We’re a day late with this “best of the month” column, but yesterday we were busy celebrating the 2024 Golden Lock Awards! If you only read a few pieces from April, these are the ones to read. Most importantly, today is the last day to get special benefits with the purchase of a RECON ticket. Special RECON Ticket Benefits Expire at Midnight! RECON 24 features 2 quintessential Los Angeles experiences coming on-site to our RECON venue: Imagi-Ne’er-Do-Wells & The 49 Boxes. Everyone will take part in both experiences… but if you want to select when you play (and who you pl ..read more

“We always want to make something that we haven’t seen before.” There are few companies who have been as influential in the escape room scene as Cross Roads Escape Games. Not only are all their games highly polished with brilliant puzzles, gorgeous sets, and fun interactions, they’re also creatively experimental. The owners, Luke and Madison Rhoades, have made some of the most innovative and format-breaking escape rooms in the world from the iconic experience, The Hex Room, to their most recent masterpiece, The Weeping Witch. In this episode, we break down the brilliance behind their games a ..read more

The Room Escape Artist team is excited to announce the 2024 Golden Lock Award Winners. Since 2015, we’ve bestowed the Golden Lock Award annually to honor our favorite experiences that we played and reviewed that year. This the last time you will see the Golden Lock Award presented in this format. To this end, we are honoring many incredible games we experienced this year, and righting some past wrongs before we move into the new era of the Golden Lock Award. This is a collection of worthy games that demonstrate the breadth of creativity within the escape room industry. Categories Tabletop – T ..read more

#1 – The 2024 Golden Lock Awards stream tonight. #2 – There’s only one day left to get special benefits when you purchase your RECON Los Angeles ticket. Here’s everything you need to know! Golden Lock Award Details The awards are tonight: Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at 9pm Eastern. Watch the award show live on YouTube and chat with us in the comments! The Golden Lock Awards blog post will publish tonight, at the end of the awards show, with links to reviews of all the winners. If you can’t watch live, you’ll be able to find the recording on our YouTube channel after the stream. Watch ..read more

I have silly amount of lock knowledge.  I’ve been picking locks for more than 20 years, and exploring escape rooms for more than 10 years… I’ve handled a lot of locks.  I’m just going to come out with it and tell you the superior choice for 3-digit & 4-digit number locks in escape rooms… then I’ll break down why you should be using these locks.  of the Combination Locks The Abus, 160/40: individually resettable 3-digit code & 160/50: individually resettable 4-digit code.  These are the same locks with slightly different form factors.  Abus locks are about ..read more

Another PAX East is in the books! Once again, I traveled up to Boston in late March to attend this video game convention and report on the most interesting games that were on exhibit. This time, I was joined by REA contributor and videographer Steve Ewing, and together we sought out the games we felt would be most interesting to bring to your attention. We interviewed a few of the standouts, Steve turned those interviews into some great footage and first impressions of the games we saw. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Room Escape Arist (@roomescapeartist) Like last year, the ..read more

RECON 24 features 2 quintessential Los Angeles experiences coming on-site to our RECON venue: Imagi-Ne’er-Do-Wells & The 49 Boxes. Everyone will take part in both experiences… but if you want to select when you play (and who you play with!) you need buy your RECON ticket this week. Get your ticket by May 1st to secure priority session selection for these RECON events! About The RECON 24 Schedule Everyone will participate in Imagi-Ne’er-Do-Wells and The 49 Boxes… but not all at once. These experiences are designed to be more intimate. Imagi-Ne’er-Do-Wells will run twice during RECON. The 4 ..read more

The Paper Labyrinth : The Power of Four is a puzzle book/ print-and-play game. Format Style of Play: Puzzle book Print-and-play Who is it For? Less experienced players Required Equipment: computer with internet connection, pen & paper Recommended Team Size: exactly 4 players Play Time: less than 60 minutes for our group of experienced players, but there isn’t any time limit Price: $8 Booking: purchase and play at your leisure Description This book is designed to be played with exactly 4 players and it centers around communication. You can purchase 1 copy of the book and share pdfs with ..read more

A behavior adjustment Location:  Amersfoort, Netherlands Date Played: February 18, 2024 Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3-4 Duration: 80 minutes Price: €165 per team Ticketing: Private Accessibility Consideration:  All players need to walk up and down a few steps. Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints REA Reaction Poppet had a wonderful, creative opening. It was impish and ominous. I’ve never seen anything like it. At some point, however, Poppet changed direction and dragged for a while. Then, it pivoted and was sud ..read more

“There’s absolutely no difference between Magic and the Magical.” We shuffle slowly into the basement, careful not to bump into anything. This is harder than seems, because everywhere we turn, there are boxes and objects. Collections of items are spotlit, dust motes dancing in the air. Curious, we split up and start exploring. In one hidden nook, there’s a display of antique brass locks, and in another, a strange set of wine bottles. Over in the corner, there is a sculpture of a Van Gogh head, which hides pontifications on commercialized art on the back.  This basement belongs to M ..read more