Escape New Haven - "Before Moonrise"

LOCATION:  New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Photo above is property of Escape New Haven

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝  ETR DECODER

• 🔑 GAME: Escape New Haven

• 📅 DATE PLAYED: August 8, 2024

• 🎬 GENRE: Monsters

• 🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 8/10 - adaptive!

• 👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-8 ppl (Recommend 2-4 ppl)

• 🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.

• 💰 PRICE: $28.50 - $46.00/ pp (depending on day and # of ppl)

• ☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private

• 🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

📖 THE STORY

You've set out on a beautiful, guided evening hike, when a terrible storm hits the area! Fortunately, you find a small, inviting old cabin. Tastefully decorated and clean, it looks like the perfect place to take shelter while your guide heads back to the Ranger Station for help. Surely the owner won't mind. It comes with a lovely view of the full moon rising out the window!

Video above is property of Escape New Haven

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

• The experience begins even before you arrive, when you receive a welcome email featuring details about the area and tips for your upcoming hike. This was a lovely way to set the scene, build some anticipation, and is indicative of the thought and care put into crafting this adventure.

• The room is built around a smoothly developing narrative progression, from the opening scene to the story's conclusion, with many moments along the way providing tension and uncertainty. These narrative elements are well delivered and fully integrated into the feel of the room. They even go the extra mile with an added reveal at the end to bring one more "oooooh" moment. With three possible endings, your decisions have a real impact on the story's flow and the actions you take.

• Hints are freely available in two ways, both using the cabin's rotary phone. You can call the Ranger Station to reach your guide for tailored individual tips. Or, you can use the Yeller Pages to dial townspeople who might be able to assist you with a specific challenge, like a local locksmith. Calling one of these people leads to a pre-recorded series of tiered hints with entertaining voice acting and quality audio production that allow you to remain fully immersed and expand the world beyond the cabin! This was the first time we've experienced this kind of dual hint system, which provided great flexibility and made you curious about some of the hint possibilities, even if you didn't need them.

• The puzzles were cleanly designed and varied in nature, with lots of quality tactile and cooperative components. While the middle section is more linear (and smells great!), there are a number of times where more parallel puzzling is possible. There is also some adaptive difficulty, whereby several puzzles can be removed for smaller or less experienced groups. Though, enthusiasts will likely want to stick to the harder version!

• There is no timer in the room. Instead, time is marked by a far more creative and thematic method that gives you a good sense of where things stand without breaking the immersion - in fact, much like the introductory email, it adds to the feeling of being in an abandoned cabin in the woods.
  

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

• There were no major misses in this game, but there were a few places where we could see minor improvements, such as reduction of other sounds when working on an audio puzzle, one lock that shorter players might struggle to reach, and one puzzle component that could have been more clearly identifiable.

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

This is one cabin you definitely want to get stranded in! Escape New Haven does a fantastic job crafting an immersive experience from start to finish and effectively using tech to deliver a compelling story. You can definitely feel the love, care, and varied skills of the myriad folks involved in its creation (as highlighted on its movie poster in the hallway). The puzzles were challenging and satisfying, and there were several fun, unexpected reveals. While there are some mildly spooky elements, it definitely has more of an autumn adventure feel, rather than a true horror vibe. So, strap on your hiking boots and get ready for a challenge. Just watch out for that full moon…

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

• Escape New Haven is easy to find in downtown New Haven. There is on-street parking (both 2 and 5-hr limit areas) as well as parking lots nearby (both are paid).

• The location itself is well marked with a big sign on the front of the building.

• The rooms are located down a flight of stairs. Once inside, there are fun benches (modeled after six sided dice) with storage compartments beneath.

• They have merch for sale, as well as bathrooms, a coat rack (in a fun room with board games on the walls) and a water bottle filling station - much appreciated after our drive!

• There are also beautiful movie posters made for each room, crediting the employees who worked on each one and decorated with a Hollywood-approved velvet rope.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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BOOK NOW

(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 Escape New Haven for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

#KristaJones #IRLescaperoom #EscapeRooms #EscapeNewHaven #Monsters #Connecticut #USA