We were in San Juan and had done the rooms in Old San Juan, so decided to come down to Challenge59 to try their rooms. The good reviews on Google had us looking forward to it. Alex, the GM was amazing, so kind and friendly. Then we got into the rooms. I will say up front that we did escape both rooms, but they were not the experience we had been hoping for. These rooms had great theming, but really fell apart in the puzzle aspect of an escape room. More work on that side of things could really make this place shine.
The first was a single room experience based on H H Holmes' Murder Hotel. The darkness and forced flickering lights made for a great atmosphere, so did the creepy things all over the room. Unfortunately, in the course of searching, we found a single flashlight and a single black light. In a room rated for 15 people. Not NEARLY enough light to go around. We were told not to to move furniture, including cushions, reasonable in an escape room, but that led us to not deconstructing another area where a clue WAS hidden. This conflict was resolved because clues were not given when requested, but are slid under the door at specific times. And one of those clues told us where to look. There were a grand total of 2 locks in this room. And the solutions were "count things and add or subtract and arbitrary number to get the combination". Not the puzzle challenge we were looking for.
We had booked two rooms, and the second one was a multiple room challenge, so we figured it would be an improvement. I'm sorry but it was definitely not. There were 4 locks in the first room, and 3 of them REQUIRED us to brute force them. We were literally given paper and when we got our first clue 30 minutes in, they told us we should be writing down combos that didn't work. That is not a puzzle! There is no brain power involved in just trying numbers! We found a clue that told us to look at something, but that information was literally never used in the room. The 4th lock combo was found inside just 1 of the brute force locks. The next room had 2 locks, though only 1 was needed to get to the next room, and the final room had just 1 (which had the combo for the previous room lock we didn't open before).
These rooms need more puzzles, less noise/decoration, more flashlights/blacklights to use, and more actual solving rather than brute force.