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I've only done three so far, but I am completely and thoroughly hooked.
For those not in the know, real life escape rooms are small games that emulate classic "point and click adventure" type video games, where you go through some environment gathering item and solving deranged riddles, except for real. You enter a room with a few other friends, and get locked inside. You have 60 minutes to figure a way out, only finding the key for the door after you work through a succession of various puzzles, each one of them unlocking (often literally but sometimes figuratively, which is way cooler) new riddles and parts of the room as you progress.
The really cool part is that this awesome concept I described is really only the jumping point. Much of the value of these rooms comes not only from the creative puzzles and awesome game aspect, but also from the increasingly elaborate themes for the rooms. Early versions had mostly some sort of vague backstory for the room that explained why you're in it, but the fun ended there. More recent rooms come with great stories and great new looks. As an example, I just recently did a room called Horrors Of Trenton, modeled after the asylum in New Jersey where horrific experiments were performed on the inmates. The room was completely believable and slowly ramped up the horror - at first we were locked in the office of the manager, we then unlocked our way into the cell of an inmate, and finally found a secret passage into a secret laboratory populated with blood filler syringes, vicious looking medical tools, and even a refrigerator containing chopped off body parts (not real ones, obviously, but props). Needless to say each step of this journey involved some original and twistes puzzles that made heavy use of electronics. For example, back in the office we started out way in, we found a note from the good doctor describing how a picture of his wife is hanged on the southern wall, a picture of his son in the east and of his daughters in the west. Looking at the walls we realized that the twins were opposite the wife - which didn't match the description. We rearranged the pictures in a way that made sense and click! - a door unlocks itself.
So, in short, if you haven't tried any escape room yet, you really should give it a try. You're in for some crazy, original and unique experiences that just have to appeal to most gamers.
Any other escape room addicts around these partS?
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Did you try turning the doorknob?
That's what trips me up at least.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I've only done one, and had a blast. Escape from a room with a Zombie had the added twist that a zombie was locked in the room with you, on a chain that got a few inches longer every 5 minutes. If the zombie touched you, you were "dead" and had to stay in the corner the rest of the game. It added a tactical element of avoiding the zombie, and having other players lure the zombie to them to move it away from where a clue was that someone needed to examine.
The puzzles themselves weren't themed to anything in particular, but were a good variety of types of puzzles. Looking forward to my next one I'll be doing in January, with a scary carnival theme.