Review: Pandora’s Box Escape Room 2023

It’s that time of the year again, the midway point to our favorite holiday. Yep, you’ve guessed it: it’s Halfway-to-Halloween! So now you’re looking for something festive to do; perhaps something like a limited-run play or a Halloween fair such as the Spooky Swap Meet (which is happening this weekend). Might we suggest an alternative: a spooky escape room called Pandora’s Box.

Pandora’s Box Escape Room Review: Introduction

Pandora’s Box is produced by Trapped Escape Rooms, which offers a variety of themed rooms. We hoped it would satisfy our horror cravings; it ended up doing more than that. Pandora’s Box tells a story of Max Fortune, an adventurer, explorer, archaeologist, and rare artifact collector. Somehow, he has discovered Pandora’s Box, an extremely powerful artifact which can be misused if fallen in the wrong hands. Luckily for the world, Max Fortune has tasked us with figuring out what powers are contained within the box before his arch-nemesis comes for it.

Pandora’s Box Escape Room Review: Game Play 

Don’t worry, there are no spoilers ahead.  The Gamemasters led us to a private area where we watched a short intro video that borrowed elements from Indiana Jones. After being instructed on what to do and what the assignment was, we were led into a room in a “house.”  The room, which looked like the inside of a cabin or a storage room, was full of artifacts including Pandora’s Box: the obvious four-sided box covered with a curtain right in the middle of the room.  The set design and the props were impressive to say the least, paired with the accents from the Gamemasters; you then suddenly find yourself immersed into a world where adventure meets Greek mythology.  We were warned of hot, cold, and water effects at some point during the game; but don’t worry – you’ll survive the temperature changes.

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The escape room is designed so you move from one puzzle and then onto the next for the most part. It’s always best to work as a group when it comes to these types of scenarios: though there will be certain hints that make you feel as if you can solve it yourself, we saved time in the long run by working as a unit during this intermediate-level escape room experience. The dim lighting overall added to the creep factor. Since the escape room is aptly-named “Pandora’s Box,” there’s really no telling what surprise you’ll get as you move forward with each successfully solved puzzle.  If the well-timed effects, including darkness plus minute strobe at a certain point, doesn’t scare you, then maybe the crawling part might.  (Not everyone needs to crawl to solve the puzzle.)

Pandora’s Box Escape Room Review: Conclusion

Clever lighting effects and cagey re-usage of certain props (which may or may not contain the key to solving it all) make this escape room an exciting one to crack. We also appreciated that the room was simple compared to some escape room experiences we’ve experienced. This makes the game look easier aesthetically; however, it was much more complex, and certain things we thought were nothing turned out to be something.

What also made this escape room fun was the never-ending puzzles, which insures you always have another hurdle to overcome. Just when we thought we were finished, with only thirty-five seconds remaining, the super friendly and helpful Gamemasters threw us another challenge; we felt doomed, but we managed to succeed. Then they explained that we had actually completed the game a while ago; the bonus challenges provide “extra bang for your buck” to make sure players get their money’s worth even if they finish ahead of time. (This isn’t a spoiler since it is listed on their website.) Most amazing of all was that they were able to create many alternate endings that were at least as good as the initial one.