Codeword Escape Room (Formerly "Quandary") - "Son of the Zodiac"

Updated: Apr 12

LOCATION:  Wallingford, Connecticut, USA

Photo above is property of Quandary

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Son of the Zodiac
📅 DATE PLAYED: September 1, 2019
🎬 GENRE: Thriller
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 7.5/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: Up to 6 ppl
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.
💰 PRICE: $25.00/ pp
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

Video above is property of Quandary

This is our second time at Quandary Escape Room. Read our “Operation: Gambit” to know more about the location.

Today, we are tackling one of my favorite room themes: serial killer mystery. I’m a huge CSI and Criminal Minds fan and I'm hoping all that TV show knowledge will come in handy finally. The room we are trying is called “Son of the Zodiac”. It was inspired by the true story of “The Zodiac Killer” in the late 60's and early 70's. Until this day, he was never identified and now Connecticut is experiencing a string of disappearances and it seems like a copycat is on the loose. The police have issued a $100,000 reward and we decided to try our luck with one of the prime suspects we were following. When he left the apartment, we bribed the landlord and got inside to investigate the place. Our friends are following him and giving us constant updates on his location. We needed to get out before he comes back! Our suggested ideal size for this room is 4 people for room "A". However there's a larger version of this room if you have more people and that would be room "B" with a bit more square footage and added puzzles. This room can fit a maximum number of 8 people.

As we entered the dimly lit apartment room, there was a lot to be discovered. With the owner’s background, we expected this storyline to be as real as it could get from the mindset of the killer. The cover up of a normal tenant was done well in the room design and we enjoyed the latter “wow” moments. There was one clue which we didn’t really get the vocabulary terms but using process of elimination it was solvable. We really liked the puzzle design as it utilized all the skills an investigator would do in this situation. We searched, used deductive reasoning, and critical thinking. “Time is of the essence” was also very realistic to real life situations. You should definitely pace yourself throughout the game as we seemed to use more time in the latter part of time game. We escaped at the last second which gave us that ultimate rush and rejoice.

Quandary Escape Room is our “go to” escape room to experience “crime related themed” escape rooms. We know we can play the room while feeling like we’re going through a real-life story because the owner (developer) has put their personal touch into it. Which is your favorite Quandary room?

Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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