1. You’ll feel like a real detective
In an escape room, you get the chance to give notorious mystery solvers like Nancy Drew, Mystery Incorporated, and Sherlock Holmes a run for their money. You and your team are escape artists and are prompted to follow clues and solve various challenges to work towards the goal of unlocking the final door. From personal experience, living out your mystery solver dreams is as amazing as you imagine it to be; trust me!
2. It’s the perfect activity for a big group
Escape rooms are designed to be played in a team, and they make for a great group activity. Ranging from a player capacity of as little as 4 to as high as 10, they accommodate larger amounts of people but don’t compromise the inclusion and engagement of everyone present. Escape rooms are a great choice for birthday parties and various celebrations as well as simply a fun activity on a day out with friends.
3. You never know what to expect
An escape room redefines your surroundings, environment, and reality while you’re in it. While you’re in the room and tasked with the mission of getting out, there are no certainties. Part of the reason that I love escape rooms so much is because they always keep me guessing. From secret doors disguised as bookcases to messages written on the walls in invisible ink, there truly is never a dull moment. Escape rooms are a fantastic way to break up the monotony of life, and to challenge yourself to work with the unexpected and push yourself out of your comfort zone. You never quite know what will happen next, and that uncertainty is really exciting.
4. The rooms are detailed and immersive
As you may have surmised, I’ve been to many escape rooms. From the very first time I went, the detailed rooms and immersive experience stood out to me almost immediately. Each room has its own unique theme and premise, and with it comes a room (or multiple rooms) that is extensively decorated and specialized to mold your surroundings into that of the world you are stepping into. Escape rooms provide you with the theme as well as a specific backstory for the location, the inhabitants, or the secondary mission you may have. For example, the most recent room I did was called “The Cabin”, and its premise was that my team and I stumbled upon the cabin of a cannibal and were locked up. In this case, our objective was to make it out before the owner of the cabin returned. We began behind bars, with the other half of the room in sight. The rest of the room contained a storage freezer, a prop weapon wall, a worktable, and a door that was just out of reach from behind the bars. Once we worked our way through freeing ourselves from confinement, the next challenge was to carefully assess our surroundings in order to determine what would unlock the door. We soon realized that upon further inspection, some of the bars had slightly visible numbers on them. They also rotated, and so we tried a series of number combinations before we struck a four digit code. To our surprise, there was no place to enter a four-digit code on the door, but there was a padlock on the freezer! Upon unlocking it, we were quick to discover that the freezer was empty, but that the side facing the wall the door was connected to was unstable. Only when the freezer lid was closed with one of us inside did the hatch budge, and an entry to the next part of the escape room open. The next room was the cabin itself, complete with the cannibal’s kitchen, table, couch, and belongings. Sifting through the props and challenges here was the bulk of our hard work, but by the end of the hour, we breached the final door and escaped with 10 minutes to spare and incredible bragging rights.
5. It’s an exercise of the mind
Sure, there is no shortage of other activities you can do with your friends and family. However, nothing exercises the strength of your mind quite like an escape room. You are placed in an environment that challenges you every step of the way. The escape rooms I have been in thus far have tested my ability to solve and work with puzzles, riddles, math, science, writing, and most importantly creativity. These mental challenges call for you to engage your wit and creativity in a raw and exciting way that will keep you scurrying around the room in search of the clues that pull the pieces together.
6. You learn to work with others
There is no way to make it out of an escape room without teamwork. As the clock ticks and time passes, it is integral for all members of the group to be engaged and help in solving the challenges their peers face. This is a great opportunity to brush up on what it is to be a team, each member needs to hold their weight in order to keep the others afloat. The game designers intended for this team effort, cleverly incorporating the need for multiple participants in challenges found in the rooms. One particular instance of this that I recall was an escape room I did with two friends of mine, the least amount of people I have done an escape room with. The three of us needed to depend on each other to pool together our common knowledge and observations in order to tackle what the room threw our way. The coolest instance of our teamwork was when one member had to point a flashlight at the mirror that another member was holding while the third stood farther away and guided the aiming of the light. We worked together to reflect the light off the mirror and onto a symbol on the wall, all while in the dark. When achieving this, a compartment with our next clue opened up, and we were proud of our coordination and ability to work together on a feat none of us could pull off alone.
7. No phones allowed
While they are not confiscated, escape rooms do stress the importance of playing these games without consulting or using your phone. This creates a unique bonding experience where the group depends on each other and their communal knowledge to continue and succeed, rather than using the internet for fast information and cheating. Additionally, a phoneless experience will be more memorable and engaging, involving everyone and roping them into the mystery without risking the distraction that phones provide during social gatherings.
8. It provides a unique and fun experience in place of traditional entertainment
Escape rooms are not the typical first choice for a hangout, and that is what makes them so special. Escape rooms provide a unique and personal experience that is different from what people usually engage in. The immersive experience that is undergone in the presence of those close to you will definitely be memorable and hold a separate significance from other simpler or easier methods of entertainment.
9. You’ll learn more about yourself
I never quite understood how much mysteries interested me and engaged me until I did my first escape room. I feel as if I am radioactive when I take them on, and I can feel my mind working faster and quicker. Even if you are not a mystery person, the different puzzles and challenges will surely reveal to you skills and knowledge that you were unaware you had.
10. Victory feels amazing
You know, this just might be the best part. Getting out of an escape room after all that hard work makes you feel amazing. Take it from a seasoned escape artist, the pride and accomplishment you feel is thrilling. In the end, the challenge escape rooms present and the sweet obtaining of victory keeps people coming, and that is why escape rooms are such successful activities. That sense of accomplishment when all you did was have fun is so rare, especially in a society that paints having fun as a waste of time, or time that could have been spent doing something more useful. Escape rooms guarantee a fun time, and are definitely a must-try for this summer.