Anye S.
Yelp
Hubby and I are hardcore gamers, as in we got rid of over 100 games before we moved to MD and it barely made a dent in our collection. So we've been to lots of game stores and IMNSO we're a pretty good judge. Labyrinth isn't the largest store we've been to, by far, but for a mid-sized store, it is one of the best I've seen, and here's why...
They have games of just about every genre and experience level, categorized by the type of game and complexity. For example, they have "Social Deduction" and "Cooperative" clearly marked (which is great, because I can skip right over them as I can't stand either! But also great because that's what most casual gamers actually want.) They have a whole section with collectible card game stuff that we didn't actually even go see, because that's not our thing, but again, it's the "thing" for a lot of people. They have a large puzzle section with great variety (which I will visit when it's time to buy my husband his yearly present.. I am such a non-imaginative gift giver, but he loves puzzles, so...) and a kids game section with cute little play tables (again, not my thing, but I can appreciate that it's easy to find or skip).
So now that I've pointed out all the stuff they have that is not interesting to me, I'll talk about what is. They have a pretty decent selection of complex strategy games of a variety of types; euro, wargame, train game etc. with a lot of the "new hotness" as well as "classics" represented. They don't necessarily have EVERYTHING you might want if you've been collecting games for years, but they had a bunch of stuff we don't yet have that is on our list, and sometime when it's the LAST stop of the day for us and not the FIRST we'll stock up. (I didn't want to carry a bunch of board games around all day for obvious reasons).
Here though is the piece de resistance: they have an open copy of almost every game they are selling in their library, and over a half dozen tables where you can try them out. They actually want you to show proof of vax before sitting down to play the library games, which I greatly appreciate even though we weren't carrying our cards yesterday so oops, now we know. There were a couple games there we were interested in that we would have actually sat down to try out if we'd been prepared.
The store was very clean, and there was a very friendly and knowledgeable staffer walking around helping folks, talking to everyone (not just those who looked like they had sufficient geek cred to be worth notice *cough*games workshop*cough*). The bathroom was also very clean. They also had one room with a large table that had doors that could be closed for hosting a larger game, I'm guessing that one might be reservable? Not sure about that.
Beyond all that - the shop is super close to the Eastern Market metro stop, and there are a bunch of restaurants and coffee houses nearby so you can make an outing of it and you won't have too far to carry your purchases back to the train assuming you're heading home afterwards... next time we'll plan better.
I also want to make a note about the game prices being full MSRP, targeted to combat the ignorant reviewer who was encouraging everyone to go buy online for cheaper and made an even more ignorant comment about how they could "give something back" to their customers. Before you decide to shop online - consider this. Can y'all imagine how much rents are on Capital Hill right next to a metro stop? This shop is probably paying several times for their space what any online retailer pays for their warehouse. On top of that, the game library that they maintain IS a huge "give back" for the customers. You can literally try almost anything before you buy. Or you could spend several hours playing here and suddenly decide you don't want to buy anything - as far as I could tell they aren't charging for the game space (I could be wrong though as we didn't use it.) Most public game libraries, even ones that sell games, that I've been to either have a per hour charge or a food/bev minimum. I'd say they are providing quite a lot to the gaming community that more than justifies them charging retail price for the games. If you patronize the store and want a game, buy it there. Save your online purchases for games that aren't available locally. If your budget is too tight to do so (which I get, having extra money is a privilege) then don't hang out in the store taking advantage of what they provide for free.
Ok, I'll get off the soapbox now.
TL;DR: Great store, good selection, very well organized, great staff, great library. 5 stars.