IQ Escape

4780 McKnight Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15237, USA

Address:	4780 McKnight Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15237, USA
Phone:	+1 412-548-3715
Site:	pittsburgh.iqescape.com
Rating:	4.5
Working:	5–10PM 5–10PM 5–10PM 5–10PM 4–10PM 10AM–11PM 10AM–11PM

Location

Photos 15

Reviews 4

Eric Barnett

We played all three games here. We won all three games and I so much want to be a fan of IQ but they have some serious issues that have caused me to give a rating lower than I wanted. Let me start with the good. I will try hard not to give any spoilers. First the owners give priority no.1 to atmosphere. They do as good of job as any escape room in the area of making you feel like you are in the intended environment. The rooms are decorated very nicely and the owner spared no expense on cosmetics. Now to the games. Contagion is the best game with the most logical puzzles and game play. I thought there were some clever elements to the game. And some solid teamwork is needed to complete the room. There were a few things that we needed to do that would have been impossible to figure out without help from the game master, but all in all a solid game. Stealing Mona also is a decent game as you work your way through the various rooms. Several of the puzzles though were not very focused with multiple correct answers that became frustrating when your solution was wrong, even though it was as good or better than the actual puzzle solution. This is a huge no no in escape rooms. Though there were several high tech props in the room, a few didnt seem to work right and it was obvious that the game master was just popping open the prop. One in particular was an obvious broken connector that did nothing. Only when we told the game master what we had done to solve the puzzle did the prop open. Surprisingly enough, my brother went and played this same game two months after I did, and the same prop was still broken. Broken props kill gameplay and should be fixed immediately. Finally, in Stealing Mona, two black light flashlights, two regular flashlights and one walkie talkie are given to the group. If you do not receive one of these items, you are essentially benched for most of the game. I did not get any of those items and was reduced to following around other team members looking at what they are looking at from behind........frustrating! The worst game, and honestly one of the worst games I have ever played is Time Shift. Where do I even start? So much effort and money went into the cosmetics of this game with the actual game play being a distant afterthought. The whole start of the game is horrible with arcade like stations with confusing screens and puzzles. We essentially had to be walked through most of the steps to complete the first room. Once in the second room, things get worse. More props simply dont work, complete confusion on where to put pieces to open the prop. Electronic tools that you are given no directions on how or where to use. A disjointed highly frustrating game with no clear or logical direction. For the first time in all the escape games Ive played, midway through, I just wanted this one to be over. If you are a first time player, DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME! You will hate escape rooms and never play again. Finally a few concluding remarks about the place as a whole. 1. It is obvious they put a lot of money in the place, yet they cant afford a few simple digital count down clocks so you know how much time is remaining? I suppose the reason behind this is the clocks would be out of place and take away from the cosmetics of the room? So what? Gameplay first....bells and whistles second. 2. The clue delivery system in two of the games requires walkie talkies....a weak solution at best, lots of better ways to deliver clues out there. 3. The whole IQ score thing is meaningless. You either win or you lose, nothing more, nothing less. In conclusion this place has a lot of potential and upside. If they would begin to spend half the effort and money in creating fun games as they do in making you feel immersed, they could really be great.

William Stanford

So first off, let me say that my wife and I have been escaping rooms for almost two years. We have done 22 rooms together and have escaped ALL of them without fail. I proposed to my wife IN an escape room. When we arrived at IQ Escape, we were blown away by the set up. Waiting rooms is a refreshing sight and the atmosphere of the games looked awesome. The owners definitely put more into the cosmetic and sets than the game itself. We did the Time Shift. I have been searching for a time machine based room escape and I cant tell you how disappointed we were with this one. We did not escape but thats not our reasoning for a low review. The game itself was not intuitive at all. Our game master walked us through the first room and I have never felt more stupid in my life despite escaping three rooms back to back at another place. You receive props but have no unearthly idea what to do with them. There is no logic to the game we played. Games should be set up to allow linear flow. That doesnt mean multiple tasks can be taking place at one time but when the game master has to tell you in the beginning BEFORE the game starts there is an issue. Also, when youre communicating with the game master via walkie talkie and dont receive an answer its a bit frustrating. Coming from experienced room escape artists, Id suggest to work a bit more on your game logic and flow than the sets. Sets are nice but without the game logic and flow, people will stop coming and will continue to give you bad reviews. Its supposed to be fun, never have we been in a room where we were so frustrated with the lack of logic that we were ready to walk out. Please improve the flow and logic of your games. Make it more intuitive. Its not fun. At all.

Sarah Wilderman

My cousin turned 30 and we were looking to celebrate her birthday by doing something different then the norm. We organized a group of 10 to play the Mona Lisa room at IQ Escape. It was SO MUCH FUN! Almost every person in our party was playing an escape room for the first time. Each of us had come with our expectations from speaking with friends and colleagues about escape rooms- we all agreed that IQ Escape not only met but surpassed our expectations! The rooms are cleverly set up with a real edge on technology. Although we didnt want to use our clues, when necessary our room attendant Kevin was super helpful and friendly. While we felt challenged we were never left feeling lost or uninformed. The lounge area was setup for pre- escape room festivities. We came without alcohol or snacks but plan to use the room fully next time we visit. We absolutely loved the experience and are thankful for the hospitality of the staff! Thank you to Kevin, Eric, and Melissa and HUGE thank you to Jason for taking all of my calls while setting up the reservation and answering our questions. We will be back and best of luck on the State College expansion!

Katie Ewing

Friends and I did time shift. It would have been fun, if the room was set up correctly. We spent 15 minutes trying to figure out where to plug in the headphones, only to have an employee come in and say "oops, there should be mp3 players here." Several things in the game, we didnt even use. Im not sure what the purpose was for a lot of the objects we found. The craps table opened up on its own, before we even found the pieces to use. The piano didnt open up, even though we spent several minutes playing the correct notes. A lot of things did not work as they should have. Not to mention, the employee wasnt paying attention to the game, so he didnt notice when things werent working until we asked for a clue. And when we asked, it would take several minutes to figure out what we had already finished because he wasnt paying attention! He acted like he hated his job the entire time. This escape room is a waste of money. There are far better ones, with better staff, nearby.