There’s No Such Thing as Having “Tomb-Much” Fun

After spending any amount of time in the Escape Room hobby, you’ll soon discover that certain room themes repeat. Multiple establishments often have rooms with similar themes but offer unique experiences. The rooms are never exactly the same in any way. One such repeating theme is the “Egyptian” theme. And what’s not to like about this theme? Just thinking about ancient Egypt immediately calls to mind things like cryptic hieroglyphics, spooky tombs, mysterious pyramids, and mystical forces. So when the Escape Junkies learned that Legends Escape Rooms in Brandon, FL was opening just such a room, we knew we had to do it!

The Good

Immediately upon entering this room you’ll be transported to an Egyptian dig site the likes of which the Junkies had never experienced before. One cannot say enough about the excellent production value of this room. Everything from puzzles, to fixtures, to decoration serves to maintain the illusion that you’re really rushing to avoid Anubis’ vengeful wrath! It’s actually true that the Junkies were trying their hand at escaping the other rooms at Legends Escape Rooms while Revenge of Anubis was under construction. While none of us was privy to the construction plans/details, I can still confidently say that a TON of work went into this room. Passing glances of work in progress and the occasional cacophony of construction sounds all bear witness to the owner’s blood, sweat, and tears that went into this room.

The junkies have collectively done well over 100+ rooms. So it’s a rare and pleasant thing when we come across a type of puzzle that we’ve never seen before. The uniqueness of the puzzles in this room will be sure to challenge even the most well seasoned of escape teams (like the Junkies!).

As soon as you think you’re approaching the end of this room, you’ll be wrong! This room keeps on giving. There is fun around every corner. And without giving any spoilers, I’d like to offer an observation I’ve made after doing as many rooms as I have. Whenever you have a room that contains other hidden rooms, these rooms tend to be very linear when it comes to the puzzle progression. What this means is that puzzles are often confined to the room in which they are found or solved. There are a few rooms that buck this trend and require you to carry completed (or half completed) puzzles, clues, or riddles-in-progress with you as you progress through the room. I am happy to report that Revenge of Anubis was the latter type of room. This kind of puzzle structure is infinitely more fun.

You and your team will definitely need to stay sharp throughout this room’s duration. As you’ll see below, this room difficulty is rated as a 5+ (out of a 1-5 scale). For the Junkies, the room’s difficulty was a juicy promise that I am glad to report was kept.

Room difficulty can be a fickle friend. It can crush your confidence or fulfill your quest for inner joy. The satisfaction that comes with solving really difficult puzzles is a unique feeling. It’s a high that the Junkies love chasing…

The Not So Good

Well…. the 5+ difficulty.

Yes, yes. I know I just listed the difficulty under “The Good,” but hear me out.

Even though the room’s difficulty was an attractive characteristic for the Junkies, it’s sure to be a sticking point for others. Let’s all be honest here… escape rooms are always better when you can ESCAPE!

It’s a sad fact that some establishments, in order to achieve a high level of difficulty, make puzzles that are overly hard, illogical, and that almost require a degree of luck to solve. While I am happy to say that Revenge of Anubis didn’t quite wade into this territory… they were certainly close.

This room cannot be recommended for beginners. But then again, it’s not supposed to be for beginners. I have to give kudos to Legends Escape Rooms for being upfront and honest about the room’s difficulty.

The next “Not So Good” characteristic of the room caused me no small amount of internal conflict. So please take with the proverbial grain of salt…

The hints.

Every escape room has some kind of a system to give hints. Most commonly, your team will be given a limited amount of hints (usually 3) which you can ask for at any time. For Revenge of Anubis however, our team was told that hints are unlimited.

This will be difficult to explain (hence my conflict with this issue), but the unlimited number of hints didn’t bother me. Believe me, we took the hints! And we recommend that you do, too! But there’s a number of inferences that you’re forced to confront as soon as you hear that the hints are unlimited: Is this room that hard? Are we going to make it? Will the hints actually help us?

So again, the hints or the number of them is not necessarily the problem, it’s just the anxiety inducing implications of such a hint system that makes this escapee remember this as a “Not so Good” aspect of the room.

Closing

If you’re a confident and experienced escape room goer, I think you’ll love this room. You’ll instantly be thrown into a welcome mysterious ancient Egyptian fantasy. If you’re newer or more timid in your escape journey, maybe save this one for later, but definitely plan to revisit it once you have the chops. Don’t let this one get away from you. 4/5