Known for its love of alien conspiracies and sightings the town of 29 Palms, a few miles out from Joshua Tree's entrance, has a sight to behold. Not the large statue you might pass of
Big Josh or hidden tasty spots like the
night bakery of Campbell Hill. Those are just stops before your real adventure of Hi-Orbit Games. What looks like a classic arcade hides a secret. A secret you've got to escape from.
In what might be one, if not our favorite escape rooms, d-mn you constellation room, we got lost a-long the high desert of Joshua Tree and had to help our Dad escape from some otherworldly beings. Yes, we had to escape aliens by using our heads and a really cool radio.
We headed into a wonderful looking arcade that stood out among the few buildings around downtown. Plenty of free parking and there's plenty places to eat nearby or along the way. We got set-up for the adventure easy enough, made a reservation early on so just got checked in and then had to sign a digital form with there do and don'ts. Standard with escape rooms.
Spoilers ahead
What wasn't standard was or prologue. Among the many older arcade cabinets with alien themed soda and old-school ice cream bars to buy was a specialized animation on an arcade cabinet. The 16-bit style was quite cute setting up the adventure. As soon as it was over we were whisked away to the escape room. Just from the entrance alone we knew we were in for an out-of-this-world time. I'm sure other reviews will use that, but it fits.
What we fit in, was apparently our Dad's winnebago or older RV. To hit the nail on the head we saw our Daddy get taken away by intraterrestrials. It was up to us, apparently his children, to help get him back to Earth. To do so, we first had to get out of this cockamamie winnebago. That meant figuring out places where we traveled on a map and something a little bit harder.
And, before that, we had gotten something special, a device younger people might not know of or only seen on shows or ancient TikToks, a radio. Yes, you get a very own interstellar radio to both get clues from your Pappy, but also activate rooms. You've got to put your radio down in a special slot per room and when a rooms completed, pull a lever for you to get all the lights on it lit up!
Past our family's RV was a beautiful room with constellations that looked liked a campsite. That beauty was soon turned to frustration and a fist in the air raised in anger at those same constellations. My only hint, don't over-think it like we did.
Saving that room for later we headed for the bar. No, not too drink. It's not a real bar. But, after constellation room, we could have used one. We put our radio in and had a blast trying to figure out three different facts about the bar that had us remixing on a jukebox, figuring out scores and drink orders.
Next, we entered the mining operation. Radio in, we were told we had to align the crystals within so a laser could make it all the way through. That took some twists and turns, but eventually we figured it out.
Over some marshmallows and some stressing out we eventually found a way to call our Papi with what was above us. Maybe, it's easier with more people, it was simply a group of two for this adventure. Let's not dwell on it anymore.
After that, our radio lit up and we could finally enter a lock room we had seen at the start. It was a
spaceship to get our Dad back! Now, we had limited time to get home or we would be...LOST-IN-SPACE! Keeping with every other room, great design for something to travel across space in. This room had many more puzzles including fixing a satellite dish and a somewhat hard to understand light capturing game. Quite a few light up games that might take you a second to ponder, but you don't, because now there's a timer freaking you out!
In the end we were able to save our Dad and make it back to Earth ourselves. We got on the winner walls as so many teams did before us. Can you get on it too? If you're headed out that way or want an adventure out from LA this is good one to pump you up. A must by stop to try and escape aliens with maybe your real Dad or friends on a trip to the actual Joshua Tree. Hopefully, it's the only aliens from other worlds you'll see, while you're there.
Located in Downtown Twentynine Palms // 73567 29 PALMS HWY
Check hours before going
$tarting at $80 for two players, prices go down per individual with a bigger group. Biggest group is 8 players.
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