Fox In A Box (Seattle) - "Prison Break"

Krista Jones

Jul 17, 20223 min read

Updated: Apr 6, 2024

LOCATION:  Seattle, Washington, USA

Photo above is property of Fox In A Box (Seattle)

Photo above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Prison Break
📅 DATE PLAYED: June 6, 2022
🎬 GENRE: Prison Breakout
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 3 ppl): 7/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-6 PPL (Recommend 3-4PPL)
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins
💰 PRICE: $40-46.50/PP (pending on group size)
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

📖 THE STORY

You are on death row and set to be executed in one hour, when a riot breaks out in another part of the prison! Can you escape before the guards return to get you?

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

Fox in a Box (Seattle) emphasizes the authenticity of their environments, with items acquired directly from correctional facilities for this game. While I personally cannot compare it with the real deal, the start of the experience in particular is highly immersive and hopefully the closest I will ever feel to being “locked up!”.
"Prison Break" combines more traditional “escape room” type puzzles with more realistic, mimetic challenges that you might encounter in a breakout. There were several moments when we thought, “can we really do this?!”
As a big fan of cooperative puzzles, I really enjoyed that the group is initially split up and forced to work together, helping to ensure everyone is getting in on the action. Other parts of the game allow for more independent solves, if desired.

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

There is an in-house rule that if you take a hint, you must wait 10 minutes before asking for another one. Personally, I’m a fan of players having the option to take hints or not as they choose (though with limitations on what is required to be considered for the leaderboard). In our case, this led to us taking a hint before we normally would have, because we didn’t know how much of the game was left and we would've only had time for one more hint if needed. As it turns out, it was the last puzzle, we had plenty of time, and I believe we would have gotten the satisfaction of solving it if we had given ourselves a few more minutes. In relation to hints, we also got an unprompted “freebie” hint, based on the fact that there is a component that will auto-lock you out for some period of time if you enter enough wrong answers. At the time, we hadn’t entered any answers yet. I definitely appreciate the effort to save players from the frustration of a lockout! However, it seems like the ideal would be to use an item without that feature, to really give players the option of a satisfying solve without that unexpected hint.
For those who are particularly into story development, "Prison Break" is light on the story component, aside from the brief initial backstory.

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

"Prison Break" shines, particularly in the first part of the game, in immersing you in their world and presenting you with rewarding, realistic challenges! The theme may not be for everyone (and I preferred to imagine myself as a daring cat burglar busting out, rather than a death row inmate), but it will definitely appeal to many. If you are secretly preparing for your own breakout (or just want to see how you fare), are up for some crawling, and appreciate mimetic challenges with an immersive environment, go give "Prison Break" a try!

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

Fox in a Box (Seattle), in Belltown, has a small lobby with size-able lockers available for your belongings (one per group). There is a bathroom available. There is both street and lot parking nearby, or you can catch public transport.

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 Fox In A Box (Seattle) for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.