES AND THEN NOT GIVE THEM WHEN ASKED. We felt ignored. I will not return and would not recommend this to anyone. Save your money! read more

This was our first escape room experience and we had a great time! The puzzles and sets were more intricate and exciting than we expected. We look forward to coming back to this location! read more

Excellent room! (Secret mission) I've been to 10 escape rooms before, and that was definitely the most challenging and interesting one. I came with 2 members and we were paired with other 3 members (so in total we were 6). The room is suitable for up to 8 people. The riddles were really challenging, but when we got a little stuck, the operator of the room helped us to get back on track. We got to the final room and were like 5 minutes away from finishing the game, but unfortunately didn't (this is the first time it's happening to me!). Over all I really enjoyed the experience and would totally recommend it to other people. read more

Great fun! Challenging but attainable! A test of memory, problem solving and thinking. Work together! Divide and conquer. Awesome time had by all! read more

To celebrate the 50th birthday of a dear friend, four of us came and played at Escape the Room the The Agency room. Jamie was our host and he was awesome! In playing our game we definitely needed some help. Jamie was very kind in giving us a few hints to move us in the right direction. We didn't "win", but had a fun time in "losing". I would highly recommend this game for anyone who is looking for a different outing with their friends/family. Escape the Room spent a lot of time and effort building The Agent. It's an impressive game and hopefully I'll play better next time! read more

I have done several other escape rooms and this one was impressive! I did "The Dig" and without giving anything away, this one had more 'effects' and surprises than any other one I have done. We had a group of 4 and we almost escaped, but I think if we'd had 6 we could have made it. Any more than 6 would have been a bit crowded though (in terms of space and puzzles to work on), especially in the beginning. The only negative points were: they did not explain the room to us or give any theme/ story, we were simply walked to a room and locked inside, which took away from the ability to get really into the mentality of needing to escape. Also, there were clues provided on a TV which were sometimes helpful, but sometimes unnecessary, generic or at worst distracting. I would have much preferred less clues that I could really consider instead of a new clue every minute or two. but perhaps you can specify that with your guide before beginning the game. Overall a positive experience, suggested for room escape veterans and novices alike. read more

I took my 12 year old daughter and her friends there for her birthday. The person who was in charge of their time, giving clues etc, was outright rude during their hour to a group of excited, happy girls. There was a responsible adult from our group in there with them - the kids were loud, but they were not misbehaving and she told me independently that the person was rude (I was sad to hear it first from my daughter). Outside the room, one of the people who worked there commented to me that there was a bunch of "excitable girls" in the room (clearly disapproving), not knowing that I was the mom of the birthday girl and I'd brought them. So, I do not recommend Escape the Room for a kids' party if you expect your kids to get excited about a game you have paid lots of money for them to play. Escape the Room should make it clear if they only want adults - given the number of kids who are interested in having parties at these places I wish them luck if they can't handle a group like ours without insulting the customer and disappointing the birthday girl. read more

My second Escape the Room experience, as the first was the one in Old Town, Alexandria. A lot of fun and I highly recommend it as a group activity for birthdays or just something you and your friends can do. We did the Agency room, which has a spy/secret agent/James Bond theme. Essentially you are "locked" in the room and must use all the clues scattered/hidden/baked into puzzles around the room to solve the case, get the key and escape. It is very challenging but the clue master will chime in with hints on the TV screen to keep you on the right path. I was quite impressed by the creativity behind most of the clues and how a lot of them were integrated. My main pointers would be to come early (you only have a set amount of time in the room and you don't want to waste it by listening to instructions), split up (there are a LOT of clues) and share information with everyone (especially if you're doing this with strangers, don't worry though as everyone bonds over the "mission" really quick). Oh, and we escaped :) read more

So my brother and I did The Agency room. Unfortunately we were grouped with 8 other people even though the max number of people was supposed to 8. This was due to some kind of malfunction in one of the other rooms. While the room was fun and the puzzles were creative and interesting it was ultimately the other people in the event that essentially ruined the experience for us. Our group consisted of my brother and I, two teenagers, a mother and daughter, and 4 20 somethings. The teenagers and mother/daughter were awesome. They helped find clues, were kind to us and others, and were overall very pleasant to be around. The 20 somethings arrived 15 minutes late, were rude and belligerent, and did not provide information to the group. They also pocketed one of the clues making it impossible for us to continue the room until a clue master brought a replacement. The way I would best describe this is as follows; would you want to be locked in a room with 6 random people off the streets of the DC Metro area? What are the odds that all 6 of those people are going to be pleasant? Not likely. Ultimately, I would like to go back and try another room but I would not recommend you go unless you have a group of at least a group of 4-6. I would love to adjust this review after a second experience. read more