The Best Escape Rooms in America

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Paranoia Quest’s Best Escape Rooms In America

A great escape room is challenging, mysterious, and skillfully designed. It should engage players, piquing their curiosity while simultaneously motivating them to find the next clue or solve the next puzzle.

As these immersive troubleshooting quests become more popular, escape room owners are getting creative— enhancing their escape rooms by choosing eerie locations, adding high-tech features like tablets or video production, and developing new, innovative storylines that set them apart from their competitors.

In this blog post, we’ll be sharing some of the best escape rooms in the United States and sharing the unique features they offer.

But first, let’s discuss the most important elements all of the coolest escape rooms share.

Requirements for a Great Escape Room

1. A Sensational Storyline

A captivating plot line will help your players become more invested in their escape room experience, mentally transporting them into the scene you are describing. Whether your player’s must flee the King’s Chamber of an Egyptian Pyramid with a sacred amulet, or navigate their way out of a haunted house before the ghost of an old witch casts an irreversible spell— the more riveting your story is, the more charmed your players will be.

2. An Enchanting Environment

All of the top escape rooms offer an atmosphere that feels authentic, cryptic, and intriguing. Whether it’s adding floorboards that actually creek to a haunted house escape room, or keeping the temperature cool for a challenge that takes place deep underground in a spooky mine shaft, details matter when it comes to creating an engaging environment.

3. Surprise Factor

In order to rank among the best escape rooms in the world, a “room” must be full of puzzles and mysteries that are ambitious, but not too difficult. If an escape room is too complex, players will eventually feel defeated and disinterested. If it’s too easy, they’ll feel the experience wasn’t worth the cost. After all, they’re coming for the sense of adventure and pursuit. Adding surprise twists and unexpected clues are a great way to maintain your player’s interest and create an unforgettable experience. Some escape rooms, for example, have a real-life actor appear at a crucial role in the storyline, while others offer secret passageways or clues that can only be seen when a black light is used. 

The Best Escape Rooms in the U.S.

1. Clue Chase – Midtown, New York City, New York

This premiere escape room facility offers four mind-bending challenges, each full of unexpected twists and turns. Bookings can be made in groups of 4-14 people and each experience lasts 60 minutes. For a super-challenging experience that tests your wits and intelligence unlike any other, we recommend trying the “Lost Spy” room.

2. Fox in a Box – Chicago, Illinois

It isn’t easy to maintain a 5-star rating on Google, Yelp, Facebook and Trip Advisor, but Fox in a Box has done just that. It is considered by many to be one of the best escape rooms in the US, and for good reason. They are known for their dramatic, engrossing storylines and realistically-designed rooms, which give players a sense of really being in a specific scenario. Their prison escape room, for example, gives participants a chance to see if they are alert and resourceful enough to break out of a maximum security cell and secure their freedom.

3. The Lock – Houston, Texas

If you’re looking for an escape room that will drop you into the settings of some of your favorite movies, this is the ideal choice for you. The Lock offers a range of room themes, all of which are sure to impress. The Oceans Royale room, for example, truly feels like the set of a blockbuster heist film, challenging players to break into a vault and make off with the loot.

4. Enigma Escape Rooms – Boulder, Colorado

Enigma is one of the top rated escape rooms on Trip Advisor. It offers modern, detailed rooms with theme you won’t find anywhere else. Their Missing Scientist mission, for instance, places players inside the private study of an academic scholar, tasking them with retrieving his discoveries before they fall into the wrong hands.

5. The Official SAW Escape Room – Las Vegas, Nevada

This is by far the best escape room on our list for those who enjoy horror films and spine-chilling challenges. Based on the widely-known Saw horror film franchise, these escape rooms bring the series to life, luring participants into ghastly games that require a keen sense of ingenuity and a whole lot of bravery to survive.

6. Stash House – Los Angeles, California

Stash House is considered to be one of the best escape experiences by Californians and visitors from across the United States. It’s essentially a real-life video game that takes place in a nondescript building in Central LA. Unlike other escape room companies, Stash House has just one “mission” or storyline— find all of the drugs that has been stashed in the crime house and dispose of them before the police arrive. A super-thrilling challenge that will have you raving!

7. Boxaroo – Boston, Massachusetts

Boxaroo was ranked #3 on USA Today’s 2018 Top 10 List of Escape Rooms, making it an obvious contender for our selection of best escape rooms in America. It features family-friendly room themes like the Magician’s Study, where players get to explore an enchanted world unlike any they’ve ever seen.

8. 13th Gate Escape – Baton Rouge, Louisiana

This is an escape room best option for players who don’t scare easily. With rooms like the Asylum, where eerie human experimentations were conducted, guests who visit 13th Gate Escape must be prepared to be spooked. The Collector Room, for example, places players at the bottom of a deep well where they’ve been placed by a notorious serial killer. These rooms will definitely get your blood pumping, that’s for sure!

9. Mystery Mansion Escape Room – Little Rock, Arizona

This escape room business is located in an actual historic mansion, adding to it’s charm and appeal. It focuses on family-friendly challenges (ages 10 and up) that are designed to stimulate the senses and make player’s think extra hard. Their Foster’s Fortune room is their most difficult, and one of the best escape rooms on our list for more experienced players who want to defy the completion odds.

10. Paranoia’s Quest – Atlanta, Georgia

We couldn’t possibly leave ourselves out! At Paranoia Quest, we specialize in offering our players one-of-a-kind escape room challenges that provide that invigorating adrenaline rush our participants come to know and love. Our Escape the Room With a Zombie mission, for example, places players in close quarters with an actual zombie that wants to eat their brains. Can you outwit your opponent and avoid an unfortunate end? Only time will tell.

IF YOU’RE IN ATLANTA AND WANT TO TRY ONE OF THE BEST ESCAPE ROOMS THE CITY HAS TO OFFER, CONTACT US TODAY.

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