By Ilana Berger
Escape the Room NYC seems to fall somewhere between a bad dream and an action-packed fantasy. In the increasingly popular game, participants group up and are locked in a themed room. The groups then have 60 minutes to solve the multi-step puzzle with the help of three clues, which involve the props in the room. Only by solving the puzzle can the group unlock the door and “Escape the Room.”
If a group doesn’t escape in time, a nerve agent is released and everyone dies. Just kidding, this isn’t Saw II. Groups who fail to solve the puzzle are automatically released when 60 minutes is up.
The game is simple yet ingenious because it integrates elements of interactive computer game puzzles into the tangible world of cooperation and social interaction. Escape the Room is the brainchild of puzzle enthusiast Victor Blake, who quit his job in finance to pursue what is now ranked #26 of more than 8,570 NYC attractions on Trip Advisor.
Escape the Room’s Midtown location, which opened in February 2014, allows participants to choose a Victorian era home themed room, an office, or a detective or spy agency (depending on how one interprets it).
The more recent Downtown location is partnered with the producers of Nightmare NYC, New York City’s longest running haunted house, and contains an apartment room and a theater room. Groups who escape successfully get to take picture with a giant silver key.
Escape the Room puzzles are tricky, proven by the fact that only about 15–20% of attendees actually escape in the time allotted. At the Downtown location, the record for getting out of the apartment the fastest is an impressive 33 minutes, while the theater record is 37 minutes.
Although the game has just one rule, which is not to break down any doors or destroy anything in the room, occupants inside are monitored by employees at all times via security camera.
“The apartment actually has a bathroom, and drunk people have tried to use it before,” Downtown Manager Jamal “The Magic” Stone said. “We have to go in and tell them it’s fake.”
True to his name, Jamal “The Magic” Stone, often preforms magic tricks for guests waiting to “Enter the Room.”
“A lot of times, people are meeting each other for the first time if they come in groups of two, or three, or seven,” Stone said. “This way, people get introduced to each other, and they get to experience something together before they go in. I try to get people involved in the magic.”
Escape the Room hosts guests of all ages and groups of all kinds, from tourists to corporate events.
“We wanted something fun and different that we could all do together as a group,” said 31-year-old Reshma Dave, who attended Escape the Room as part of a group of prestigious young women working in finance who meet up to collaborate and work together in their field.
According to Ms. Dave, attendees included graduates of Harvard, Wharton, and women who were featured in Forbes magazine as two of the “30 Under 30.”
In other words, Escape the Room probably had its record broken once again.
According to Stone, the puzzles in the rooms more or less remain the same during the year, however a few things are tweaked during their overhaul period in the summer. Participants are prohibited from taking photos or recording in the rooms, in part to prevent them from showing other people the solutions to the puzzles. However, Escape the Rooms mostly expects and trusts that participants will not want to ruin the fun for others by word of mouth. This seems to be enough.
