Trap Door Escape Room (Bartonsville) - "Cure Z"

Updated: Apr 16

LOCATION:  Bartonsville, Pennsylvania, USA

Photo credit: Trap Door Escape Room

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Cure Z
📅 DATE PLAYED: August 25, 2019
🎬 GENRE: Zombie
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 4 ppl): 8/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: Up To 16ppl
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 120 Mins
💰 PRICE: $49.98/pp
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Public
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

Have you ever played a 60-minute escape room and came out and wanted to book another one right away because time just flew by in there? Well, Trap Door Escape Room has the solution for you. This is the last of the Trap Door Escape Room’s location that we haven’t visited yet. Read our reviews on "F5 Tornado Escape", "Witch Hunt", and "Bogeyman" to learn more about Trap Door Escape Room's other games and locations. We were very excited to drive 1.5 hours to get to this Poconos, PA location as this would be the first 120-minute escape room we’ve ever played. When you arrive, make sure you go behind the complex that you entered as this entrance to this location is in the rear of the complex.

"Cure Z: Quarantine" is over 3,000 square feet and has 10+ rooms for you and your team to explore. They originally had a much smaller version of this room at their Red Bank location but even If you have played that before it’s completely changed. We were joined by our enthusiast friends whom played the older room before, but it doesn’t seem to relate to this new room in any way. This room can easily fit more people but today we are taking on the challenge with just the four of us. Our recommended size would probably be 4-6 if you are enthusiasts and 8-10 if you are just starting to try escape rooms. We felt that the intro video could be shortened or perhaps play the ad portion in the waiting room and just the game trailer before the game starts. By the way, there are no live actors in the room so for people who are worried about that, it’s merely just the eerie atmosphere.

We were sent into mission control to be debriefed on the situation. After the original epidemic of the zombie virus known as "Malatitus", most of the people were able to contain it with the Quiet-Z drug. But One World Alliance terrorist group has a new plan of attack and we had to stop them and save our civilization!

It was a bit surprising to us that as enthusiasts who play over 1,000 games added together, we were all stumped in the first room for a long time trying to find the code to the first door. Sometimes, the more of these escape rooms you play the more you start to complicate things and overthink the puzzle. Turns out, it was such an easy solution that we just didn’t spot it. The first room is quite dark so I would imagine with a bigger group it could get a bit frustrating if they are all stuck in there for a long time. This is also when we learned that the clue system was not triggered by us asking for them but based on time and your progress in the game. We had to wait for awhile before we actually got to continue on with the game. This happened a few times in the duration of the game as well which prolonged our play time.

As we stepped into the zombie realm, I felt chills down my spine. Even though I know there are no live actors, the set design was pretty amazing to give you that feeling. At times, it felt like we were on a real production set of "The Walking Dead". There’s a lot of areas to explore in here so we would definitely recommend comfortable shoes and clothing. One puzzle stumped us for a while, and we were still unsure why the code was what it was from the clue given. There were a lot of “cool” tech moments in the puzzle designs but some we felt were way simple and was just added in but didn’t have a reasonable connection to the storyline. The props used were all pretty authentic and we liked the different themes we received from each room that we entered.

If there could be an adjustable version of the difficulty level of the game for enthusiasts and a quicker hint giving system, this could easily be considered a top-rated room for us. We love Trap Door Escape Room’s unique set designs and ideas for room themes, and this is why we keep coming back to try their rooms. With that said, we can’t wait to test out their Morristown location’s “The Greatest Freakshow” room which is a 2-hour musical escape room! If you have been to these rooms already, we love to hear your thoughts!

*** This game is currently unavailable. Check out their other games at their other locations***

Click Me

(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Trap Door Escape Room for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.