Had a great time with our 11 & 13 year old grandkids. This was a surprise for them. We wanted to find another activity as the Dunes were closed. They were not disappointed! We enjoyed it as well. We had the Mystery 80's rooms to ourselves and the guided clues presented were timed just right. read more

My wife and did all three of their rooms, and they're pretty solid - both in theme and difficulty. The only thing we didn't like was their hint system. Generally, most escape rooms will allow for hints when you ask for them. Here, you only get hints based on how you've progressed through the room. So there are situations where you'll go through a few clues and then get stuck on something. If you've progressed far enough, you may just wander around the room for five minutes before you get a clue. Other than this small issue, the rooms are fun and the staff are helpful. read more

This puzzle room is nicely located in downtown San Luis Obispo. It is part of a larger chain that does escape rooms. Their rooms are nice and well designed. The price is about average for what you would pay at most. This location is fairly new and the staff still has a bit of learning to do but they are pleasant none the less. Our group completed the room and had a wonderful time. We will be back! read more

This place was so fun!! The room was super well decorated and the puzzles were incredibly interesting. I'm definitely gonna go back with my friends and try them all!! Eric the owner was super nice to us and we won with 20 minutes to spare!! read more

For our grandson's 12th Birthday, family and friends headed to SLO for our first ever escape room experience, Aidan, three friends, grandparents, parents and uncle went to the two room challenge, Red room and blue room. It was FABULOUS with participation by every single person. Some solving puzzles, some working the combinations, timely hints on the screens, total involvement. Everyone of us highly recommend you do this. read more

Puzzle Effect - This is our Aidan's 12th Birthday escape room crew with photo taken in red room at The Puzzle Effect. - Escape Games Near Me - San Luis Obispo, California

What a great addition to downtown SLO! It's always been a great little downtown but not much to do once the bars get going except drink. This place totally changes that scenario. The rooms here are immersive, the puzzles are great, and the storylines are captivating. We did Grim Stacks, which was an excellent room (done quite a few). Great for families, date night, or a night on the town with friends. Check it out and I am sure you won't be disappointed. read more

Wow! This place exceeded all expectations that we had. My group had never done an escape room before and Jordan at the front was SO helpful and made our trip more fun! We were able to escape too which was exciting!!! Also, it's just so cool. Would recommend :) read more

Very fun, very friendly staff! Glad there is another escape room near me now! I did the pipe works room and it was pretty tricky but we still escaped with 12 minutes to go! Can't wait to come back for more. read more

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN! Thank you to Eric, who was our puzzle master. We had a blast, and our 8 year old son loved the experience here in his first escape room :) Not impossibly difficult, lots of interesting challenges, and some helpful and timely hints along the way. Thank you so much for a great experience! We have done many escape rooms, and this one is right up there with the best of them. If you are looking to try out an escape room, I highly recommend Puzzle Effects! read more

First escape room ever, and definitely won't be my last. The staff was amazing. The lady I spoke to over the phone was very nice and helpful, and I can say the same for the man at the front desk that helped us out in person when we arrived. I took my little sister here for a late birthday gift, and she absolutely loved it (she's 10.) Cant wait to do it again! read more

We did an new, outdoor puzzle last night that was AWESOME. Puzzle effect has done a lot to pivot their business model with strong considerations for social distancing during COVID. The outdoor experience was about two hours. We had a backpack filled with clues that we could only get to by running around downtown, getting clues, and cracking codes. 10/10 would recommend. Get your steps in while playing a game with your friends. Fun fun fun. If you like escape rooms, you'll like their fun, outdoor twist on them. read more

Had a blast, was my wife's birthday and she always wanted to do a puzzle room, and this place was amazing, we did the curse of the Emerald seas, and it was awesome great pirate themed room really difficult, got about 25% done before the hour was up, ask the lady there the completion rate , she said it was 5 to 10% rate, so pretty difficult but worth the money, totally recommend this place better to do it with more people but really fun just for a date night, great time. read more

We did Grim Stacks and it was super fun! Very interactive and challenging! The clues were very clear and the puzzles were just challenging enough!! Our game master was very nice too and was nice enough to let us know when we just simply did a lock wrong but had the right combo. We will definitely be coming back! Also, we did this room with only 4 people, 2 adults and two 13 year olds!! We all had the best time and are still talking about it! read more

Had a great experience! We had 8 people in our group and we chose the Pipe Works escape room. The staff was friendly and the rooms were engaging. We'll be back soon to try Curse of the Emerald Seas! read more

I have written 4 emails regarding a refund due to the coronavirus outbreak and you being closed. Your answering machine states to write an email and yet no one is responding to those emails. It has been a week and 2 days of me emailing.. very unprofessional to do!! read more

We love escape rooms, and Puzzle Effect is our absolute favorite. We have been missing them during the pandemic. I was so disappointed to miss the Labor Day weekend Prohibition outdoor "escape room" and was excited to see that they added another event the weekend of September 12-13. I managed to snag the last available slot, and my wife and I had a blast tracking down the gangsters who tried to pin their murder on Millie Mullins, threatening to keep her new speakeasy, The Moxie, from opening. The outdoor game was a walking tour of beautiful downtown SLO, solving puzzles to get combinations to unlock padlocks to open pockets on a backpack to get clues to the next destination. So much fun! Great experience. 10/10. Thank you Puzzle Effect for innovating in these challenging times. We can't wait to try the new room, The Reels, when you re-open. P.S. Kristen was an amazing host. read more

The escape room I did was so much fun! I can't wait to go back and try out their other ones. Kristen was so friendly too :)

The room we did was not bad. We were definitely challenged. Out "game master" made it more difficult. We were not told that we could ask for clues at any time. We had to wait for the person to share clues. One of our players left mid-puzzle. He sat in the lobby and out game master came and asked him if he was waiting for another room. The guy obviously had no idea who was in his room. He couldn't tell that we were clearly frustrated. Would recommend, just be wary of inattentive staff members read more

Awesome room! Group of 7 of us and the room and puzzles were very interesting and fun!

It was fun. Definitely would say to bring more than two people which is what we went in with. The room felt very immersive as far as the decor goes but the puzzles weren't as interactive as some of the other rooms I've done. I felt it was kind of hard to understand what connections to make at times like the clues didn't give us a clear path....which caused my boyfriend to get frustrated. Again, I think if I went with a bigger group i would've enjoyed it more. read more

We had a great time! Grimstacks was very fun. The room had great decorations and the clues were thought provoking and fun! Great staff.

Went to The Puzzle Effect for my son's birthday. First time in an escape room. Of course not knowing there were different levels, we had chosen the most difficult!!. It was really fun & we had a great time even though we didn't get out before our ship sank !!! . The staff was Awesome & we will definitely try again !! read more

This was such a fun escape room! We did the Curse on the Emerald Seas room and all the puzzles were complex and fun, yet solvable. We were successful and had a blast! Jordan was awesome. She was super friendly, helpful, and was an awesome puzzle master. We are planning to go again soon! read more

Amazing place! We booked for a 4:30 puzzle, and got stuck in traffic. They were so gracious that even when we called at 4:15, we could reschedule, not once, but twice, for no fee at all. This is just a microcosm of the amazing service at this place. Everyone was so friendly, and the puzzles were so intricate and well-made. The hour long puzzle flew by and you can expect to see me there soon! read more

The escape room design was challenging and creative and the facility was well-kept. We really appreciated the help and kindness from staff members and had an amazing time. :) read more

I've been to about 6 escape rooms throughout California and Grim Stacks was one of my least favorites. The decor was cool and the puzzles were challenging, but what I didn't like about it is that you have to depend on the clues that pop up on the TV screen too much. Some of the puzzles we were working on were so random that without the TV screen clue, you wouldn't have any idea what to do. The hints that popped on the screen should have been strategically integrated into the room somehow so that you could get the satisfaction of finding them and figuring the puzzle out by yourself instead of feeling like you were cheating by getting hints. Although this is the first room I've actually escaped from, it took about 10 hints to solve it. We usually get to the final door lock of most rooms with just 1 to 3 hints, so even though I've never escaped from those other rooms, I got a whole lot more satisfaction out of those rooms because I felt like our group solved the puzzles without help. read more