Looking for an escape room to play in New York City? We’ve played 450+ escape rooms total and 40+ in the New York City metro area. Our team is based in New York City, and we’re happy to provide our best recommendations of games in our home base.

Here’s our top-recommended escape rooms in New York City (this covers Manhattan and the parts of Brooklyn that are close to Manhattan):

  1. Cosmic Crisis – The Escape Game
  2. Beat the Bomb – Beat the Bomb
  3. Playground – The Escape Game
  4. Special Ops: Mysterious Market – The Escape Game
  5. The Depths – The Escape Game
  6. Timeliner: Train through Time – The Escape Game
  7. Gold Rush – The Escape Game
  8. Escape Operation: End of Days – Mission Escape Games

Beyond the ones on our list, we have also heard good things about MyssTic Rooms in Brooklyn, but haven’t gotten a chance to play yet. Doors of Divergence was one of our local favorites; however they have closed unfortunately because their hosting company has closed.

Let your hosts know that you found them on “Escape Room Tips”! Last updated April 2024.

Disclosure: We have received media-discounted or comped tickets to several of the below-mentioned escape rooms.

1. Cosmic Crisis – The Escape Game

Cosmic Crisis is at the time of writing The Escape Game’s newest game – opening up first in late 2023 at their Nashville location. Brooklyn is lucky to be able to have this offering by this company – we’ve played most of The Escape Game’s offerings by now and this is our favorite.

The Escape Game stands out to us as a consistently high-quality escape room chain across many locations across the United States. Their staff and service are professional and friendly as always.

Even as escape room veterans, there were some puzzles here that we’ve never seen before. Everything was thematically well very tied together in an impressive set. Great as a team, and makes us excited for future games that The Escape Game brings to NYC and any of their other locations. Tips: We did this game as a group of 2 and the final puzzle series were a bit difficult, we recommend a slightly larger group.

2. Beat the Bomb – Beat the Bomb

Beat the bomb is less about the puzzles, and more about physical, action-oriented experiences for a large group. They bill themselves more of an team-building experience, and the experience is fun for a large mixed group of a variety of experiences with gaming.

The challenges are inspired by real-life video games, and as you play the experiences your performance is recorded. Depending on your performance, you may or may not suffer a “paint bomb” at the end. But don’t worry, you are given full body suits to wear!

3. Playground – The Escape Game (Midtown and Brooklyn)

Wow! This is one of our favorite rooms of all time – this room is packed with a bunch of playful, elementary-school themed puzzles and the set is decorated wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with an abundance of fun and thoughtful touches. The theme is particularly unique and just a whole bunch of fun.

There’s a ton of stuff to do in this room, such that you really do need the 4-person minimum if possible (while physically possible, the room has too much content for a team of 2). The puzzles range from a variety of observation puzzles to physical manipulation puzzles and more. Playground seems to be the consensus standout game among all of The Escape Game offerings across the United States.

4. Special Ops: Mysterious Market – The Escape Game (Midtown)

Special Ops: Mysterious Market is another polished game by The Escape Game NYC, and one of our favorites that they offer. The game offers again elaborated decorated sets with appropriate set pieces and a neat in-game room transition. We enjoyed the neat combination of tech-driven and environmental-driven puzzles, especially with the large set pieces that many people on the team could gather around. This is also a fun game where the story develops and resolves as you play.

5. The Depths – The Escape Game (Midtown and Brooklyn)

This is another one of The Escape Game’s well-themed games, we enjoyed the variety of tasks and the development of the story throughout the game. This game has multiple sets, each one a treat to discover after the other.

6. Timeliner: Train through Time (Midtown and Brooklyn)

For those who can’t decide on an escape room theme, here’s one that does it all. There’s a neat variety of themes in this game, and we enjoyed figuring out how the central console worked and seeing what else we could explore from it. Eclectic with plenty of things to do.

7. Gold Rush – The Escape Game (Midtown and Brooklyn)

Gold Rush takes place in a lovely set with again floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall decor. We enjoyed playing with many of the set pieces – this was definitely more of a tactile and exploratory game than most other escape rooms offered by The Escape Game. This game uses elevation changes and thematic puzzling well to really bring it together to theme. Expect a nice variety of puzzles and a refreshing set design that takes you away from the bustle of Manhattan.

8. Escape Operation: End of Days – Mission Escape Games

This is a game set in a weathered and industrial bunker-type environment. The large set pieces are decorated well to fit in naturally with the large, open, and industrial gameplay environment. The game components are solid and the puzzles mostly involved making connections between information gathered in one area of the room and another. We appreciated how the game was mostly language-agnostic – players without a command of English could get through most of this room.

More Games

If you’re new to escape room games and are looking for some tips and tricks, check out our post: Top 29 Tips & Tricks to Win Escape Room Games. Check out our other escape room recommendations around the Northeast:

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