Our first escape adventure and glad we started here! We called to book available time and paid when arrived. Very informative and friendly! We were given an hour for the escape room to solve the mystery. Total was $160 for 4 heads. We started with the Scoops Ahoy room which was fun! It was hard but the employee helped us with hints anytime we got stuck. She was great! Love how it's located in the mall. After we escaped, we went up to the food court for lunch/dinner. They are located right near the the escalators- opposite side of Macy's. read more

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Unfortunate experience overall. I feel for the one employee who was probably overwhelmed and understaffed - but they were (barely) managing maybe multiple games. Rough from start to "finish"- the lack of a real intro (they showed us how props worked and gave too many clues away), and some of the locks/puzzles were still open or not fixed from the previous groups. When we asked for hints, it was hard to get responses since they were multitasking and managing other groups (they had to also come in the room physically which broke immersion) we also needed a ton of hints since the room mechanisms were really old and didn't work properly half the time + sometimes we had the puzzles figured out too, but the solve methods didn't make sense or didn't flow at all. We've done many escape rooms before too, and expected a level of quality that comes with the hefty price. Rooms were very dusty and dirty as well, doesn't seem like it's ever maintained, and just hastily thrown together. Finally, as we were solving the rooms in order, we literally heard other groups behind us doing the room we just left - totally ruins the immersion. If the room had been set up fully from the start - fine, not terrible, but this part really made it unprofessional and overall ruined the experience, and we didn't really want to continue after the first room + we "finished" overtime but since there was 0 time tracking or timer, we didn't know, so it felt very disappointing and unsatisfactory. Shocked at the good reviews, maybe we got an off day but this location needs an update badly and more staffing. Would not recommend to escape room lovers if you care about quality and immersion. read more

My husband and I did the Scoops Ahoy escape room this past week and it was the worst room we've ever done.. We've done over 30. Everything was jenky, broken or looked destroyed. It was ran by 2 kids that were super unprofessional. When we asked for help they weren't paying attention and giving us clues to what we already did. The combo locks need replacement, spent so much time doing the same codes over and over.. When we were right they still didn't work. Only escape room we've ever failed but of course they offered to let us to continue if we paid more.. Which makes sense but... It felt like a scam, not sure how anyone makes it to the second room with the lack of good clues, relevant clues or anything that made sense at all. Scoops Ahoy should have been the coolest one we ever did, such a disappointment on our trip. Save your money, this place is junk. read more

I prepaid online for five 14 years olds to do an escape room experience. On the day of our reservation we showed up and were told by the employee that she would not let the boys in as they were not 16. We checked the online rules and it states "under 13 must be accompanied by an adult). She still said no as she was not comfortable with it. This is a very poor business process as she also told me I couldn't get a refund. How can she possibly deny entry on age when it clearly states the kids are old enough. She called the manager and they told her not to let me in. In the end the kids went in without an adult. This was very stressful, won't go back. read more

First off I have to say that I was impressed with what they were able to do with the space given them. There not much of a lobby per se as they sacrificed that to give their players a richer experience and I'd say it was a good decision. My friend and I signed up for the jailbreak escape room and we were the only people for the room. They rated the room an 8 out of 10 and I'd definitely give it a legit 8 out of 10. The lovely girl at the front was a treat to interact with and made the experience even more pleasant despite the group doing the scoops away constantly ringing for assistance. If you enjoy escape rooms, I'd definitely spend some time and money at this place. You will not feel cheated. Also I can't wait for the newest room they have coming!! read more

Did the Stranger Things room...was not a fan at all. Puzzles were not well thought out or intuitive and the woman running it started our timer and then spent 2 solid minutes taking before she let us actually start. Straight up had to guess the answer to one of the puzzles because there was nothing in the room that actually gave an answer, problem with props not working, clues were useless and not given in a timely manner. Was a mess. read more

Poor quality props. Lots of broken stuff. It was not made clear to us how much we needed to know the TV show before we began the game. We were encouraged to use our phones for QR codes; what if we left them all in the car on purpose? Staff is expected to watch more than one room at a time, meaning you don't get the attention or hints you may be wanting. Not clean. Wont return here. read more

We found this escape location just walking in the mall. We took my husband for his birthday. We were welcomed and informed of both their rooms. She explained which she thought we should do. We chose the Mission Lights Out. There was 3 of us and we were tight in there until other doors opened. I can't see 6-8 ppl fitting in there working on the escape without stepping on each other. It was 7/10 difficulty, just enough for us as we are amateurs. She helped us throughout and at times we felt it was too soon but thankful for it. More people will drop the cost down. It was fun. Look forward to the 9/10 as we get stronger at escape rooms. No phones or cameras allowed during your escape time. I recommend. read more

My husband and I are amateur escape room connoisseurs and I have to say First Empire was one of our favorites. It was very immersive, so creative, and damn clever. It was harder than many we've done in the past, and we did need 3 clues, but we are always up for a challenge. Highly recommend. Bonus points: the owners love what they do and chatted with us afterward about their process. Super cool! read more

We are escape room veterans and were disappointed in the quality of this location. Some of the puzzles were broken and the staff were extremely busy running the front desk, fixing props and also running our game. Hints were not given promptly and we got stuck on several puzzles that should have worked the first time. Definitely would not recommend until technical issues are fixed. read more

We got stuck for twenty minutes on a lock combination we were getting correct until a lady staff member finally came in and tried with her cheat sheet, and couldn't open it either, so she just told us the clue it would have unlocked. We didn't finish in time likely because of the time lost, we were told by a male who came in we had two puzzles left. We asked him to open it and he told us he wouldn't open it in front of us. After we left to the lobby, he came out and said it worked just fine. When we questioned him why his coworker couldn't open it, he said he was more "mechanically inclined" which probably meant he reprogrammed it in there. Then proceeded to say smugly we weren't doing it right even though we did the first omnidirectional lock just fine. If Any one want some free tickets for some broken escape rooms, I got some. read more

First Empire Escape Rooms - Coupons for our bad experience - Escape Games Near Me - Santa Rosa, California

I am so pleased with the outcome of our daughter's 8th birthday party. Everyone had a wonderful time and I will do this again in the future. I can not say enough about the help they provide to set up and support the guest. There were 15 kids (lots of parents too) and Thomas our helper did a great job with the game "the floor is lava". He also helped me get all my stuff to the car afterwards. The owners of this establishment are pros and made sure we had everything set up for the different stages of events/timeline. Best money I ever spent on two hours of pure joy and fun. I would recommend this place to everyone I know to check this place out if they ever need a place with full services including cleaning up after! Thank you for the memories! read more

Loved this place! Decided to come here as it seemed to be the only local escape room with a horror theme to it (we chose the asylum) The gentleman running the place when we went in was incredible. Very helpful before entering the room and created a great vibe from start to finish. Puzzles weren't too easy, or thoughtless. There was real effort put into it. The room even had some real great scares! Went in a group of 5 and went just over 1 hour mark, but they were kind enough to even let us finish solving the room. They have a wizard themed room that they suggest bring done in a very large group that we hope to come back and do some day, and they have space to host parties as well. Highly recommend! read more

We've done a lot of escape rooms. Overall, this one was a disappointment. A lot of the issues is related to the fact that they only have one employee to handle everything. This means she was at the front taking calls, receiving guests while the play was going on in the back. Hints were provided but was not prompt (when requested) and seemed out of context. The escape room had some interesting challenges but overall, we felt it was trying too hard to be challenging without thinking about being creative/fun. I would pass on this location until they resolve these issues. read more

Pre-booked the Asylum Hill room for my birthday morning. Had fun. Booked the Mission Impossible room same day (like 3 hours before) for my birthday evening. Asylum: pros - a lot of fun and perfect for spooky season. Cons - at the slightest sign of our group starting to struggle with a clue, the game masters would either physically come into the room or speak through the intercom to tell us how to solve the clue. I personally like to be immersed in the room experience and struggle a bit to get the clues right... and we all felt the frequency of their interactions took some of the fun and feeling successful out of it. We still had a lot of fun, but felt like we weren't free to figure everything out. We felt that their level of interaction made it seem like we were testing the room for them, rather than paying to play. Other pro: game masters took our photo (on their request) and shared it with us right away so we could enjoy that memory. Mission Impossible: pros - easier, less game master interaction. Cons - by less game master interaction I mean practically zero. We completed the mission and were calling out to the game master to confirm if we ended because there was ZERO interactions. It got to a point where I was holding the final object up to each camera trying to get the game masters attention. The mission impossible theme music was loud and plays the entire time (so if you don't like repetitive noise, be forewarned). There was also a doubled up clue - where we accessed a lock with one clue but was apparently supposed to find that same clue from a different location. The game master seemed a little annoyed with us that we were explaining how we solved the clue. Other con: we asked the game master to take our photo (as our first room they took our photo and it had the cool Asylum background and we hoped for one with the Mission Impossible background as our group from that room was different than the Asylum room), and they seemed annoyed. The game master took the picture and then said they'd send it to the email on file (which would've been mine). It's been 2 weeks. It's still not been sent. I reached out a day or two after, because it was part of my birthday weekend and I wanted to have that little memory. The response I got was that the business was so incredibly busy the day we went that they couldn't send it and that they'd get around to it. (They weren't busy - at all! We went twice that day - once being last minute... the entire mall was pretty dead that day - we spent quite some time in it, we'd know). My frustration isn't so much about the picture at this point - I'd rather just be told no, instead of being lied to. So between the inconsistent game mastering, and the whole second room picture debacle / response... I give 3 stars. read more

Great experience and awesome staff! No time limit and they will help you whenever you need. We had fun in both escape rooms.

The actual escape room part was really good pretty fun with clever puzzles. Had to wait a bit because behind schedule but it was fun waiting and playing the games. We went in the escape room and it was pretty great, had to get help from a really petty guy. He was acting like we were dumb and very condescending. We got our escape room switch because of time and it sucked. The guy made my friend feel dumb and ashamed on her birthday. read more

Super fun entertainment and very inviting staff. Perfect idea for a birthday celebration. I will definitely be going go back!