Jester's Revenge Escape Room

Alas, our losing streak continues! But, but, but, No. 1 Escapes’ Jester Revenge was a refreshing new theme for us, and an hour of jocularity that we highly recommend if you are in the Irvine vicinity. With a small group, we are limited in which rooms we can play, but for now, No. 1 Escapes has two rooms that will accommodate a two-person party. In choosing to tumble with No. 1 Escapes, cost was certainly a factor in our decision, as was the private room policy where we could play without our masks. For sure, at their current pricing, it is much, much more cost-effective to play there than in Los Angeles. Irvine, as a destination, has Orange County’s best offerings, as far as food and other activities, so it is no fool’s errand to make the drive. We are tired of paying top-dollar for the same in LA just to have to play with masks on while doing physical activity, which, as players know, escape rooms are, even though we don’t sweat it quite as much as playing football. We chose to play Saturday afternoon because their first available game Friday was at 8:30pm, and we usually like to play first thing in the morning. However, for our game, we decided to book a mid-day slot, because No. 1 Escapes is located in the same business complex as the Puzzle Workshop (previously reviewed) and at least one other escape room company, and we knew exactly how long it would take us to get there from South Coast Plaza after lunch (6 minutes). Parking is free right in front of the business complex and plentiful on a Saturday. It was a skip and up a short flight of stairs to No. 1 Escapes. Per virus precautions, we filled out our waivers ahead of time online, so there was no waiting at all, and our game began immediately after the intro video – which was not as rousing as other intro videos we’ve watched – but who watches the intro video anyway?! That said, Jester’s Revenge was less immersive than the other rooms we've played, but the mostly linear puzzles were really fun to solve and very witty. I would call it a no-tech room until the big picture is complete: you don’t get a lot of lights and sound effects as you are playing the game. This seems to be an Orange County thing vs the rooms in LA, which tend to wow more with the gadgetry and props with the higher prices to match, as one may expect. The story is not new: once-lauded court jester goes crazy, so the king orders us to break into his chambers and to see if we can turn the lights back on. Many years ago, the David Saltzman book "The Jester Has Lost His Jingle" was a bedtime favourite in our home, and this game certainly triggered those treasured memories. We started off in two rooms, one much smaller (mathematically-challenged, be warned!), and the other the bigger room, so I would say off the bat that if we had one more person in the bigger room, we would have been able to get out with time to spare. In completing each task, too, we had to be very careful, so clumsy fingers and any kind of rush would get us back to the beginning. In other words, each task actually took time. Also, we used the toilet (pleasant, no-frills, right there in the lobby) mid-game for the first time ever (lunch, I tell you!), which probably took seconds off our time, but not by much. Jester’s Revenge *is* a well-played game, and the locks are a little glitchy. Also, the mic didn’t work in the smaller room, so we were really lucky we had in Emily a really good gamemaster. She had to come into the smaller room in-person to give the hints, which was fine, because, unlike one of our previous games where the gamemaster just tapped you on the shoulder mid-game (which was really disconcerting), she knocked every time she did, a courtesy very much appreciated. Methinks were we to finish an escape room too early, it doesn’t seem like we get as much beer for our mead, and we are more than fine with not making a full escape out of a room because, for us, a jolly time is to be had in just playing. Since Jester’s Revenge is opened to two people only for a limited time, it was mere trivia that we did not manage to escape …! For two people, it’s a romping gambol if you like escape rooms just for the cheer (which we do), but you would need to be more experienced than us (or maybe it was Post-Lunch Sleepiness Syndrome – haha!) to solve it with just two people. We forswore our victory with three locks to go – and I think if there wasn’t another booking after us, we would have been given the extra time. Our rating is for 4-stars because we can’t rate 4.5, with the 0.5 off for technical problems, but it was a merry gallop we had, most certainly. If you are a child or one at heart who likes funny hats, babies, gross things and nursery rhymes; if you fear not to juggle in the muck, it would be a very quick solve indeed! We can’t wait to go back soon to play Revolution, their game actually designed for two! Thanks for the great pictures! - Already Posted to Yelp

There was no rapport built with the instructor which made the story line very abrupt and choppy. We would have appreciated having more of a storytelling or video going into the escape room rather than a script reading of the rules. However, the challenge of the escape room was excellent & we still had fun.

The room design was lackluster. The puzzles had nothing to do with the storyline. There was 0 immersion. It was obvious that the room was ill-kept. Many of the puzzles were time-consuming and tedious rather than challenging or involving. Overall, the experience was extremely disappointing and my group felt that we had been scammed and misled.