Breakout Games (Baltimore) - "Runaway Train"

Updated: Jun 10

LOCATION:  Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland, USA

Photo above is property of Breakout Games

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Runaway Train
📅 DATE PLAYED: July 4, 2019
🎬 GENRE: Thriller
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 7.5/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: Up to 8 ppl
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.
💰 PRICE: $23.99 - $37.99/ pp
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

We are excited to finally try out Breakout Games. Today, we arrived at their Timonium, MD location. They currently have 44 locations in the US and 1 in South Africa! This location is located in between two large parking lots so there’s plenty of spaces available. If you are hungry, you can easily grab something to eat before or after in the complex. As we entered the “Zen” tree pathway, we easily saw the big Breakout Games sign from far away. The lobby is quite spacious with plenty of seating, complimentary water, and a good selection of merchandise for you to look at while you wait for your game.

We were greeted by the general manager who personally served as our game master. This location currently has 7 escape games and we chose to do their newest room - “Runaway Train”. As the game master explained the normal escape room etiquettes to us, we were eager to start our cross-continental journey on their Breakout Express. With the visual effects, sound, and the well-made set design (the seats felt like genuine leather!), we instantly felt immersed with an urgent situation. As the radicals took over the conductor’s cabin to plant explosives to denote at Central Station, our mission is to stop the attack and bring all the passengers to safety. We liked how they incorporated the passing of the train stops as a timer versus the normal count down. We were stumped on our weakness once again: searching for things. We could not find this one item for probably a whole 5 minutes! We were asking for assistance, but our gamemaster wasn’t going to give up the answer that easy considering his military background (you better be on your good behavior when you play his rooms! He’s also a sword forger!), we had to earn it. We finally found it along with a “duh” moment and rushed through the rest of the game. There was a good amount of traditional and cool tech puzzles that we haven’t seen before. We liked how the puzzles stuck with the theme of the room and utilized what we would need to do in a train in this situation. We did get out with just the two of us with minute to spare. The minor suggestion we have for Breakout would probably be for the room design. If we can had a bit more “surprising” aspects or “wow” moments (without giving away too much), it would really add on to the experience. Other than that, it was a pretty solid room.

Since we will be in VA, we decided to try their “Island Escape” room at the Breakout Games DC location (this is how it’s listed on their website, but the actual location is in VA). If you played both games before, we would love to hear your opinion on which is your favorite?

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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