Escape Quest (Alexandria) - "The King's Ransom"

Updated: Apr 7

LOCATION:  Alexandria, Virginia, USA

Photo above is property of Escape Quest

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: The King's Ransom
📅 DATE PLAYED: November 9, 2021
🎬 GENRE: Adventure, Medieval
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 6.5/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-8 PPL
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins
💰 PRICE: $36-54/PP (pending on group size)
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

📖 THE STORY

You and your group of friends have been confined to the King's royal chambers! There's a demand for the King's coffer of gold in exchange for his life and it's up to you to find it. But beware, his chambers are filled with challenges designed to hide and protect his most precious items!

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

The props in this room felt like items you would find in a castle in the medieval times. It almost felt like we were inside of a museum exhibition observing historical pieces. The huge center table is definitely eye catchy and a great place to put items on when working on the puzzles. There's even a seat for the "reader" of the group to read off all the story/riddles to the fellow team members.
Although this is just a single room experience, there was a lot of puzzles embedded in hidden places.
There was a clear mission on what we needed to find and do in order to claim the Gold at the end.

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

This is Escape Quest's oldest room and some props were a bit finicky during our game play and some needs a bit updating.
There's no other way to figure out answers for riddles in this room other than ask for a hint. One riddle in particular was based more on a "saying" which if you are not familiar with then you'll probably need to just ask the GM for the answer. It's quite difficult to clue players on these.
There was one puzzle in there that was a bit of a logic leap for us. Even after using a hint, we still needed a nudge in the right direction.

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

We first visited Escape Quest at their Alexandria, Virginia location back in 2018 to play "The Black Widow" and "The Lost Temple". From the minute that we stepped foot inside the lobby area, we knew that Escape Quest was something special! The lobby decor and costumer service of this family owned business were top notch. Since then, we've been back to play to their newest game - "Pitfall" and their other location in Bethesda, Maryland to play "Expedition Unknown"! They are constantly improving their games as we see now from their oldest one we've just played to their newest one that just won our Bullseye Award (Pitfall). We look forward to new games that will be released from them this year!

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

There is street parking available (pay meter with app). Lobby area with seating and games available. You'll need to climb a flight of stairs to get to the lobby.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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