This is my first escape room since the pandemic and it did not disappoint. My friend wanted to come here for her birthday, gathered a group of 8, and took care of everything. All that's left is that each individual sign an online waiver before arriving. The waiver was thorough, easy to go through, and allowed for consent in sending a group photo afterwards. The day of the event, the host for our group went through all the rules and provided a couple of hints before getting started. The theme of our room was the Hunting Lodge. The room in itself wasn't very big, and definitely a squeeze for 8 people, which was the max. Walls were thin, but that didn't bother us too much. What would've made this a 5 star experience if the room had ventilation or if the AC was turned on, just to circulate the room as our group was literally sweating trying to solve the case. We called the host 3 times to get assistance. She was very friendly and provided great hints. Ultimately, we ran out of time and didn't escape. Some of my group members that the flow could've been better in terms of structure or layout of the room. Overall, I did enjoy myself even though I'm indifferent about escape rooms. #35/2022 read more

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We went for a birthday and they were very accommodating with special requests. And were also able to accommodate us event when we were a few minutes late. The escape room was really good, it was a story based one and really liked the lights guiding you to the puzzles in sequence. It is a bit hard to reach them over call, but i have been able to reach them via email. read more

Fun time Definitely great for a gathering of four or more! I love the challenges it gives us read more

It was a nice setup and the game master was very involved and tried to make sure we have a great experience. But I found the escape room to have too much of a story.Overall a nice experience the NPCs were a nice touch. read more

We came on a Groupon deal for a party. There are multiple rooms and puzzles need to be solved to advance to the next level. On weekends there might be more than one group at a time but the groups are in different rooms with almost no interaction or overlap. The quality of the props and surroundings are not too high. You will need to use some imagination to get an immersive role playing experience. If the puzzles get too hard to follow you can call the game master for hints. With hints a group of middle school kids made it to within 30 seconds of finishing the game. A lady popped her head in and announced that time was up. It's definitely a thinking experience. A few of us were mentally drained after the experience. Something fun to try once with a cool group of people. read more

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It's been many years since I done an escape room but for my friends bday we booked the Lost Kingdom. The Egyptian and pyramid theme to me was very cool even though some of the objects were damaged from prior escapers. No phones allowed inside but they give you a locker and key to store your stuff. We had a group of ten people which seemed like a lot of folks but somehow it all worked out. I consider myself a newbie when it comes to this so didn't really feel like I was really sure of what I was doing but as a collective we still managed to escape. We definitely had to ask for some help from the staff or we wouldn't have been able to make it out of the lost kingdom! Fun activity with friends but helpful if you have a few in your group with escape room experience! read more

I've done many escape rooms around the country (and even abroad) and the Alone room at Xcapade was so unique! The storytelling aspect was intriguing and kept you on your feet. After the debrief, you learn all the details and intricacies that went into this room THAT ALSO goes along with the story line. Super impressive and we will definitely be back read more

We found this place because of Groupon. We like to go to different places to try escape rooms. There were 6 of us in one of the treasure of the empire rooms. The decor was fun and thematic. The puzzles were pretty difficult. We were able to solve 3 out of 4 rooms. We had to use our clues. You're allowed 3 in the hour you're in there. The guys that work there were all great. I like that they take your pic at the end but they need updated props. read more

An excellent facility to facilitate team-building through puzzle-solving. There are several modules that you can choose from, which keeps it interesting even if you have completed some of the others. The themes vary every now and then, which helps to keep it fresh. Even though some rooms seemed too small to fit the 8 of us, I did not feel claustrophobic. The room we had was clean, no funky smell, adequately lit, and well ventilated. Perhaps with the exception when I bumped my head onto several objects, I felt comfortable throughout the experience. It couldn't have been because of my height but rather I was being clumsy since nobody else in my team experienced that. Also, I jolted a few times (or plausibly each time) when things popped up---which typically would happen when you solved a puzzle. Speaking of being hilarious, I think the noise-canceling between each room was adequate, which allowed my team to stay uninterrupted. My tips, do have a timekeeper who preferably is not as clumsy as me, and use the hints/help wisely. Or, when in doubt, just call for the hints. The point is to have fun with the experience even if you did or did not escape the room. Against all odds, my team escaped within the allotted time. I had a great time. Do, use the restroom before you start the module. It's shared with the next-door suites but clean. read more

We played a mystery game (not an escape room) called a diary of a sick boy. It was a fun immersive experience. There were 4 projectors projected a scene in a room so you would feel like you were in a crime scene. The host was amazingm He acted and guided us thru the game. It's a new experience to a few of us were struggled in the beginning. I would come back again if there are more stories to try. However, there is the only one english translation for a mystery/roleplay game. Minus one star for that. Please add more english version of a mystery game! read more

Escape room: Lost Kingdom via groupon (so less than $20 per person) Customer service: 1/5 Host is distracted with another activity. Room immersion: 1/5 It will feel like an office room that has decorative wallpaper and random props that look store-bought. Also the two rooms are both very small. Puzzles: 2/5 I like a few of the puzzles but anything involving "matching" hieroglyphics is more frustrating than "difficult". Props: 1/5 A lot of it is worn out. Overall - bottom two escape room (I've done 30+ rooms) Recommend: no. just maybe for a few kids who haven't done many escape rooms. If you see other reviewers with 4+ stars, I think they are being generous. read more

This was an awesome experience, small business very personable service and friendly... will definitely be back again! Had a blast with friends... Vanilla Ice Ice Baby!!!!! #teamvipp read more

Xcapade Entertainment - Escape Games Near Me - Hayward, California

Ehh... I wouldn't recommend this escape room. Absolutely no parking on a Saturday morning. I didn't understand why every other shop in the plaza had at least a few assigned parking spots, but Xcapade didn't.... The waiting room was small. The place was old and run, down. Definitely needed some love and up-keeping. After signing in, we were escorted to our room and given instructions. A lot of the mechanisms didn't work correctly because they were so old and over-used. We had to call for help a few times because we were certain we had it, and we did, but the tools weren't working correctly. read more

We tried the Hunting Lodge Escape Room with three people (all experienced). Although the room was relatively small, there were plenty of puzzles for us to work on, including a few special ones that our group decided after we particularly enjoyed. The room format was fairly traditional, but there was some tech incorporated into some of the puzzles. Anywhere, but there were a few extra puzzles that could be worked on simultaneously, as well as to bonus puzzles with our team did not get too. I would not recommend trying this room with more than five or six people, simply because the space is fairly small. Our host was wonderful and engaging to talk to before and after the room, and he left us pretty much alone during the room per our request. I recommend the Hunting Lodge as a traditional but challenging option to check out in the East Bay. read more

Generally, this is a very fun and exciting experience. I played the Lost Kingdom, which is the theme about ancient Egyptian topic. The game master was very helpful and informative. He told us about the story line and the general rule about the game. I like the story. They connect all of their three rooms together based on the story. It makes the game like Indiana Jones adventures. The room we played is the second part of the story. However, without playing the first part of the story, we still can enjoy the game. All the puzzles are independent. We successfully get out the room before 1 hr limited time. Also, I got our group picture on the winner wall. That was awesome. I would like to try other rooms in the future to see the whole story. Btw, help lines are limited. We only had 2 help lines. read more

Xcapade Entertainment - Escape Games Near Me - Hayward, California

The experience here was by far very disappointing. I have been to a few other escape rooms before, and probably have an expectation of how a standard escape room should be. I already lowered my expectations when coming here, but it was still disappointing. First, we we enter, there was no one there, we have have keep knocking/calling for someone to come out, and the guy who came out is a bit rude, and assumes every asian understands mandarin (his english is a bit broken). We did "the lost kingdom", the room we first entered is very small and cheaply layout, probably 1/3 of the size of the normal rooms, and there is only 2 rooms to the game, instead of the normal 3-room games, in another words, the whole game is at best 1/4 the size of normal escape room games. The rooms are so small, there is no space the 8 of us could spread out, or to look at the clues together (there are a few spots that could only fit 2 people at best). The first room is poorly layout, cheaply done, a lot of broken stuffs. Second room is a bit better, not still not up to standard. All the clues leads to opening some compartment, and getting some pieces out, putting the pieces elsewhere to open other stuffs, repeating over and over, no other tactics, not very interesting. We used the hints a couple times, the girl staff who came in is way more friendlier, however, she speaks only mandarin, which I do not understand at all, so I had no idea what she said about the those hints. We successfully escaped, but the experience wasn't enjoyable. read more

I had reserved a room at 6:30PM which was within the hours and it was closed. Not sure if this establishment is even open still. There are no reviews after 2 months ago. They never answered their phone and I called 3 times. read more

We played Alone. The escape room is too straightforward and there is only one room. The plot ended in a place where it makes you feel there should be more story. Very disappointing experience. read more

The air reeks of death...the walls inch closer and closer, trapping us in claustrophobic horror...there's only one thing we can do to get out of here alive. ESCAPE. Alright, I confess--it wasn't nearly as dramatic as that and the air may have smelled a little musty more than anything, but we really did have to escape out of three rooms in order to beat the game. Although, don't take the word "escape" too literally. It was more like trying to solve puzzles to unlock three doors. We were never really trapped anywhere which somewhat ruined the "fear-aspect" of it for me. But the concept of Xcapade is very cool. You do tend to lose yourself within the puzzles as you and your fellow comrades try to beat the 60 minute clock to get to the finish line. With an Egyptian themed escape room, we encountered confusing hieroglyphics on the walls, small statues of Anubis and pharaohs, as well as confusing verses about the afterlife. Each room has different puzzles that when solved will lead you to the next room until you can unlock the last door. The kicker, however, is that all the rooms are connected so it's up to you to make sure to remember all of the relevant clues and piece them together logically. The hubby and I went with a group of friends and we were all very competitive. We broke up into mini teams since each room had a variety of puzzles that we had to solve in order to break the code. We used quite a lot of different tactics, like utilizing a UV flashlight to find hidden messages, deciphering numbers and pictures, and even a little math to answer all the riddles. But try as we might, we failed to escape...That last room stumped us good! The puzzles got more difficult and clues were more obscure as time passed. Still, we all loved a good challenge and worked well together, laughing, deliberating, and helping one another as one united front. I will say that the rooms are a bit dingy in the sense that some props were broken, the wallpaper was chipping in some areas, and there wasn't much creativity in terms of scenery. But this was a good experience for first timers like us. We most definitely want to try another escape room, but next time, we'll come in more experienced, more aware, and more determined to win. BECAUSE ESCAPE, WE SHALL! read more

Xcapade Entertainment - One of the tables to help us decipher secret messages - Escape Games Near Me - Hayward, California

It was a really cool impressive game experience! Our party of six did the HANGOVER! The place is quiet clean and people there are friendly!! We love Xcapade veryyyy much and can't wait to comeback to try more games! read more

Xcapade Entertainment - Game - Escape Games Near Me - Hayward, California

To be honest we didn't beat our room but the guy in the front gave us a few extra minutes because we were the last group of the night. It was a fun nice bonding experience! I went with my boyfriends family and we really enjoyed it. I would do this again. There were times where we asked for clues and were like wow why didn't we think of that before. Overall fun ! Highly recommend. Definitely check in and get the extra clue. read more

I've been here twice now with both my family and a group of friends. I'd say escape rooms are definitely something you want to do with a large group. I don't think they would be as much fun if you were just with one person and some random people. I don't think the teamwork would come into play as much. It's fun because the two rooms I have done here had multiple components and definitely some challenging and thinking outside of the box type of riddles. They don't have a lot of super cool bells and whistles that I've seen some other companies advertise but it definitely is still fun. Both times I have gone I have purchased a groupon to make it significantly cheaper. I do think this would be kind of an expensive thing to do without some sort of discount. I think its about $30/person, which sounds very expensive for one hour of activity. (Which if you solve the puzzle its even less). read more

We made it! We did the Egyptian theme room and it's a fun way to pass an hour with the kids. Inexpensive buying it through Groupon. This room is perfect because it's not too hard and we all felt awesome that we made it out in time. Needed three hints though (LOL). read more

Xcapade Entertainment - Escape Games Near Me - Hayward, California

Our team had a great time in the Lost Kingdom. We had to ask for help and they gave us what we need to move forward. We finally succeeded in the last 20 seconds! Very satisfying. Some aspects of the room could use some refurbishing, but doable and fun the way it is. read more

A group of 6 of us tried the treasures of the empire room and did not enjoy it. The layout of clues and rooms themselves are confusing and anticlimactic. Multiple things were broken, so we could not carry out the escape properly and the game master had to come in and do it for us. There are also too many components of the room that were "red herrings", like an entire puzzle on the wall that is meant for a version for a separate team. We completed the puzzle and ended up wasting time as it didn't serve a purpose. This applied to many other objects in the wall. Overall, this room was difficult in the wrong way. I booked prior to reading reviews, and I wish I hadn't done that. read more

Don't say you weren't warned. Read the reviews. This place is a joke/ripoff. Group of men out front of the entrance smoking on our arrival. Group of men sitting around a table while we were there. Group of men out front of entrance smoking on our way out. The man who set us up could barely speak English. He whispered and mumbled. His instructions fell on misunderstanding ears and he was clueless about it. Tiny claustrophobic room with no fresh air. It was miserable with 8 people. It seemed to have a dirty seedy feel to it. Poor props. (taped to wall over and over) Some didn't work. Room was run down. (The combination lock had no line up reference. We had the correct word but didn't know where to line it up. Even the girl who came in to help was confused and got it right on the 3rd try.) Great ideas. Great potential. Spend some yen and get it right!! Massive failure. Epic ripoff. Very poorly managed. read more

As a group of 7, we ordered the groupon + a regular priced extra ticket and split the cost. It ended up being about $20 each. Super easy to redeem and was able to make a reservation the same day. I actually reserved, let them know I'll be bringing a groupon, and THEN bought the groupon. It's so oddly placed in an antique shop/restaurant/gaming room. So weird. Once our whole group arrived we were led to the back where the escape room was. There are 4 rooms you have to get through: the training room and 3 of the real rooms. You can stay in the training room as long as you want and ask your guide as many questions as you want so take advantage of that time! Once you get into the real rooms, your hour starts and you only have 3 hints. I won't ruin the secrets for you but you must pay attention to EVERYTHING the entire time. Things in the training room will be useful throughout the real rooms and tools you found before will be useful at the end. Note ALL of the details. It was really difficult, but I'll def try one again - even if it's a different one lol. Need more prep for this one. read more

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I purchased this for my son's 12th birthday. The room was amazing but given that this was my first real escape room it was beyond escapable. My kids picked the hardest adventure but we still had a great time. I would recommend another room for a new player and we plan on doing the easier escape rooms. However with that said the room was very interactive, clues were challenging and for being in a room it was really well done! I would highly recommend this place! read more

The groupon deal is a very good price.. This was our first time and we had been wanting to do one of these for a while.. so we weren't sure what to expect. We thought it was fun but the story line on the hunters lodge is super weird and even after you solve it it's still weird.. There is nothing to tell you a which step to do first and all the props are pretty worn down and in need of replacement. It was a fun time out for the kids but I think if our group was bigger than 5 we would have been super confused and stepping all over each other. It was hard! read more

Played the Lost Kingdom room. The concept is good, but the room needs to be redone. It was a bit falling apart and worn done.

Our group of 6 bought the groupon and reserved a time slot for tonight at 730 pm. Super quick and painless to do. We arrived a few minutes late but the other couple that was stuck into the same time slot as us ended up cancelling so we got to do the escape with just the 6 of us and the guy running the place was super cool. Rooms were decorated really well and the puzzles and searching were hard but we managed to escape within the time limit. I was scared because the "lost kingdom" escape had a super low success rate but hey, we did it! Well, we had help but all in all we definitely had a great time. Will recommend to others for sure and I would love to come back to try another escape. read more

Xcapade Entertainment - So proud! - Escape Games Near Me - Hayward, California

I have a great time with my friends here. Really helpful hints. Really hope there are more to experience. read more

Xcapade Entertainment - Escape Games Near Me - Hayward, California

Interesting concept as this was a first for me. love the idea of figuring out a problem/puzzle, but, in retrospect, I truly don't think the clues were intuitive or solvable without several degrees of help. our group needed to use our "lifelines" multiple times, which provided a staff member to clarify the mystery sufficiently to proceed. On top of this, and perhaps most importantly, the theme was fairly inappropriate-- Nazi era, with pictures scattered of Hitler, the swastika, etc. Given the climate of hate already in our country, and the tremendous suffering of an entire population under his orders, I don't think it's a wise choice for entertainment. just a personal opinion. read more

Amazing! We did "The Lost Temple" which was super immersive. It's obvious a ton of thought went into story and props. There is a such a wide range of puzzles to solve. Several times, we were like, Nah... that can't be what you're supposed to do, and then BOOM - another secret door opens. On a rainy Wednesday, the puzzle masters were totally patient with us and took our selfies at the end as victors. I really like how they have a warm-up room for beginners, where you get to solve a series of clues to get you in the mindset and get you to understand what the clues may be like The Lost Temple was great for us 2 dads and our 5 twelve-year-olds. We knocked it out at 59:30. Phew! We'll be back for the prequel Hunting Lodge for sure. If you go, beware the curse of the Pharaoh! read more

We have party of 4 people played the room, the lost kingdom. This room has a really great immersive decoration. I love it so much. And I also like the puzzle. They are not very too hard to say drain my brain, but they still require the some critical thinkings. I heard that all rooms in this location are connected. I will definitely try other rooms in the future. read more

Xcapade Entertainment - This is the picture wall only for people who get out the room successfully. - Escape Games Near Me - Hayward, California

My friend's bridal party came- bridesmaids vs groomsmen, and we had a lot of fun! They arranged the game so that each team would start and end in separate rooms, but the rooms were based on the same story/ plot line. We had to get through five different rooms in one hour. It was very challenging and we used up all 3 of our "helps", but it was such a great experience and we all had a great time. We didn't end up getting out, but we were really close. The guy that helped us was nice and he explained the rules very well. The only thing that we thought was strange was that when we asked for help, they pretty much gave us the answer instead of giving us clues to figure it out. I think they did that because it was really difficult and we probably wouldn't get it with just clues anyway. Also, the guy came into the room to give us the clues instead of using speakers/ walkie talkies/ etc., so that kind of took away from the feeling of being "trapped" in a room and needing to "escape". The rooms were decorated well. The walls are thin though so we can hear the group in the other room. Overall, this was a really fun escape room and I would go back again to try a different game. read more

Their website is very informative on all the rooms. We have been here for now 2 different rooms and I gotta say both of two the escape rooms we've been have a lot of fun and challenging! We've played and escaped lost Kingdom and Treasure of the Empire. It is really a worth going escape room in east bay area. read more

We had a groupon for this place, and I have to say, you get what you paid for. The concept for our visit was not Egyptian themed but WWII related. We had two teams going simultaneously, going in opposite directions. The difficulty in that is you will have possible clues not pertinent to you in the room. This was my first escape room event, so while I thought the concept of progressively moving from room to room was cool, the fact that some doors didn't quite shut/lock when it should've, made for a wonky experience for us. We experienced a few of these technical difficulties, which led to an okay experience for us. At least this was my first experience, so I didn't expect too much. But they definitely need to work on their upkeep and maintenance to ensure a better quality experience. read more

Dang! Probably the lamest escape room I've ever experienced (out of the five total I have done in my lifetime). My family and I did the Treasure of the Empire: Agents. There were so many things that went wrong. For starters: 1) There were doors (that weren't supposed to open) that opened unintentionally, 2) many of the secret boxes opened when you slapped it, and 3) there were secret clues on the walls that were already exposed when we entered a room. While it was impressive that there were multiple rooms involved in our escape game, the poorly constructed--almost broken--props made it really easy for us to solve certain puzzles because we were able to bypass searching for a numeric/letter code. The game master (guy explaining the game rules and premise of the quest) at the start of the game had little to no excitement in his voice (monotone), and had a thick accent which made it really hard to understand. We had to rely on only 1 menu-like book with various rules on each page to navigate each room for our giant group (which made it very difficult to share); it would have been much better if they provided MULTIPLE copies of the books so that we didn't have to stop every 2 minutes to look back on the rule book since the rules weren't clearly understood at the beginning of the game. read more

Our group had a very great experience at this escape room game. We played the Lost Kingdom. The room was fun and well designed. Puzzles in this room were not too hard, but all of them were logical and reasonable. With all of these puzzles, we had a great time to experience the story behind the game. There were only two help lines, but the staff were very helpful and friendly. After the escape room, we also had great time to play board games there. They also offer free board games here after the escape room. Hopefully, they would have more board games available in the future. Overall, I love this place. I can't wait to try another one and call for friends to have board games there. read more

Xcapade Entertainment - Escape Games Near Me - Hayward, California

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