Escape the Room

Our group had a great experience trying to escape The Agency. This was my first escape room so I have nothing to compare it to, but overall we had a fun time. Our group of 4 got paired with a random group of 4, and we all worked well together. We didn’t take it too serious, which allowed us to have fun with it, but serious enough that we tried to solve all the puzzles. We didn’t manage to escape the room but were extremely close. I will say that we definitely would not have gotten to where we did without the hints given throughout the challenge.
Not sure it was worth the $ 30/​person but I think that’s the going rate for these things. Also as a heads up, use the call box to get into the building.

Done The Agency last year in July (It was still new at that time!), going to do The Dig this week and am overly excited. We did not finish the Agency last time since we forgot to look at the tip given to us… but we almost made it!
This place is well-​designed and puzzles are carefully created. Much much better than the escape room live DC, like if this one is a 8/​10, live is at most ³⁄₁₀.
I can see the efforts been put into the design of the rooms. Highly recommend

Heather from Escape The Room was the perfect example of customer service. I had to call with a unique situation and cannot express how much I appreciated her help. I have not actually gone yet, but needed to express my gratitude to her and Escape the Room. I look forward coming in the future. Thank you again.

I went with a group of friends just for fun a few nights ago (we did The Dig) and it was so much fun! The room can accommodate up to 10 people but we had 5 and that was a perfect number for us. The puzzles were fun and it was just the right amount of challenging but not impossible. I would highly recommend! It was also really helpful that they had someone monitoring our progress who could give us hints when we needed them. And since they were just projected onto a screen (with a few chimes to let us know there was a new clue) we had the option of looking at it if we wanted to or not looking at it if we didn’t want a hint. And though we looked every time, it was nice that we had the option!
That being said, I probably wouldn’t bring any kids under the age of 12. Some of the puzzles are a little more complicated and I don’t think young kids would do well with this. I think it would be a bit frustrating for them and then, when they couldn’t really participate, kinda boring. But for anyone else, it’s super fun and I would definitely suggest giving this a try!

Very enjoyable and intricate room escape.
There are two challenges, and a new lunar puzzle starting sometime later in the year.
Super fun and nice use of a variety of puzzles, locks, and clues.
We finished the Dig in 42:00! It accommodates 10 people, but I would prefer to do it with 3 – 6 people, as communication becomes hard with more people and clues that need thought.

First time doing an escape room. My girlfriend and I got paired up with a family of six to do «The Agency» and although we didn’t escape the room, we still had a lot of fun. The staff was helpful and explained the rules before entering the room, and they offered hints via a monitor in the room throughout the challenge.
Some of the puzzles within the room required some leaps of logic that I would not have made without help, but with enough people it’s likely that somebody will bark up the right tree. The room itself had a couple of nice interactive surprises and I will definitely be back at some point to do «The Dig», although with the current price point it’ll have to be limited to a special occasion.
(P.S. — Without having read the reviews here first, I would not have known to call the call box to enter Escape the Room DC as the outside is not well marked.)

Some friends were coming to visit and asked if we had ever done an escape room challenge. We have never done on and after looking at the options in the DC area we decided on escape the room. There were 6 of us and we decided to do the agency room. It was difficult but so hard you couldn’ t figure the clues out. When you got stumped we were given clues to help point you in the right direction. We did escape! With 7 minutes to spare. We will be back to do another room.

Went here for my birthday with a group of ten people. Nobody had ever done something like this, so we didn’t know what to expect. We had SO much fun! It got intense, I wanted to give up SO many times! Luckily those in my group weren’t easily deterred. I agree with the other review about having a sign or something telling you to use the call box. I was just a little confused upon arriving.
We tried to get there 15 mins early, as suggested, but DC lights/​traffic along with parking kinda ruined that. Luckily when we went there weren’t many bookings on the schedule, but for a booked up day be sure to arrive on time! We got out of the room with a minute to spare, I don’t know how some could in 35 – 40 minutes. Time will start to fly and you’ll be itching for clues!

Here’s the skinny: great concept, great location, however, currently only two challenges to pick from and once you have done both of those challenges you are left waiting for another or visiting other locations unfortunately. I will say that I did find the customer service of the clue master and check to be top notch. Everyone was really polite and all challenges were tough but not impossible which made the game pretty fun. I would recommend bringing your own group of friends as oppose to joining a random group. Nothing wrong with joining a random group if you have too but you will have the instant clash of all the different personalities in the room which could slow your progress down a little bit if your a newbie and the others are somewhat experienced. One big tip for anyone looking to seriously pass each challenge, don’t bar crawl before lol… another big tip is the entire game is meant to have fun and I certainly did, can’t wait to go back…

Very well done escape room. We did the Agency and actually escaped! Thanks to a few others who were real puzzle solvers! You get paired up with other groups at the same time; the only way to reserve the room is to purchase all the tickets.
I have been to other companies and I felt that their room was the most challenging and interesting. I don’t want to go into too many details to not spoil the clues :)
A sign/​sandwich board out front would be nice. Something on your site to mention to use the call box. We saw a big office building with the right address, but were confused at first. We figured to use the call box. But a sign and instructions online would make that just a tad bit easier to find.
I’m willing to go back to try another room.

Avoid this Room!
Last week I intended on having a fun and interactive date with my girlfriend, however due to lack of oversight and rude staff it turned into a nightmare. When we arrived we were told that we were to be paired with a three other adults and 2 young children. Now I am sure you can imagine that getting trapped in a small room with misbehaving children isn’t an ideal situation, however once you book the tickets it is very apparently there are no refunds. So we decided to grin and bare it. This was akin to be locked in airplane for an hour as the children ran around ransacking the room and pressing all the buttons. The fact that we were relegated to effectively watching these children, ruined the entire experience. I understand that this is a family friendly experience, but no effort was made to accommodate us at all. When we were finally freed from our confinement, a member of the staff, Jaqi, asked how the experience went. When my girlfriend replied that it unfortunately was not very enjoyable, Jaqi went off on a tirade on how this was a family friendly event and yelled at my girlfriend for being dissatisfied with the experience. This berating went on for over 10 min and brought my girlfriend to tears. I was so enraged by the situation that I called the manager, who assured me that she would email me an apology. This however never came and again speaks to the poor level of service at this establishment.
In terms of content, while my experience was limited it seemed about a 3. I was not blown away by the puzzles (and one of them was broken when I went through so the hastily replaced it with haphazard padlock).
The entire experience was shameful and not worth it. I guess there was a reason 2 of the other places I tried were sold out.

My second Escape the Room experience, as the first was the one in Old Town, Alexandria. A lot of fun and I highly recommend it as a group activity for birthdays or just something you and your friends can do. We did the Agency room, which has a spy/​secret agent/​James Bond theme. Essentially you are «locked» in the room and must use all the clues scattered/​hidden/​baked into puzzles around the room to solve the case, get the key and escape. It is very challenging but the clue master will chime in with hints on the TV screen to keep you on the right path. I was quite impressed by the creativity behind most of the clues and how a lot of them were integrated. My main pointers would be to come early (you only have a set amount of time in the room and you don’t want to waste it by listening to instructions), split up (there are a LOT of clues) and share information with everyone (especially if you’re doing this with strangers, don’t worry though as everyone bonds over the «mission» really quick). Oh, and we escaped :)

To celebrate the 50^th birthday of a dear friend, four of us came and played at Escape the Room the The Agency room. Jamie was our host and he was awesome! In playing our game we definitely needed some help. Jamie was very kind in giving us a few hints to move us in the right direction. We didn’t «win», but had a fun time in «losing». I would highly recommend this game for anyone who is looking for a different outing with their friends/​family. Escape the Room spent a lot of time and effort building The Agent. It’s an impressive game and hopefully I’ll play better next time!

Definitely lots of fun! We went as a work group and it was challenging even for Business Analysts

What I was most worried about before I went here was that it would be too easy (since the promotional stuff shows kids, etc.). But I was very pleasantly surprised that the level of difficulty was medium-​difficult. I would have preferred very difficult, but I won’t hold that against them because I’m sure most people would prefer easier. There were some technical problems with the countdown clock and «clue displayer», which were worked around in a manual way. I do not like that clues were given at all. Perhaps it should be an option? I highly recommend the experience, and will be back again. The props and production values were excellent.

Great fun! Challenging but attainable! A test of memory, problem solving and thinking. Work together! Divide and conquer. Awesome time had by all!

This past weekend I went with a group of friends to try ‘The Agency’ room. This is my 5^th escape room I’ve tried, and the 2^nd time I’ve done one with this company (I recently did one in Boston through this company).
I LOVE escape rooms and think it’s such a fun activity to do with friends and family. We got these tickets on a discount since they just opened, so we knew that there could potentially be some ‘bumps’ with it being new.
A few things that I hope to see improve as they get in a routine:
1) Start on time. Of all the escape rooms I’ve been to, both times I’ve been to one with this company (again the other one was in Boston), they did not start on time. They ask you to arrive 10 mins ahead of time (we arrived 15 to be safe w/​parking and navigating the city). Arriving early, to me, is to allow time to give customers the run down of how everything works so the timer will start at the time of your room reservation. We ran a little tight to our dinner reservation because of this, but the staff did give us the fastest introduction (per our request) to try and help us get started faster.
2) Pay attention to the activity going on in the room at all times. More than 3 clues were given to us to help us find items that we actually already had completed. When we were given the clues, we thought we missed additional/​similar items and wasted time looking for these instead of using the time to find items we hadn’t yet solved.
3) Have customers sign a waiver. With other escape room companies, we had to sign a waiver acknowledging that if we got hurt it would be our own fault for not following rules. I’m confident that this also protects the company if the customer breaks items in the room. The group before us broke a few items by not following the rules/​guidelines (no brute force). This forced the staff to notify us on the tv when we solved a couple of clues in the room because things weren’t functioning properly.
*Because of #3 we actually received a discount code to come back and try their other room and our group fully intends on doing this (thank you!!). We are excited to attempt another room and hopefully have a smoother time without any broken items (c’mon consumers — follow the rules so everyone can have fun!)
One thing that I absolutely loved was the décor in ‘The Agency’ room. Sometimes rooms can be sparse and not very exciting — this one was nicely done!
p. s. We did escape :)

Awesome activity for a group of friends. We wrangled together 16 friends and booked both The Dig and The Agency rooms and had a blast in both.
My group did The Dig and we couldn’t have had more fun! The setting is unique and the puzzles are challenging. The Clue Masters want you to have a good time, so they give helpful hints on a screen in the room. I will say, some are absolutely impossible to solve without their help, which was a little frustrating. The whole thing played out like a movie with us solving the final puzzle, finding the key and escaping with just seven seconds left on the clock. It was exhilarating!
Our counterparts in The Agency had an equally great time and spoke highly of the puzzles they were given.
All in all, we had a great time and can’t wait to go back and try different rooms!

We managed to scramble up a group of ten of us to participate. We really had no idea what to expect, but as soon as we arrived we were given the run down of how things were going to procede.
The whole experience was exhilarating and challenging. With each clue we became more excited, engaged and even more determined to escape the room. We did escape, with almost 15 minutes to spare. Immediately there was cheering and celebrating.
We learned that the clues change frequently, and that there are rooms with different themes. Some rooms are only around for a limited time, so this is not one time experience. We are already planning our next escape!

I played «The Agency» with a group of friends. I was amazed how much fun I had, and how we were all engaged every minute for the entire hour. To be honest, I was skeptical whether this would be cheesy, but I went along. I’m so glad I did, because this whole concept is implemented in such an effective way, it really works. I would recommend this to any group of friends or colleagues who enjoy thinking and a little adrenaline.