As someone who has played over 100 escape rooms, I can safely say that The Scarlet Haunting is the spooky thriller room that that Bay Area needs.Featuring some really good ambiance, great puzzle flow, and a subtly eerie story that that draws from Asian style horror and one of my favorite blacklight puzzles in recent memory this room is well worth its price tag.Those expecting tons of technology will be disappointed as its mainly lock and key however do not let that stop you from sampling this room as a lot of care went into the lighting and sound design presented. They are some generally creepy moments that put us on edge unsure on how to continue and its rather impressive how they got so much out of so little.

We had awesome time, the host Megan made this experience memorable. She was involved in the game which made it more interesting. I think some of the puzzles are hard but interesting to solve. Overall our group had an amazing time here. I highly recommend this place and the host/game master Megan.

The game that we did was Scarlet Haunting and boy did we get creeped out. The storyline gave it that eeriness which made you be on your toes while solving puzzles. The puzzles itself isnt too hard since this was more of a beginner room but was still very fun. Just a warning you may get jump scared a few times.They had COVID guidelines in place which made us feel safe. They provided gloves and hand sanitizer. Even though you are the only group inside we still wore our masks.The location was right in downtown San Jose which made parking a little difficult. You can opt for street parking or a parking garage. While walking to the location, we actually couldnt find it the first time and had to circle back. For anyone looking for it, itll be right next to the Mexican joint.

Went there on Valentine’s Day. It was a great experience. The game master was very friendly and receptive. The puzzles were awesome. They test your logical reasoning to a level that you will definitely enjoy. We escaped with 26 seconds to spare. All the team members were enthusiastic and friendly. Will definitely recommend this to friends.

Really fun. Puzzles were clever. We solved it with 2 minutes left.

Good escape room. At max players it does feel a bit crowded and some people cant contribute. Puzzles are interesting but slightly repetitive. Rooms have nice design. Helpful guidance. Overall nice experience.

Our group had a great time. We finished, but with only a few minutes to spare, so I would say it was not too hard, not too easy, a good level of difficulty. Our host/game master Megan was also friendly and did a good job of not being too involved, letting us work through the puzzles, but being there when we asked for a hint and giving us good instructions to set up the challenges. It was a fun time.

It was so much fun. I was scared at first because I’ve never done an escape room before, and the handcuffs and blind folds were a super cool twist for a begging. The challenges weren’t super hard but the hints they gave you really helped. Our game master was so cool, they were so nice and gave us great hints that were very useful. I would totally recommend this place for a team bond or birthday party if I could this would get 7/5 stars. XD

A very well made escape room. Had a great time with our Dungeon Master, whose name escapes me but he had a big bushy beard, as every good DM should have.

Fun escape room, with nice staff, not too difficult nor easy, was really entertaining. Plus, we were late, they gave us a call to ask for our ETA and give us a tip regarding where to park (parking structure right across almost), and waited for us. Thought that was nice and made it quicker for us. Apologies to the people who had to wait 10 ms for us!

Story how to ruin Valentines day. I bought a Groupon and scheduled quest for 2 of us. So we arrived earlier as stated in email (15 min before). At 7pm we realized they want to combine all people together in one room (8 people in a room). We were still though they might wait for everyone to give us instructions and after split us. 7.10 and we still waiting for smth. The lady assistant came and gave us short video instructions, and said that we all will be playing together. On Valentines day, nice surprise! May its not big deal but one thing makes sense to us, I dont speak English very well (actually, wife is writing this story right now), and there is no point for us to stay there. When we booked it for 2, we thought its going to be just us. In the Groupon they misinformed people, saying may or may not be combined, however look like they combine everyone from the beginning without saying this to people. If we knew it, we never booked with this company. $45 per couple, 4 couples, $180 per room, super expensive quest for offered quality and playing it with people that you dont know. Weve been in multiple rooms and this one has the worst organization and service. Lady assistant said shes gonna helps us in quest, yeah, but she speaks English but not our language. Second thing that stopped us and force to leave, they offered sleeping mask to cover your eyes to start the game and it was stored in one box and even didnt come in personal sterilized package. Especially now, when the virus in the county. Left upset and definitely never not come back.

Used a groupon voucher for a double date night on Valentines Day. Only after booking, I realised wed be grouped with whoever else booked the same 8.30pm timeslot as us. Was a little anxious but we were lucky to have awesome teammates so it was great! The place was clean and tidy. The escape room was fun with lots of puzzles and very helpful game master (I think her name is Megan?). Only been to 4 different eacape rooms so far and this has been the best so far. Would definitely recommend if youre okay with possibly being grouped with strangers.

The puzzles have a lot of range, but some are in my opinion not intuitive at all. Then there are some that my group solved on accident! Still a great experience, but could be more advanced and cohesive. There wasnt very much immersion; the staff is not extremely enthusiastic and will sometimes give hints that we didnt need.

Good host and good time, we escaped with one second to go

Very interesting - Matt was great as the host. Highly recommended.

I came with a group of four (we were the only ones in the room) and we had a great time! We got out with ~5 min to spare and the game master said that only having a few minutes left was pretty commonThe gamemaster (Matthew) is in the room which allows him to give personalized clues, especially helpful when people split up to work on different puzzles!The game starts with you handcuffed and blindfolded which was an interesting twist I’d never seen at other escape rooms. The room also had some unique puzzles which were unlike those at other escape rooms and added a nice challenge! While the game did seem a little low budget, that didn’t take away from how fun and challenging it was!There’s also a Groupon which I’d highly recommend! For a group of 4 it was ~20 each and worth it

Was a nice experience. Loved the story and it was different for us to have the game master as a part of the actual game.The level of the game was medium. We were able to beat the room with just over a minute left to go.Hope they get additional rooms in the future. We will be going back :)

First time going to an escape room and it was really fun! We thought we were booking for just two people, but we ended up with 6 people total. It still turned out well and the puzzles were fantastic. Definitely need the full 6 to figure it out!

Although we didnt make it out (it was the groups first time doing an escape room), it was a lot of fun and Megan was an excellent game master.

We had a great time celebrating my boyfriends birthday here. We had 4 people in our group. The challenge was a more difficult one with a lot more clues and puzzles to solve than another escape room Ive tried. During the game, the game Masters were present throughout, guiding us. I probably would have preferred less guidance so that it felt like we achieved the goal ourselves, however the puzzles were pretty difficult and we likely would not have completed on time without their help. You can tell that a lot of effort and thought was put into this, and we are very satisfied with our time with this company!

Did this escape room today! Were experienced escape room players (weve done over 30 rooms), and there were a lot of new, challenging puzzles here that we hadnt seen before. I like how our game guide played well into the theme of the room. He was also nice and gave us clues that helped us finish before the time limit (we got out in 55 minutes).4.5 star rating, -0.5 star because we could have used more flashlights, clipboards, and pens. Overall, highly recommended, especially with the currently active Groupon deal available.

The puzzles were a little challenging but very fun when you started to figure it out and work with your team. Our game master was Megan, super nice and helpful when we were getting a little frustrated. Our group didnt finish, but we gave it a good shot. The beginning was the toughest part! It was a fun experience, I took my younger brother and he really enjoyed it. A great place for a group to spend a fun time together. Thanks Megan for the Sunday funday!

Good escape room and in the end, we were able to escape successfully. Bought a deal on Groupon and there were 4 of us. They also added 2 others that we didnt know. Had a fun time but we had the roommaster with us the whole time which was a bit annoying at times. Overall we had a good experience.

The puzzles were good but it was dark and the props were broken or malfunctioning. Sort of a low budget operation.

Ive done escape rooms all over the bay area, and this was by far the worst, in regards to both the staff and game experience. The setting and the start of the game seemed interesting, but there was just a lot of bad planning.The staff in the room with us could have easily been replaced with a walkie-talkie and given us more room to move if it werent for the following:- Prevent us from touching a specific puzzle until the end (could have put it behind a lock and stuck the key with the last puzzle)- Inform us of things that could have been avoided by removing them from the room (the key attached to the end of the flashlight we unlocked wasnt a part of the escape room)- Open jammed locks for us that needed to be replaced- Tell us we only had 3 tries on one safe or it would permanently lock (no cool-down, if you failed 3 times you might as well pack up and leave) after one of us had already made an attempt.If a puzzle had layers there was no connection or indication, and some puzzles were intentional time-wasters.- A deck of way over-stacked cards- About 5 different decoder rings on one loop to solve one puzzle (no logic, you just have to sit down and sift through about 100+ characters, some of which look identical. Dyslexics beware)- Multi-layered puzzles gave no hint that there was more to it than the first answer. It could have been easily fixed by solving a sentence which gave a hint to the next layer of the puzzle, but you just got a word that could be put in one of the locks.- For some puzzles you just have to guess which answers go where.Needless to say we didnt escape the room, which is perfectly fine. We dont have a perfect record, and a couple of people in our group were first-timers from out of town. Normally we would have laughed this off and considered it a fun yet flawed experience, but even though we kept minimal contact with the guide until the end, he was just so visibly exasperated with us it spoiled the experience. I see now on Yelp that they offer group photos if you win or lose. No group photo was offered.

Our family played Welcome to the Afterverse, and we had a ball. This is a beautifully conceived escape room, with sufficient complexity to require collaborative puzzle solving and teamwork. We were all ages (6-66), and really enjoyed the format and surprises. The staff we met were friendly and accommodated our specific needs. Highly recommend!

I had a great time. I loved the magic theme and the puzzles were very interesting to solve. Would go and do it again.

Very fun and challenging, good for medium to large groups, we were able to finish in the allotted time.

Very refreshing and awesome escape room. Staff was amazing and helped us through when the other people in our group were very awkward. Highly recommend this room!

Such and amazing place to spend time with family and friend. I definitely recommend this place really cool setup for the escape room.

Not worth it even with the Groupon price.Here’re some highlights of a group of escape enthusiasts’ experience:- We found a box in the room and was trying to open it. Game host took it away from us and said we’re not suppose to open it, and later we figured out that box is linked to the final puzzle. How can we know when to open it?- We were having trouble solving a puzzle which will give us a sentence. It turned out that one of the clues gave us a wrong word. Game host was watching us and suddenly told us the answer and we asked “but this clue gave us a different word.” He said “I just gave you the whole phrase.” Is it so hard to admit a clue is wrong and change it?- If there’re multiple logics you can apply to a puzzle, you will have to guess.- Other cons seems minor comparing to their poor game design, i.e. game host stays with us the whole time, poor decoration with a bunch of locks, public game.- The only part we like is the beginning where you need to put on blindfold and was handcuffed to a table.Overall, I guess you’re not suppose to ask ‘why’ while playing this game. We very disappointed and have a feeling that the owner is just trying to make some cash out of the escape game trend without putting enough effort on it. This newly opened game is not as fun as some of the escape games that were built 3 or 4 years ago.

Fun escape Room. The game master made it enjoyable.

I reccommend this place to everybody out theere it was amazing day and had alot of fun here and excellent serivce

May be for kids. Certainly not for team building