We had an amazing time at The Escape Game in Austin! TLDR: Highly recommend - You should play!!…read moreStaff were fantastic!! Toby was a very friendly and genuine game guide that made us feel great about our accomplishments and CJ was an awesome and generous host that got us hyped and left us feeling elated. I was visiting from The Bay Area, California for my birthday, and we decided to play The Heist. There were 5 of us, and 4 had played escape rooms before (not at this company). The room design was awesome, very intricate and detailed, and the puzzles were really well done and very fun (Zelda Ocarina of Time vibes in one puzzle). It had plenty of things for us to do and find solo, and then still come together to solve the puzzles as a group. We smoked it, escaping with over 20 minutes left, with no clues, so we were ecstatic! We got out of the room and much to my surprise they made me a hand-drawn birthday card!! So incredibly sweet, and totally made my day. Coming off of our high of escaping The Heist, we decided to try their hardest room, Prison Break (with a discount for playing same day!). We were split into two cells at first, which proved difficult because we weren't communicating as well as we should have been. We needed a little bit of guidance in the beginning, but once we were out of the cells we started working better as a whole team. The final room was my favorite, I completed a really cool chess puzzle and then there was a detailed bookcase one too that I managed to figure out! I personally felt very accomplished in this room and we managed to escape with around 7 minutes left! Overall, these rooms are meticulously designed and sets were immersive. The puzzles were clever and made you feel very smart when you figured them out, which made the rooms that much more fun. They really focus on teamwork, which amplifies the connection and good vibes of your friends and family. Guidance was kind and not overbearing, allowing you to struggle on your own before gently nudging you towards what was blatantly obvious in hindsight. You can tell that the staff there have a unique bond and really enjoy making the guests feel special. They made my birthday a super memorable one and I'm so happy I decided to come here. Please check them out, you'll be glad you did. My birthday was the bestest because of you all! Thank you so much Toby and CJ!!

We came here to celebrate a work team event and we had a blast. Such a nice experience, we had so…read moremuch fun playing "the playground". The place is great and well equipped with everything you need to escape the rooms the people in charge explained everything about the game and how it works. There's parking around the area and restaurants close by. We will definitely come back to play another game!

Wanted to try something new for date night. This was our first time here and had THE best time! My…read moreboyfriend and I completed Mansion Murder, with amazing help game masters! We will definitely be coming back!

Had a lot of fun playing this with 6 other friends! Teamwork definitely makes the dream work. We…read moredid it in 50 min. The staff was awesome, super friendly and they made it fun. Had a lot of fun playing this with 6 other friends! Teamwork definitely makes the dream work. We did it in 50 min. The staff was awesome, super friendly and they made it fun.

Had an amazing first time experience! Jay and krianna made…read morethis experience so smooth and so much fun for us. We can't wait to come back

Sunday marked a great one year with my current girlfriend and someone who means a lot to me. We had…read moreall these ideas on how to celebrate and spend time together, but the weather in the forecast really killed any ability to plan an outside adventure. Luckily, I had an ace up my sleeve and called an audible by suggesting the new Stranger Things: Catalyst experience at Sandbox VR. My girlfriend is a huge Stranger Things fan. It's one of the first shows she was following from the first season until the finale that she got to be a part of the zeitgeist with. The moment I suggested this, any other plan went out the window because to her, this was a must. This was not my first experience with a VR attraction. I got to try The Void when it was still in business at Disney Springs doing a Star Wars experience, and I remember having such a blast with it. This was my girlfriend's first time in a virtual reality space like this. Sandbox VR is the modern, surviving version of this doing a similar concept of suiting you up in a crazy VR suit with a headset, headphones, and a bunch of other bells and whistles before you enter a new world. The one thing that is different is that The Void had you walking through their space in their experience while here you're set in a box for the most part. Sandbox VR keeps you in one space for the entire duration and plays it out like a rail shooter arcade game. Different concepts, but both highly enjoyable. The staff were helpful in making sure we were all suited up and ready to go and we had our pictures taken right before they put us into the room. Once we had our headsets on, the experience started immediately. What's so fascinating about an experience like this is how immediate your brain just tells you that this is reality. You just believe what you're seeing is real. The avatar of my girlfriend is moving in real time, the catalyst is a tangible object I am holding. I am a Stranger Thing or whatever they call it. From the get-go, you are given a brief tutorial as a training and then suddenly the game goes from 0 to 100 and ramps up expeditiously. My girlfriend was hootin' and hollerin' the whole time as demogorgons (and democreatures as she calls them) were flying up on us and attacking us. You're genuinely in panic as these things get close to you. The anxiety feels real. The audio, the visuals, and everything in between just gets you immersed in it. The experience lasted about 30 minutes and by the end I was sweating profusely. I'm in pretty decent shape, but I was an absolute mess by the end. After all the equipment was taken off, we got sat next to a TV to show us our scores to see who leaves with bragging rights and is crowned the MVP (it was me by the way). On top of that, you are shown three videos of the VR experience that are recorded during your play. It scenes from the virtual world with a real camera that's pointed at you acting like a fool. Here, we got a dance scene from the end of the experience, a vertical video, and a horizontal trailer. Each were extremely humorous and given to us free of charge with our purchases. I know it works as free advertising for Sandbox VR to give you those videos to post online and all that jazz, but places like this still seem to charge for the memories. To get them included for free as a little keepsake is an incredible gesture and makes me want to try another experience. As for the videos themselves, they are still frying me, and I've watched them numerous times since the experience. If you are a Stranger Things fan, the Catalyst is a must-try. For someone who's only seen 3 episodes but has a good understanding of the show through osmosis from my girlfriend, I had a blast. Even if you're not a Stranger Things fan, there are 10 other experiences to try. The price with everything considered was pretty fair, and we truly had so much fun that I think it was worth it with what value we got out of it. The 20 second video we got of my girlfriend screaming the entire time might get played at our wedding one day. Who knows! RIYL: An experience out of this world

We love escape rooms and gave this one a go one Sunday…read more When we went it was an under sea submarine machine. It was a lot of fun with multiple rooms and a bunch of fun puzzles/clues. This was a very fun hour adventure - would highly recommend.

I went to Novel Escape to enjoy the 20,000 leagues under the sea experience with my book club…read more Seven of us decided to join, which is slightly more than they usually have for a room, but we weren't crowded as we enjoyed the experience the team that welcomed us when we arrived and helped with our experience with a lot of fun.

My son and his friends came here for his 13th birthday. I initially booked it for 4 people total…read morebut they were kind enough to let me add an additional person over the phone for a little more. I had no idea that there was going to be a live person as part of the room. My son and one friend absolutely LOVED the interactions with the zombie in the room. The other 3 friends however, were quite scared. I appreciate that they let my husband go into the room as "security" so that the others 3 boys would participate.

I took my wife here as one of the events we did for her birthday, and we had a ton of fun…read more First off, if you know what HOUSE OF TORMENT is, it turns out this place is connected to it! We seriously had no idea and it made our enjoyment even higher since we love going there every year. The zombie room was fun and scary especially since we had a zombie named Monty running around and scaring us while trying to solve puzzles. It's very hard to do puzzles while a zombie is chasing you, but we somehow made it out anyway. We didn't get to get to try the Houdini experience since we had other places to be, but we both wanna come back and try out that experience next time. If you're looking for a more interactive escape room with a full fledged zombie coming after you, then definitely go here.

Inside was extremely cozy and nice. Amazing stories! Room themes were very unique and fun! Staff…read morewere excellent! Loved it!!!!!

If you're looking to kill an hour of time, consider doing an escape room. If you're around central…read moreAustin, PanIQ Escape Room is a decent option. For $38 PP, we booked the Pirates of Tortuga room about two hours ahead of game time and lucked out with having the room all to ourselves. Parking is easy on a Saturday afternoon for this very convenient location. Compared to the many other rooms we've played in and outside of town, this one was pretty mid. I liked the general flow of the room but thought production value really dampened the overall experience and made it less immersive. Mechanics/equipment of the puzzles were worn down or finicky, decorations were minimal, and service was lackluster - felt a bit like we were being hurried into and out of the room. It would definitely help to have more lighting in the room, too. That said, there were some interesting puzzles that tickled my brain and required good ol' teamwork with the husband. The lobby and bathrooms were well maintained which is always nice. We may return for a different room!

Came here with my daughter and her friends to let off a little steam. Our group had 4 people total…read moreand what I found impressive was the amount of breakable items they had out for us to break. This place doesn't skimp out! They give you 25 min but we were going through everything pretty quickly! They also had some file cabinets and old PC's for you to continue to smash through. The staff was very friendly, they automatically give you a speaker to connect your music to. Definitely recommend checking them out. Note: it does get warm in the room so dress appropriately since you will be given a jumpsuit. Also make sure you're wearing closed toe shoes. You'll have protective ear, head and face gear which will be needed since glass is jumping everywhere!

I had a lot of fun breaking stuff here. I was given protective gear including a helmet with a…read moreplastic protector for the face, gloves and clothing. The guys in the front desk were very friendly, they let us connect to their speaker through Bluetooth and I played some hard rock music that I found fitting for the occasion. The session lasts 25 minutes. I added 2 TVs to smash, those are very hard to break since they only have metal bars and not sledgehammers as other rage rooms, I'd avoid purchasing them as extra next time. The guys were nice and gave me an extra computer monitor to break, it was fun! They also have 1 fridge and a broken washer that you can smash. Very therapeutic!

I've gone here twice now. The first time was with staff is a bit of a team builder. The owners were…read moresuper helpful and getting everything set up and helping us to choose games that were great for us. We did two different games and broke up into two different groups and had a blast over the years I've done several escape rooms, but nothing like this. We finished having a drink and some pizza that again the owners helped with coordinating. All in all everyone had a good time and I even came back with my family.

Great place for video game lovers. Took our teenagers but they said games at home are better. With…read morethat being said would not go return.