Story here. It’s a real-life escape game, where they lock you in a room and you have one hour to find clues, solve puzzles, and get out. This place in Kansas City has three different themed rooms and they are looking to add more in the future. (The Prison Break room looks especially challenging - not only are you locked in a room, you are also handcuffed!)
This just looks like all kinds of awesome. I’m guessing these have popped up in plenty of other places as well. Has anyone done one of these? How was it?
I saw one in Manitou Springs, CO last week while I was there but we didn’t have time to indulge. Seems like with the right group of people it could be a lot of fun. With the wrong group of people it could be funny, but prolly not as much fun.
I’ve done two of the three rooms in our local one. Fantastic time and can’t wait to do the third one.
My suggestion is a group of about four. There’s a lot of information to quickly keep track of, and too many people make it easy to not relay pertinent facts.
There’s a place opening in Boston in a couple months; it’s the first U.S. location of a Swedish company called Boda Borg. I was planning to post here and see if any dopers want to join me.
Any fans might want to check out a show called Race to Escape on the Discovery Channel. It’s two teams in identical rooms trying to solve the clues first; winners get prize money.
Orlando has a ton of options and Ms Cups, our super-smart friend, and myself have gone around 5 or 6 times.
We love love love them.
We have been to two different companies because we have literally done every one of the rooms in one, and have now expanded to another. The games are all pretty much the same, and you usually have to go to one to get the feel of how that company works, and then once you know that the other rooms tend to be a bit easier. We have a blast every time and trying to win without hints makes the game challenging and usually gets our fill of the time.
Cons: There is literally zero replay value in each room. Once you’ve done it, you can’t really do it again. I’m lucky that Orlando has so many. If you get good enough at them you can also run the risk of solving it just a bit TOO fast and kinda-sorta not getting your money’s worth.
I rant and rave about them to everyone I can because we just love them so
What are you allowed to bring with you? Are there any ways you’re not allowed to interact with the room? I’m pretty sure I could escape from any non-jail room just with stuff I always have on my person, but I might do some damage in the process.
In our local rooms, you can not bring your cell phones into the rooms. You lock them in a trunk and take the key.
Yes, you could bust a window an escape the room. But in keeping with the spirit of the game, our rooms place small stickers on areas that mean “You don’t have to explore this item/area, it’s not part of the game.” Mostly they are just on windows and AC units, for example. They also let us know that there is nothing above the ceiling tiles.
I highly recommend the games. It’s incredible fun.
Our companies don’t even lock our stuff, they just say “hey, don’t use em alright?”
As for interaction, all of the rooms in one company had interaction only for puzzles except for the newest room they had needed actual lever pulling and code entering.
Our favorite company has one main room you start in, then open into a second small room, then into a final third room (with puzzles all along the way), the newest one we are doing has us all in one room the whole time, there’s just a shit ton of locks. Our super-smart friend did one in San Fransisco that he said was WAY more complicated and intricate than ours, so I know there are levels to them.
Also, we like the ones where we don’t have anyone in the room with us but us. No offense to the tourist family who’s looking for a rainy day activity, but I don’t want your dumb ass giving shitty suggestions…I want to win.
I wasn’t thinking in terms of cell phones (if I wanted to Google the solution, I could do that in advance). I was thinking in terms of tools. Often, in the online version of these games, the puzzles include finding a screwdriver or pliers or the like to unscrew something or twist something or whatever… but I always have those tools on my person, anyway. At what point do I give up on looking for the screwdriver in the room, and just use the one hanging from the side of my belt?
Do you want to play in the spirit of the game or not? Using your own tools would be akin to exiting the room via a “emergency exit, not part of the game” door.