Factory Approved

Coming out of The Last Defender, my friends and I were on a bit of a high. We don't do escape rooms as often as most of us would probably like. And we'd just missed out on a success by one puzzle. So as six of us were carpooling back home, a conversation about other escape rooms somehow first turned into "there's a newer one nearby" and then into "we're going there, right now."

Escape Factory is set up in an industrial complex in Lakewood. It's not the slick and elaborately produced sort of place that Denver Escape Room (ironically, in Thornton) or EscapeWorks Denver is. In fact, we'd learn from talking with the man at the counter: it's one guy's particular dream (or, at least, entertained whim). Designed and built entirely by this one person, and on this occasion operated by him too, it's a noticeably smaller operation. After being spoiled by the sets we've seen at some other escape rooms, this could have been a bit of a letdown. Fortunately, this guy knows what he's doing when it comes to the puzzle design.

We just walked in, asking if he had any rooms available right then we could jump into. Appropriately, the one room he did have was about... being in a bunker and trying to prevent nuclear annihilation. An opportunity to prove ourselves after what had just happened!

As I mentioned, the puzzle design was clever enough. There was an actual laptop in the room with a password you had to "hack" to gain access to files. There were also the expected combination locks (though a bit more naturally integrated, story-wise, than normal). Logic puzzles, observation puzzles... the usual spread. And they were laid out in a non-linear fashion -- once again, that's the special sauce that allows any group of four or more to do an escape room while giving room for everyone to contribute.

The room did have a "found props" and "hand built" feeling, and part of that was that there wasn't much scenery. There weren't really any red herrings, decorative details you didn't actually need for any particular puzzle. Still, we had a lot of fun with it. Of course, it helped that we solved the room -- in a record time, apparently.

Escape Factory isn't the best escape room we've been to. But there's a good foundation there. The owner is building out a new room even now. Hopefully, that's a good sign that business has been good for him. And perhaps with experience and success, he'll be able to construct a more convincing environment to match his intriguing puzzles. I'd certainly be willing to go back and check the place out again.