You’ve heard about escape rooms. You’re curious. But, maybe you’re a little perplexed. This is only natural, as riddles are intrinsic to escape room games. There’s no way to know for sure if you’ll enjoy the live escape experience until you take the plunge yourself. Preparing yourself in a few small ways may enhance your adventure and up the chance of successfully escaping, which is why we’ve outlined four basic things to do either before trying your first escape room or during.
Communication
Talk to and with the other players in your team. If you see numbers or other clues, speak them aloud or write them on the designated board. Having an organized system for writing down numbers, names or other clues will expedite your progress. Collaboration is essential for escape rooms, and often strengths are divided between team members. Just because something seems innocuous to you does not mean it won’t ring a bell for someone else.
Keep it simple
Simplicity is sometimes key. Try the easiest solution first, then you can start to overthink it if that doesn’t work. This doesn’t mean the combinations are going to be 1234 or “password” so don’t get that simple. Also, if a combination does not work for you, have another team member try it before moving onto another possible combination.
Stretch
In this case, “stretching” is more figurative than literal. Warming up your brain with different types of puzzles — like solitaire, crosswords, word searches or 3D games — can help fire up those rusty areas of your brain that may be lacking in practice. There are a plethora of apps for your phone that center around critical thinking and creative problem-solving. Check out a list of puzzle games for iPhones here and check out this other list of puzzle games for here.
Think Outside the Box
Don’t expect every puzzle in the room to be a number combination or a key lock. There are clues and activities that involve different senses, math and wordplay. We can’t give away the really innovative clues (you’ll have to come in to try those) but we can say that some of the tasks require creative and unusual thinking.
Each time you complete an escape room, whether you successfully finish the mission at hand or not, you’ll find new skill sets you never knew you had and witness your friends and family discovering the same thing. If we were to guess, you’ll probably be hungry for more immersive, educational and exciting experiences after that. Don’t worry though, we’ve got seven escape rooms to keep you busy for a while.