The Psych Ward

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Do you like to play mind games? Do you like testing the boundaries of your friendships? Then you should check out Cross Roads Escape Games’ “The Psych Ward”. Without spoiling too much, the premise of the escape room is you are all patients that have been admitted to a mental hospital. The immersion starts when the game host takes you to the staging area, this was refreshing and exciting since you feel like you just got transported inside a real mental asylum (everyone gets assigned gowns, numbers and wristbands!). After the staging area, each individual gets called into a room and is assigned as “sane” or “insane”, which you’re supposed to keep secret. Even inside this room, the set immersion is consistent with the feeling that you just stepped into a mental asylum. The gadgets and props inside the room gave the room a “genuine” feel to it but there were also some random buttons or switches that you had to figure out what they were for at a later time.

As the website says, “THIS IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE ESCAPE ROOM. THE PSYCH WARD IS AN INTERACTIVE GAME OF DEDUCTION, TRUST, AND BETRAYAL WITH ESCAPE ROOM, BOARD GAME, AND IMMERSIVE THEATRE ELEMENTS”. Inspired by games like Mafia and Werewolf where you have to figure out who is insane and stop them from winning the game, the many objectives of this game gives it a high replayability in that players will never have the same experience every single time. True to the statement on their website, the rooms were well done, nicely decorated and nothing felt flimsy/fragile. The technology inside the room was pretty impressive and there was never a dull moment throughout the whole experience. At times it felt a bit like information overload and not all of the puzzles inside the room were consistent or relevant with the room theme, at times…the puzzles felt like a lot of “busy work”.

The attention to detail and the number of “easter eggs” were abundant in this room which increases the “replayability” since each experience will never be quite the same for each individual person. There were times where some of us felt frustrated but that could’ve been part of the immersion? The scoring system was also hard to understand initially (information overload?) but we slowly got the hang of it towards the end of the room.

The escape room is located near an office park in Anaheim right off the 91 freeway, right off of La Palma which doesn’t have too many dining/drinking options although there is a Farmer Boy’s down the street and if you’re so “psyched” from the room there’s a trampoline park and a rock climbing gym nearby. This escape room has their own parking lot which is very convenient for bigger groups. The waiting area inside is cozy and ample seating in the main waiting area as well as inside the additional waiting room. After signing the waivers, you can warm up by solving a puzzle to obtain a sweet treat. There’s a water cooler, lockers and clean restrooms. The game host was great, always staying in character and was never phased the entire time, you can tell they enjoyed their job which added to the overall experience, despite us having a pretty late room (8:30PM). We got our pictures taken with signs after the room on both the company’s and our phones which was cool. In the end, if you’re feeling a bit looney or crazy enough to try out this room, you’ll find yourself quite satisfied with what you find at the Psych Ward.