Escape IQ Escape Rooms

Escape rooms. What’s not to love about them? They provide an exhilarating immersive experience, coupled with great team play. Whether you’re a gamer that’s looking for a quick change of pace, or you’re a person looking for something to do with a group of friends, Escape IQ has something just for you.

Located by the Arts District in Los Angeles, ‘EscapeIQ’ provides three different escape rooms to try. We attempted to escape from the Alcatraz Room, which has a 33% success rate, which some would say is easy.

When first arriving at Escape IQ, our host went through the basics of how some of their locks work…locks that we would come across in our escape room. After our introduction, our host then led us to our room. Once inside, we were split up into two teams. One team was placed in one jail cell and the second team into the other. My first initial thought was that we would be working against each other, like seeing which team can escape first, but I was wrong. The two teams would actually be working together. What really made the room exciting was that the clues we found could either be from your jail cell or the other, so communication was key. What made Alcatraz challenging was that everything we did was in the dark. We were given flashlights, but at times that was not enough.

Where Alcatraz shines is in their puzzles. Puzzles were complex and at times complicated. We ran into a puzzle that ended up giving us a true challenge. Where we feel Alcatraz falls short is the set design. Don’t get me wrong; Escape IQ uses the space they have very well, creating an intricate escape room, but I felt that the overall design of the prison did not give us an immersive feel. Most escape rooms I’ve been to personally are designed to make the players feel encompassed within the room, to make them feel as if they truly are a part of the story they have crafted.

In the end, Escape IQ has created a very successful escape room. There were some things in the room that I’ve never seen done before, which really makes the room stand out from the others. There were moments in the room that created a predicament for us. We knew that if we failed at certain puzzles, we would never be able to recover, thus making it impossible to escape the room. This creates a sense of tension for the players, and if a room can do that, then you got yourself in a winner.

I enjoyed Escape IQ’s Alcatraz room, and I would definitely visit them again to give their hardest room, ‘Dr. Brown’s Manor’ a try. And hey, if celebrities like Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard gave Escape IQ a try, maybe you should too.

Escape IQ is located on 5th street in Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit them at to book your room today.

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Arvin Santiago
Arvin Santiago 297 posts

Photo/Video Enthusiast and Escape Room "Semi-Professional"