Escape Room LA: Black Dragon

Media Geeks hasn’t reviewed an escape room since 2019. Then we suddenly stopped going to them in 2020 for some reason…oh right. The escape room scene suffered especially hard from the pandemic. Small enclosed quarters, often with strangers, and LOTS of surfaces to touch do not mix well with health concerns. Many companies simply didn’t survive those 2 years. Escape Room LA, probably my favorite overall escape room company in Los Angeles for their unbroken streak of quality, managed to survive. Not unscathed–they did have to shut down some of their older rooms. Luckily the Pyramid and Atlantis are both operational. Their new room, Black Dragon, has a lot to live up to. Let’s check it out!

We Built This City

Once again, the set design and construction is top-notch. While their last two rooms were more fantastical environments, Black Dragon recreates Kowloon Walled City. This real place was a notorious, densely-crowded area of Hong Kong where lawlessness ran rampant. Though the real one was demolished in 1993, Black Dragon aims to give the feel of a crowded, crime-infested Hong Kong neighborhood and largely succeeds.

There are details everywhere, and a lot to take in. The room isn’t quite a labyrinth (they don’t want players getting lost of course), but there ARE a good number of areas to explore. As usual for modern escape rooms, more areas open up as the game progresses.

You Belong to the City

Escape Room LA specializes in onboarding, with the first area acting as an introduction to the larger world. Black Dragon’s first room utilizes a feature that I have never seen in any escape room and is incredibly cool. From there, the room is non-linear and has plenty of stuff for people to do. Even a large group can split up and all be fairly busy, although this does mean you are likely to miss out on some of the other puzzles. My friend, who has only done a handful of rooms, really enjoyed the variety and quantity of things to solve. It’s true, there is a good mix of puzzles, physical activities, and codes.

I was expecting Black Dragon’s puzzles to be more challenging than average, like those in Escape Room LA’s other two rooms. I was a mildly surprised when they were fairly direct. I overthought at least 2 puzzles, thinking the answer I found couldn’t be the final solution because it wasn’t complicated enough. But nope. This is a room where a first answer is probably the right one. This isn’t to say they are “easy.” But they are straightforward, and easier than the other rooms’ puzzles at Escape Room LA. This may be intentional, to welcome newer players. I was happy to not feel confused about any of the solutions.

Paradise City?

Unfortunately, a few glitches/snafus disrupted the flow of the room. Full disclosure: this experience was pre-opening, so it’s possible these issues have been resolved by the time you read this. I hope so! One involved a puzzle I was 100% sure we’d solved. I double checked and had someone else check too. Eventually the in-room attendant (an Escape Room LA tradition) came to look and a few moments later, the thing that was supposed to happen, happened. I’m pretty sure they saw it was correct, and manually triggered the result because the tech wasn’t working.

Another one wasn’t technically a glitch, but it involved small buttons that stay depressed when touched. There is about 1/4 inch difference in height between pressed down and up, so when the panel required precise button(s) to be pressed, it was nearly impossible to see if an erroneous button was pushed down. This caused the attendant to basically have to tell us how to fix our solution. The owner did say that he should probably have those buttons light up, and we totally agreed, so hopefully that fix is in the works.

The third one was a bigger, but rarer, problem. At the very beginning, my team of strangers were pressing buttons haphazardly. I’d just started a puzzle when suddenly it was over, and we were confusingly in the next section. After the game, we learned someone had randomly pressed a correct sequence, which skipped TWO puzzles and the fun introductory video that lays out the backstory and goal of the room. The in-room attendant had never seen that before and didn’t have a solution, so he let us keep going. It felt really bad to skip two puzzles and not know the story before jumping right into the room. I know someone accidentally guessing a code is a fluke, but it was such a downer, there should be a failsafe to prevent this from happening. When the owner showed us what is supposed to happen, it was a really cool immersive moment that I would have loved to see “live.”

Fool For the City

My last point is applicable to all escape rooms, but I’ve rarely seen it so clearly. We were with other media and didn’t know them. Two had never done an escape room, didn’t seem to know what they are, and didn’t seem interested in finding out. Instead, one shrieked borderline racist jokes about “orange chicken” and sang the Asian-inspired opening riff of the song “Turning Japanese.” I tried to ignore her, but she was actively hindering our progress and breaking the immersion of the room. Luckily, this can’t happen to you. Black Dragon only allows private games–you won’t be playing with strangers. But this was still a good reminder to make sure your group is on the same page before you start.

Big City Nights

Overall, I certainly recommend Black Dragon. The setting is very good, the puzzles make logical sense, and there is a lot for people to do. It’s also got that aforementioned fantastic opening. The things dragging down my review are all fixable–iffy tech can be fixed, the fluke of a code bypassing 2 puzzles is very unlikely, and you won’t have to deal with a nightmare of a teammate like I did. So although I’m rating it a 7 because all of those things pulled me out of the fun, I don’t expect them to happen for most people. In fact, my guest had a great time and gave it an 8.5! I have no doubt if I were to play this with friends a couple weeks after opening, I’d give it an 8 as well.

Escape Room LA is located at 120 E. 8th Street, Los Angeles, 90014. Downtown parking can be tricky, but the staff gave a great tip–several nearby loading zones (yellow curb) switch to free parking after a certain time, so check the signs. Tickets range from $35 to $44 depending on group size and weekday vs. weekend. If you go with experienced escapers, take fewer people, but I think this room would actually be very good for rookies as well. More information, including booking, is available on their website here.