The Lock Quest Monsters

Two cryptids on a quest for the perfect escape

Four score and hundreds of escape rooms ago, two cryptids from far away lands (Maine and New York) met in the most mysterious land of all: the internet. Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered they fought their way out of dungeons, forests, castles, and, of course, speakeasies to solve puzzles and avoid Sudoku. Tagging along with friends from time to time and their small cryptid child, they formed the Lock Quest Monsters to catalog their journey into adventure!

The Lock Quest Monsters
The Lock Quest Monsters - Matt, Mike & Raenah

Our Story

The Lock Quest Monsters is a group of Escape Room enthusiasts who primarily consist of Matthew Leavitt and Michael DeFrancisco. Many of their adventures include their daughter, Raenah, who did her first escape room when she was just 4 years old!

Matt had done a few escape rooms before meeting Michael, but on one of their early dates in 2018, they did a 5-wits room in New York where Michael was living at the time ("Drago's Castle"), and a few months later did a room in Maine ("Miner Problems" at GTFO). Mike eventually moved to Maine, and they've been escaping ever since as husbands.

During a beta test of Big Screen Escapes "Solitude," they had to come up with a team name. Up until that point, they used a few, but none seriously. Since Mike & Matt's first date was at the Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, ME, they wanted to come up with something cryptid-related, and thus, The Lock Quest Monsters were born!

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Ratings Explained

What is in a rating? Lots of opinions, subjective thoughts, and several slices of macaroni and cheese loaf. Although ratings are always biased, they can give a snapshot surrounding key aspects of the room, so we wanted to share a little bit of what we think about when rating!

Since we rate per room, the customer service, interactions (outside of maybe hint systems, etc.), are not part of ratings (We do that separately on Google!) We consider puzzle/logic, environment/ambiance, and FUN!

All ratings are an average of Matt and Mike's take on the room, so all ratings come with the power of 2! Typically, our ratings are very similar, but if you see an odd rating like 2.8, 3.3, etc., it shows a difference in what we rated!

0.75 – 2.25 // Below Average Rating

The room has some serious flaws to the degree that we wouldn't recommend this game to enthusiasts or the general public. Major logical flaws, single-minded puzzles (too much sudoku, crossword puzzles, math, or as we like to put it "toilet puzzles" – because you can easily do these puzzles while on the toilet). The biggest factor in this range is that we likely had no fun, were frustrated, and often asking ourselves what was going on.

2.5 – 3.5 // Average Rating

Most escape rooms likely fall somewhere in here. These are rooms we still would recommend to others. Themes may be standard, we may have encountered such things in other places, puzzles may have some leaps, but generally the puzzles make sense, the environment is decently put together, and we walked away feeling generally satisfied with our experience.

3.75 – 4.25 // Above Average Rating

There's something extra special in the sauce that pushes what we felt or thought in the room. A unique theme, clever puzzles, and a true feeling of "escaping" (from reality) for a little while. There may be a few considerations with puzzles, but overall, cohesion and immersion were at the forefront of the room and executed logically, and most importantly with fun in mind!

4.5 – 5.0 // Exceptional Rating

A sighting even more rare than Bigfoot or Nessie! Escape rooms that defy convention and do something special. When we stop just to look at the environment, finish a puzzle that not only makes sense, but incorporates itself into the theme, or uses all available resources to immerse and innovate (audio, video, objects, tech, etc.) then we know we have something that plays and operates on a new level. When we stop knowing we are in a room because we are busy smiling, being scared, or feeling something, we know that we've found something special!