GHOSTED FOR KIDS BIRTHDAY! Beyond Fraudulent: Confirmed, Reminded, and then GHOSTED... I am beyond disgusted with the absolute lack of professionalism and basic decency shown by The Great Xcape. We had a confirmed birthday party scheduled for 12 elementary school-aged girls--a significant event planned well in advance. The level of negligence here is staggering: * The Reminders: In the days leading up to the party, I received multiple confirmation emails and text messages reminding us of our upcoming celebration. * The Reality: We arrived with 12 excited children to find a dark building and a padlocked set of doors. * The Betrayal: To send automated reminders for an event you have no intention of hosting is a level of incompetence that borders on fraudulent. They allowed us to coordinate transportation and guest lists, only to leave us standing on a sidewalk with a dozen heartbroken children and a party in total shambles. I had to call multiple times just to get someone to answer. When they finally did, I received a dismissive "I'm sorry." Nothing else. No explanation for why they sent reminders for a closed building. No accountability for the logistical nightmare they created. Do not trust this establishment with your business, your money, or your children's memories. They are unreliable, unprofessional, and clearly do not care about the families they serve. read more

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**Review of Dulles Perk event: The event was a free mystery dinner through Dulles perks an event/reward system through the mall. They catered Cheesecake Factory. The event being held specifically I. The Great Xcape was a mystery dinner. It was a cute experience and we all had different characters, the people were a friendly bunch! The food options were good. While waiting though for everyone else, an employee showed us around the place and the various escape rooms they had. However their event space they showed us for other activities fits up to 200 people and it runs on a BYO system as long as they are licensed. Also the price is great for the space! read more

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This place is a straight trash heap. The rooms are full uninteresting and loud. The noise is repetitive. There are no clues just bang your head until you get things right. We did Alice and it was awful. The code to get out of the first room is 4242. read more

I expected better from this location because it's a newer one and we were excited about the Lord of the Rings similarity of the room we chose. We booked online and upon arrival, which we were 10-15 minutes before our time the room was still being set up. Although online it says to be there prior too. Unfortunately this room was not what we expected as there were clues that were broken or that open when they shouldn't have opened. The girl that was giving us hints was not even privy to what step we already solved to then give us the next clue. At one point she even entered the room to figure out where we were at in the game, which cut into our time. The walkie talkies suck as a way to communicate with it being so spacious you can hear your echo and the person you're communicating with. Definitely not a location I would recommend until they really update their rooms and communication. read more

Friend booked this place for a murder mystery for his birthday. It seemed to cause him unnecessary stress as they were not very responsive during the planning phase (a lot of telephone tag as they tried to pick the murder mystery and catering options). The venue is a converted department store at Dulles Town Center. There are no actual rooms... there are walls, but they are makeshift and with the high ceiling, the walls do not reach the ceiling. Noise from neighboring rooms (escape rooms/other parties) carries. We were a group of 8 and I could not hear people on the opposite end of the table. The decorations were minimal and not really themed. It was literally an empty room with 1 "Happy Birthday" sign, a fake police lineup height poster, and a 4-panel greenery stand. The rest of the walls were bare. The "host" basically read from a script and was clearly running multiple rooms (at one point we were handed off to 2nd host) so couldn't necessarily dress to theme. I guess for the amount of money spent (friend said he paid $600), I would've expected a more immersive experience. The actual murder mystery part was a lot of script reading. I've done a few murder mysteries which were a bit more open-ended (instructions given on key facts to drop in conversation, but no dialogue/script to just read off)... but the story gave us all a good laugh. Whoever came up with the characters/story did a great job. Instead of coming here, you'd be better off just buying a $20 kit on amazon, splurge on catering (or whatever you want!) and host it at home. At least it'd be a lot quieter so you can hear one another. read more

The Great Xcape - wall decor (photo is cropped to avoid showing people) - Escape Games Near Me - Sterling, Virginia

My brother-in-law booked the murder-mystery room for my sister's 40th birthday party. There were 20 of us and we all dressed up in character and were looking forward to a fun evening. We had 3 issues: 1. The "room" was makeshift with walls that ended about 4 feet from the ceiling. This meant that we were constantly bombarded with noise from the escape rooms. It was so bad that I could only follow about 1/3 of the conversation, which is a huge problem if you're trying to figure out the murder-mystery! They either need to construct better rooms that keep out exterior noise or provide microphones. 2. The "hosts" were pretty awful. They were obviously running multiple rooms at once and had not reviewed the script beforehand. The first guy was ok (he could at least read the script coherently) but then we were passed off to a different guy who could barely read at all. They weren't dressed in character and really made zero effort to play the part of a detective. My suspicion is they were high school kids working a part-time job with zero incentives to engage in any of the role-playing. 3. The script was completely messed up. The directions were poor (nobody knew when to ask a question) and they mixed up a few 10-person scripts with the 20-person ones so that some of us had the exact same questions. They also didn't provide pens until halfway through and then gave us mostly highlighters which made it difficult to take notes. We made the best of it and still had fun, but at $60 per person, it wasn't worth it. On top of it all, they then had the nerve to send every person an email requesting a tip (in addition to the one that my brother-in-law paid at the venue!). Next time we will buy a script online and arrange the dinner ourselves. read more

I did the exorcist room with some friends and I don't know how this place has 4 stars on google. My biggest issue with it is once something is solved there is no clue to lead you to the next step. I noticed this mentioned on a different review for a different room so it seems like it is an issue with multiple rooms not just one. The walls also don't touch the ceiling, they go about halfway up so you can hear people in the other rooms around you. The quality of the escape room is VERY poor, the room felt cheap and didn't immerse us into the scenario we are in. For $37 per person after taxes you can go to other escape rooms that are significantly higher quality. Someone mentioned in a different review that the one star reviews are comparing a small business to chains, but there are many small business escape rooms that also do a great job, but when the escape room does a poor job at immersing you due to being cheaply made, AND solving parts of the puzzle don't lead you AT to the next step, it just isn't good. read more

Seriously, DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY! I have done so many escape rooms and I think this place is a scam. The rooms are crap and have hardly anything on the walls. It's really sad that the owner doesn't care about good customer service and providing good service as well as their word. This is not a cheap escape room and it has false advertisement online. No pictures of the actual rooms , those are AI generated. I thought the picture online was the room but nope. It's false advertising!! We went for the first time and when we walked in there was 16 screaming 10 year olds doing a room and it only got worse during our experience. it was extremely difficult to even focus and enjoy what we could of the experience. Will never go back. read more

The man Faizan helped us and he was fantastic. I will come back again and I hope to see his energetic personality. I recommend everyone to go here and you will enjoy read more

I don't understand where all of the 1-star reviews are coming from. Actually, I might know, y'all are comparing a SMALL BUSINESS to chain escape rooms or escape rooms that get more money. Of course the chain escape rooms are going to have better technology than a small business would because bigger escape room names get more money. Anyway, my family and I did the Time Travel room! I won't spoil the room, but we had a blast. I really liked how the puzzles weren't "Oh, here's a lock, figure at the code!!" Those escape room bore me, to be honest, because I don't want to look for a code to a key 24/7. Unlike the lock-focused escape rooms, this time travel one had more creative ways for you to solve the puzzles! I'm not going to say what, but if you're interested, go check it out! Also, the worker was incredibly nice and even showed us the rooms before we chose one. Maybe it's just me, but I've never seen an escape room worker do that! Plus, he was the only one working there, which must be stressful, yet he still was very helpful despite that. A minor thing I would say to change is: 1) Make the first puzzle (at-least in the Time Travel room) clearer. Beside that, this is a 4 out of 5 stars for me! read more

A group of 4 of us visited this location last weekend. We experienced the Alice room and left very disappointed. We were told when we arrived that it was the most difficult room. It would have been helpful if it were indicated on the website when we chose it. The room initially was well lit and seemed makeshift since it had no ceiling. We could hear the groups along side us. As we progressed, it got darker, lights turned off, making it difficult to see. We had to use our cellphone flash lights to discern colors on a puzzle, which was necessary to solving it. You use a walkie talkie to ask for clues and on one attempt we were asked to wait, but the clock kept running. In general the format was very linear but it was unclear how to use what you found from one solution to work on the next puzzle. Very few puzzles could be done concurrently so I would not recommend this room for a large group. They offered to extend our room for an additional charge but we were frustrated and declined. read more

My husband celebrated his birthday at The Great Xcape in Sterling. We made a reservation on-line and was expecting someone to reach out to us, either by phone or email, to let us know what to expect next. But no one did. We called multiple times, left v/m messages and finally at around 9pm, the owner picked up the phone and said "Brandon" should call me back. He didn't and I finally called him and texted. He called us back after leaving 2 voice messages to give us a brief overview of what the mystery dinner would look like. We chose the Red Carpet music awards mystery dinner. We were all dressed up per the theme we chose. We got there and the place had a long table with plastic paper plates, plastic toy guns, a party wall light hanging that wasn't working, a tiny strobe light and a fake grass wall drop. The "host" read the script, misreading some words and was very lifeless. The food we ordered was there when we came and was already cold. It was really a waste of money. We had fun, not because of what they provided us but because of our group. I definitely would not recommend this place. It was such a waste of our money. read more

we went to two of them ( rooms at location, exorcist and lord of the rings) and had wonderful time. well sad to admit had to use hints at least 3 times. liked lord of the rings better. will definitely go and do all of them read more