Follow IG: EscapeMattster for my escape chronicles ;) SECRETS OF THE ILLUMINATI // Grade: B "...Enjoyable experience, would recommend." This review is for "Illuminati". See previous for "CSI" and "Trapped". I had returned to Puzzle Workshop for my third and final escape room "Secrets of the Illuminati" today. Having done 2 of the other rooms, I continually got surprised by each visit. None of my expectations were truly met with reality; funny how things turned out. To be more specific, I thought I figured it out: the approximate number of puzzles we'd be facing, the dreaded "killer puzzle" (more on that later), and the works. Oh man, was I wrong. The only thing I was right was that I'd have a grand time ;P Before moving forward, I want to sincerely say that this room is rated 4 stars wholeheartedly. I undoubtedly recommend everyone to try it. However, I would also be the most critical when reviewing my final room because there were issues that came up that made game play frustrating. If the review sounds "whiny", just be aware, I still like the room and it's said in good spirits. Now... Upon entering the room, visually, I was not disappointed. The decor, furniture choices, and overall vibe fit into the story perfectly this time. The plot line was also strongest of the 3, explaining elegantly why you only had 1 hour to work with. Sadly, there were random drawers lying around on the floor messily, for no apparent reason, in latter part of the game. Having them arranged in an actual dresser would do wonder to the scenic. The beautiful atmosphere came with a price, however. Partially why such immersion was achieved was the result of intentional dim lighting. And while it certainly enhanced the look, it hindered the first few puzzles that required visual inspection. Because certain puzzles required intense detective work by the eyes, the lighting didn't cut it! Am I aging badly? Or did PW provide inadequate light sources? Lol. We lost a whopping 20 minutes or more due to this, and we were fully aware of the logic of the solutions to the puzzles from the beginning. So my humble suggestion would be, provide more strategic lighting onto your target items, so they can be seen with clarity, or lighten up the hue/color of the items themselves to compensate. At this point of the game, however, one thing was obvious: "Illuminati" featured less number of puzzles, but difficulty was amp-ed up. This stayed true throughout the course of the game. Guys, this room is difficult. Imo, all 3 are challenging, but it definitely goes from Illuminati, then CSI, then Trapped. In the literal middle of the game, we encountered one of our "wow!" moments. The simplicity and the elegance usage of tech was beautifully demonstrated and executed. I didn't have as numerous "wow" moments today, but the theme of the room was the most intact, and the sense of achievement upon completing hard puzzles was consistent and constant. Having played 3 rooms, I knew each room would have a "killer puzzle" that would required the most brain juice and time. From reading other Yelp reviews, I was expecting a Sudoku style puzzle to be it. When actually coming upon this puzzle, it was actually quite enjoyable, well put together, and truthfully, FUN. It was good! Then we saw some pretty neat puzzles that were more physical. I was actually good at these! Another "wow" moment was recorded in my memory. Then came the horror--the actual "killer puzzle" revealed itself!!! The complexity of this puzzle and the expected time to completion were just beyond my comprehension. I didn't understand why PW insisted on putting this type/category of puzzle in a timed game; and PW did it in all 3 games?! It's almost like a signature... This "Illuminati" one took the cake though. Having already spent 80% of our time, coming upon this gigantic roadblock at near ending was more distracting & discouraging than fun. I again humbly suggest the same puzzle to be simplified or modified to fit the time limit better. My excellent teammate(s) were able to solve it in time with clues provided. (Same clue system used in this game; unlimited clues provided when asked.) However, she was severely stressed out during the game, which caused her to remain mentally unstable post-game. XD All in all, what a playfully excruciating & thrilling way to conclude my game trios. Part of the problem stemmed from our choice to face the challenge with a measly 3 people. Having 4-5 "thinking brains" might yield a more pleasant experience. Finally, a fun fact! This room's entrance was actually unlocked during the entirety of the game. You can exit for emergency reasons. My own preference would be for the company to actually lock up the door with a back-up fail-safe exit button like the other rooms; it does add on to the experience, imo. Lastly, I gonna miss this venue until the 4th future room is introduced, which won't be for a long while, it seems... Sadness :[ read more

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Such fun!!! Great way to celebrate a birthday. We recommend! Puzzle was challenge but still fun.

Me and my friends had a really great time! We really loved our GM Krista, she was super kind and helped explain everything clearly. We chose mission to the stars which was the most difficult but we still loved the experience regardless. It was a really cool theme/interesting plot and it was high tech, totally worth your time. The puzzles were a bit difficult for us but we had received hints that helped afterwards, we are already planning to try the other rooms! read more

We did the Mission to the Stars room and it was unlike any escape room we've been to before. The room was SUPER COOL and the puzzles were really challenging. Krista was our GM and was super nice and made the experience really fun. Def will come back for another room. read more

Our Gamemaster Markus was a wonderful host and took great care of us. We did CSI: Hollywood - puzzles were challenging but not impossible. Props were quality, pre-game preparation properly set the stage for 60 minutes of mind-wracking fun for our group of 4, including one newbie. All had fun. We even got mini Kodak photos to take home as souvenirs. Highly recommend!!! read more

This was a great experience and Brian made it so pleasurable. We are coming back to do the rest of the rooms.

We did the Illuminati escape room last night for my husbands birthday and it was so hard but so fun! We only did it with four people and it's only the second time we've ever not escaped but it was still so much fun! I definitely recommend doing it with more people cause there was a lot to solve! But the room was really cool and the staff was super friendly! Definitely would come back to try their other rooms! read more

Booked a 1 hour escape room "Trapped in Time" with 6 of my colleagues for a mini company activity. They are located in a business complex and have 2 spaces next door to each other. Be sure to read the sign on the door and enter the one you signed up for. We signed a waiver and were given brief instructions. The waiting room is rather small, has 1 bathroom, and we stood around a bit awkwardly. Based on the entrance and waiting room's presentation, I didn't have high expectation. It would've been nice if they had some small riddles or puzzles while we waited in order to warm us up. We were then led to a small dorm room and the time started. There's a flat screen TV mounted on the wall which has a timer (60 minutes). There are camera in the room so the workers are watching you from another room. One thing I really liked is you can talk into the camera and ask for help/hints. They will then type out hints on the TV screen. We were 2 clues away from finishing, but more importantly, all of us had a great time. The clues were creative and became progressively more challenging, and the props were interesting and well thought out. Out of the 7 people in our group, I was the only one who had done an escape room before. And, 3 were nonnative English speakers yet still had a great time and were able to contribute. It's best to do escape rooms with private parties, and I would recommend this place to anyone. Everyone in my group said they want to come back and try again. read more

Still have not been super impressed with the Escape rooms in SoCal so far. The ones I been to in Toronto are without hesitation much better in puzzles, creativity, and uniqueness. I'm a fan of good use of space and environments where I feel immersed into the game. Too many places in Socal including this one are simply obviously rented out office spaces (box rooms with decorations). Also what I don't like are lack of rooms for each game. The ones I been to are at a mininum 4 rooms in each game. The ones here and most of Socal are like 2 rooms max or sometimes 1.5 which I'm not a fan of. Some may argue it's not about the rooms and about the puzzles in each room but I'm talking about similar amounts of puzzles but more rooms! Plus the prices in Socal are like $30+ and I'm paying $20 for much better rooms in Toronto so that adds to the disappointment. I'm paying more but for a far less premium experience. The ones that I have really enjoyed in Toronto actually rent out empty warehouse spaces and come up with rooms from scratch (no fixed room dimensions), none of this box/office space rooms. If there are escape rooms that don't look like an office space I'd love to try those out. I tried the Illuminati room as apparently that's their most popular one here. Game was alright with interesting puzzles but focussed too much on finding codes to unlock lock boxes to progress further and another requiring to do some math calculations on a board. One of the sensors to progress further was flaky so it kind of soiled the experience as we knew what we needed to do was correct but because of the technology they used which was not reliable caused us to be confused and delayed our finish time. For the price we paid I had much higher expectations. This place didn't even know what the records were and they don't list the difficulty for each room they offered. The good ones would like % completion of the room among players to allow new comers some kind of idea how difficult one room would be. I personally think there are way too many generous Yelpers for Escape rooms which makes it very hard to find the good ones from the bad ones. read more

This was my first escape room experience and Blaze was an amazing host. We did the CSI escape room and he was very helpful and offered hints when needed. Overall it was a great experience! read more

Did CSI Hollywood and had a great time and the puzzles were rewarding! Game masters were extremely nice and helpful. Highly recommend. Will be back definitely. read more

Super dun even when trapped in the room with my entire extended family. Barely escaped with a few mins to spare. i would try it again.

My husband had a great time in the CSI:Hollywood Escape Room. It was a bit difficult but the clues really helped us put. Our game master was very nice and she made us feel very comfortable as this was our first time. Will definitely be back! read more

Puzzle Workshop: Escape Room - Escape Games Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

This was our first escape room. we found it challenging but so much fun. Definitely going to try another room. The young lady who welcomed and gave us directions was very helpful and pleasant. read more

Had a great experience at Puzzle Worskhop! My friends and I have done two of their medium-challenge rooms and had a really fun time each time. Very creative and high quality escape rooms! Would definitely recommend. read more

Very fun experience! My family and I did the Trapped in Time room. The puzzles were unique and challenging - way different from other rooms I've done in the past. I really loved the creativity and thought that was put into the room. And a big thank you to Marcus for being so kind and helpful throughout the game! read more

So BUMMED cuz I've now done all the rooms here. Really enjoyed the rooms. Fun, not too hard but definitely a mind challenge! We had Cameron as our game master and we loved his great spirit and enthusiasm. He remembered me from a previous visit which was great. Highly recommend, especially for those who ha e done a couple of rooms before. read more

We did the Illuminati puzzle and Madison was our gamemaster. We had a very fun experience. The puzzle was challenging, but we did end up solving it with some hints. Some clever and unique puzzles. Enjoyed it with our family!! read more

What I appreciated most about this escape room was the friendly customer service and accommodations. I booked Trapped In Time for my niece (age 9) because their website indicated that it was a beginner level. I also emailed them asking to make the escape room kid-friendly for her age and they responded to my email within a few hours. I was happy to hear that they were able to accommodate my request - they very much delivered. The puzzles and clues were easy enough for her to stay engaged, but also difficult enough to stump us from time to time. It was nice to have many chances to ask for clues along the way. My niece truly enjoyed the escape room and immediately wanted to do another one. Huge thanks to Marcus for making our experience memorable. read more

My husband and I completed 3 escape rooms (CSI: Hollywood, Traped in Time, Illuminati) and all 3 or them were great! We are not native English speakers but it was never a problem (only 1 puzzle was challenging due to the language barrier) so I encourage everyone to believe in themselves and try their escape rooms! Game masters are welcoming, fun and very attentive. So far, they have the best escape rooms compared to other places we've been in OC and Boston. Great job! read more

My group of friends and I went here for my husband's birthday. We did Trapped In Time. It was a cute simply-designed room. My only recommendation would be to turn up the AC when you have 7 people in a small room. I think it was in the 80s! We asked for the AC to be turned on and luckily we did feel some airflow but we were all very hot and uncomfortable for the first 20-30 minutes. read more

This place was so fun! We had a group of three and we did the Illuminati puzzle. The puzzles were so interesting and kept us entertained the whole time. The most noteworthy part of the experience was the customer service . I wish I remembered the employees name. We're we're there on 10/8 at 5:45 pm. He was very energetic and helpful and you just don't see that in many places anymore. THANK YOU! We will definitely be back for more. read more

By far the best escape room I've been to but I don't think its saying that much since I've only been to three in total. Last night we booked an escape room last minute at 10:26 pm when the cutoff time was 10:30 pm since you're supposed to book it an hour before the allotted scheduled time which was 11:30 pm. Our game master, Alex, was very helpful and cheerful, he described to us what we were against and overall made our escape room experience amazing. The walls were thin for the escape room so he heard us brainstorming and was laughing with us but we didn't mind it because we thought it was amusing. Would do their other escape room since the other one is also intermediate. The escape room that we did was CSI: Hollywood, the surprise factor was pretty cool since we didn't expect that much (I won't spoil more). I do recommend bigger parties (4-6) people since there is one task that is easier with more people but I think can be doable with maybe 3? I can't wait to try the Secrets of Illuminati the next time we have the chance! read more

UPDATE: Puzzle Workshop remains awesome! My husband and I played (and loved!) Illuminati a few years ago, and last night we played CSI: Hollywood. Both rooms were just totally awesome. Immersive theming, fun storylines, cool puzzles. The puzzle design was elegant: the puzzles don't just ask you to read the designer's mind, and the room isn't totally linear, so if you have a group of 3-4 people, there are things for everyone to do. (I hate rooms where there's only one puzzle at a time, so one person solves while everyone waits. None of that here!) Our GM, Jack, was friendly and enthusiastic; we escaped in really good time (we had like 25 minutes left) and he (and the equally knowledgable and friendly Sierra) were so excited for us. We had fun debriefing the room a little with them afterwards and reliving all the fun moments and clever puzzles! Totally awesome. Can't wait for the space room to open up! read more

Wow! What a great first experience for me and the hubby. We chose the CSI-Hollywood escape room and it did not disappoint! Everything was very well thought out and the guest we brought said it was not as easy as ones they had done in the past. It was a good challenge and will definitely booking the other ones they have listed. Thanks for a great time and great service! Also thanks for the tips when we were in trouble during the case Bahhah read more

This was a lot of fun for our board game night family of 5, 3 college student gamers. We did CSI Hollywood. High production values, even an acted video to start us. We asked for one clue at 7min because I forgot it's only the last 30 seconds when they won't give you clues. We would have gotten it, we think. We skipped solving one puzzle because we have skillz. We did this instead of a day at an amusement park, and we can do it 4 more times for the same price! read more

Puzzle Workshop: Escape Room - Escape Games Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

Went last night with a group of seven for the CSI:Hollywood room.. was so much fun ! We escaped with about 10 minutes on the clock.. I would highly recommend this room for groups with at least 5 people, for even with 7 there was plenty for everyone to work on.. I kept busy on puzzles while others in the group worked on others that I had no involvement with, while other puzzles everyone had a hand in solving.. A few fun surprises and an over all well thought out room with lots of puzzles that took some thinking but none that were impossible read more

Puzzle Workshop: Escape Room - Puzzle Escape room Success!! We found Ruby! - Escape Games Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

My first experience. I had so much fun!!! Highly recommend. Did the CSI escape room. Staff is very friendly.

This was our first time attending any type of escape room. There were six in our party. We did the CSI Hollywood room. The staff was very polite and helpful to get us started. The room was a unique experience. Having never done this before we didn't know what to expect our first few minutes was just trying to get acquainted to the room, finally we caught on to the process. It was a very fun experience, we came very close to solving the puzzle but most likely needed another five minutes. I would highly recommend this as a fun event to do for your family. Or group of friends or for something different. We will definitely be back to try the other room. read more

My husband and I played the Illuminati room. This is a good old fashioned number lock and key lock room with a little bit of tech thrown in. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from fully automated rooms that sometimes don't work in favor of a simpler format. Don't get me wrong, this room was not easy because there were a lot of puzzles and there were just two of us. However, I didn't care for a few of the puzzles that seemed like busy work (I'm looking at you Sudoku puzzles). I don't want to say too much, but I was extremely frustrated by the last puzzle, but it's probably because I don't think in the way this particular puzzle required. This is why I would suggest taking 3-4 other people with you. The staff was friendly and just overall awesome! They gave us extra time to finish the room, because we were almost done as time ran out. I also particularly enjoyed the way in which hints were delivered. We will definitely be back to check out their other room. read more

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Had an absolutely great time! I've been to a few escape rooms and this definitely is on top of my list. 4 of us went and we were able escape the Illuminati Room with a few minutes to spare! I loved the puzzles in the room. To be honest, I'm not the best with puzzles, nor would I say I'm a super bright guy... But I definitely am logical! I've been to rooms that have puzzles which require preexisting knowledge of literature/history/science... This room is straight logic! Puzzles were fun and theme was great! UNLIMITED HINTS! You can ask for as many hints as often as you like! I like the fact that you're paying, so you get to determine how easy you want to make your night. I guess the success rate of this room is about 40% using 5 clues. We used only 3! The hostess was super friendly and informative! read more

Puzzle Workshop: Escape Room - Escape Games Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

We have done a number of escape rooms during the pandemic, but this was our first at Puzzle Workshop. I will say that we were not impressed upon first walking in as it is located in an unsuspecting office park, but once we got into the room that quickly changed. The theming was well done and the puzzles were surprisingly challenging considering we have done multiple escape rooms in the past. The hosts were fantastic and they added a nice personal touch. Looking forward to going back and trying some of their other offerings. read more

Had a great experience, went as a couple and we still were able to do the room as two people! Staff was friendly, and everything was great!

Great room, and great staff. Would go back again to try other rooms for sure. My wife and I tried to conquer a room just the two of us and honestly was a bit much for two people, but definitely doable if we had more experience. Can't wait to try agai read more

time traveller's time was fun!!! Associate was helpful and so kind too!!!! i forgot to remember her name, but looked like she had fun watching me and my friend doing the game. she was so helpful too!!!! try it!!!!! read more

This isn't the most mechanically amazing escape room I've ever been to but it definitely had its good moments. Went with a group of four to the stuck in time escape room. This was a very beginner friendly room and definitely recommended for first timers. One of my favorite things is that there wasn't too many moments in which we all just stood idly about watching someone complete a puzzle. Everyone had a part to play at pretty much all times. Other things to note. We did have a night game but parking was really easy to get. Bathroom was top notch quality. Our host Cameron was really friendly and genuinely seemed interested in conversing with us instead of just treating us as just another couple of customers. Extra shout out because we did have the last booking of the night and I know how one might want to rush through everything in order to get to go home early but there was definitely dedication involved and a nice appreciation for escape rooms in general. read more

Lots of fun! I highly recommend it. For our first time experiencing an escape room, it was great to have a private room for our party of 5. It was a great experience for adults and teens! read more

My group of 4 girls (The Four hoursemen) did both rooms at Puzzle Workshop back to back. We have almost 20 rooms completed and are making our way through as many as we can. We made the booking the night before so they are definitely accommodating and booking was super simple. Our first room was the CSI Hollywood room. This room was my favorite. The theme and decor of the room was fantastic and even though we had a small technical difficulty, which was quickly resolved and time added to the clock for the trouble, we didn't end up feeling disappointed at all. They had great personal touches in the room that definitely gave the wow factor. The second room we did was the Illuminati room. My friends seemed to enjoy this one better, but i still had a great time. I LOVED how each room was a story that unraveled as you found more puzzles and clues. Some of the clues in both room were unique and i had never seen them, which is always awesome. Both rooms were an intermediate level and require some thought. My only critique would be that some puzzles are incredibly time consuming and it leaves you wondering if that was just to consume time in the room, which I didn't like too much. But they all had a purpose which made it okay in the grand scheme of things. We escaped both rooms with about 6 minutes left on the clock, THE FOUR HOURSEMEN CAN'T BE LOCKED. read more

Puzzle Workshop: Escape Room - Escape Games Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

Reasons why I originally chose Puzzle workshop: they had options that weren't scary, the location was close to my home, and the prices were good. Reasons I will be coming back multiple times: they modified an escape room to make it kid friendly and even let my 3 and 6 year old participate, the staff was incredibly sweet, the puzzle was actually hard- making me want to go try again, and you get your own private game, you don't have to share your experience with anyone else not in your party. I will be coming back for sure! 10/10 recommend. read more

My group and I had an amazing time at this escape room. Our game master was Jade and they were amazing so helpful wonderful energy very friendly! Unfortunately we did not finish the room :( but nonetheless it was so fun for all of us and I definitely cannot wait to come back again! read more