Escape Rooms

When I restarted this blog, I knew a lot of the posts I was going write will be primarily movie and video game related.  But when I can find something else that I’d like to discuss, well why not?  It is still gaming related and I’m surprised as known as this concept is getting over the past few years, there are still people that don’t know anything about this form of entertainment.

Escape Rooms or Room Escapes, I’ve heard it called both ways, is a game where you and a couple or many friends solve puzzles and try to get out of the room.  The size of the escape room and required people can range from 4 to as high as 30 people and might have additional rooms, depending on the room.  You usually have at least one hour to escape.  The puzzles aren’t straight forward, as you have to use anything and everything in the room or other rooms, to solve the puzzles presented to you.  You may get three clues by default if you and your group are stumped on a section of the room.  Anything and everything in the room might be important to help you and your friends escape.

All rooms have the same premise.  A host or game master greets you and gives you a breakdown and instructions of the room.  You and your friends will enter a scenario, where there is a always a story or theme (Some Examples can be Bank Robbery, Jungle Temple, Art Heists) that will require you solve puzzles and get more clues to solve more puzzles and exit the room. You usually have an hour and if you don’t escape, then a terrible fate will occur your group.  But really, you just don’t get out of the room.  You also get to take a photo holding up signs whether your escape was a success or failure.  I’ve got examples below with me and my friends.  My record so far is 2 wins and 2 losses.

The price of an escape room can cost anywhere from $10 to $60.  Depending on the theme, area, and popularity.  The average price that I have been paying is $25.  I’ve been in some rooms can be pretty well detailed and themed, to just a plain room with puzzles.  You can find some discounted rooms for groups or individually on sights like Groupon or Living Social as well as any local deals sites.  I used half off the Valley, a local deals site in the Lehigh Valley, PA area to get two escape room visits for $24 for example.

I love doing escape rooms. I find them addicting and wonder when I’m going to try another room again. They are challenging and good with team building. Thankfully, I alsohave smart and clever friends that can work together to solve the puzzles that we are given. We might not get out, but we all have a good time trying. Even people I’ve met and friends who thought that they weren’t good enough for a room escape, loved trying to escape from one. My recommendation is go into the room anticipating that you won’t get out the first time. It will at least give you the sense of what the room and the puzzles are like without the pressure of wanting to get out.

There are a couple of downsides to escape rooms.  Most escape rooms places only have 3 maybe 4 rooms available.  So, after you complete or don’t complete the challenges a room escape place, you either have to wait for the place to create a new room and theme, or try to find another place in your area.  Unless, you just want revisit a room you failed or completed and breeze through it in a matter of minutes.  Making you look like a puzzle pro, but are just a cheater inside.  These rooms are best done with friends, anywhere from monthly to quarterly.  Depending on how many room escapes your area has and often they get updated with new themes and puzzles.  There is also a chance when doing a room escape you might have to have others join you.  Some rooms that my friends and I have done, we didn’t meet the occupancy required for the room.  If a room requires 10 people and you only have 4 people, the place reserves the right to fill those 6 spots left with others who want to use the room at the same time that you may want to.  It’s not a problem if you like to try to work with new people you have never met.  My friends and I just see the issue of being with others that don’t take it as seriously as you.  They might goof off and cost you the chance from exiting the room.  We haven’t had any problems yet with random people joining our group yet.  It just all depends on fate and maybe people feeling if more than half of the room is occupied, then no one else would like to join you.   

If you are interested, a simple internet search should help you find if any rooms are in your area.  If you had tried this out before and had a good or bad experience, let me know in the comments.  Thank you for reading.