Escape Review: Escape The Room Philly, The Office
I recently experienced Escape The Room Philly with a great group of people. We picked The Office scenario, as it was their original room and our first time doing a "room escape" type challenge. The general principal is a group of up to 10 people are dead bolted in an office room with various puzzle challenges that eventually lead to a key and hopefully their escape, but they only have an hour to do it!
We went into this with a lot of planning, having originally split our nine (9) person part up into smaller groups of puzzle solvers, searchers, and overall note takers. This wasn't the best strategy as some members arrived to the event slightly late (arrive early people!), so different groups were entering the room at various stages of the event, throwing off our original team designs and giving us a more ad-hoc play style. At times, organization turned to chaos, although we were able to reign in order later, especially when clues came in over the TV in the main room. That said, it may actually be useful to have smaller groups than ten or nine play, to decrease the amount of confusion and running around that can occur in those rooms under the shot clock (countdown clock on the TV in the main room).
We found it important to keep a list of clues for the puzzles we were working on. This helped us keep a tab on active clues (and write down clues that flashed across the TV), as well as cross off the clues that were used. There were paper and pens available to us in the room as clues which doubled as useful tools for taking notes. Remember to collect all tidbits of information, if you find it in the room it probably has relevance, further write down any and all number combinations that stick out. Try to keep the status sheet available to the whole team, they can also fill in clues and cross them off as they are solved, this will keep the whole team on the same page if they need to check the status sheet.
Something that helped us was keeping tab on all the active locks blocking our way. A tip here is to mentally separate the locks by physical keys and combination locks. You can take this further by associating keys with certain types of locks (desk locks vs dead bolts should clearly have a different amount of teeth). Similarly associating groups of numbers that are uncovered with the combination locks you've encountered that have the same amount of digits, will aid you greatly as you complete puzzles and move on with your rewards. Dates and other sets of four numbers are ideal for combination locks, and if necessary, try your numbers in different combinations or sets.
Our preparation did pay off, since there were no restrictions to what we were able to bring in beforehand. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as we actually needed our smart phones for some challenges (basic apps we already had) although for other challenges they left dictionaries and encyclopedias in the room for us. I also think it helps to have someone in your group who is experienced with technology, as more then one challenge was based on a simple modern technology. That said, don't overthink the challenges, they make them simple enough for most anyone to solve and generally give you all the tools you need.
Overall we had a blast, I couldn't image a more fun, generally non-technical, team building activity!! I highly recommend this for puzzle enthusiasts, work groups, and friends alike! In my humble opinion the following traits would make for the best teammates; logical, attention to detail, intuitive, calm under pressure, cooperative, non-linear thinkers, and ultimately, problem solvers. Final thoughts, hear all ideas out, this is a group effort over everything, keep your cool, and organize your clues. My recommendation, find one near you, try it out, and have fun (it's just a game :).
We went into this with a lot of planning, having originally split our nine (9) person part up into smaller groups of puzzle solvers, searchers, and overall note takers. This wasn't the best strategy as some members arrived to the event slightly late (arrive early people!), so different groups were entering the room at various stages of the event, throwing off our original team designs and giving us a more ad-hoc play style. At times, organization turned to chaos, although we were able to reign in order later, especially when clues came in over the TV in the main room. That said, it may actually be useful to have smaller groups than ten or nine play, to decrease the amount of confusion and running around that can occur in those rooms under the shot clock (countdown clock on the TV in the main room).
We found it important to keep a list of clues for the puzzles we were working on. This helped us keep a tab on active clues (and write down clues that flashed across the TV), as well as cross off the clues that were used. There were paper and pens available to us in the room as clues which doubled as useful tools for taking notes. Remember to collect all tidbits of information, if you find it in the room it probably has relevance, further write down any and all number combinations that stick out. Try to keep the status sheet available to the whole team, they can also fill in clues and cross them off as they are solved, this will keep the whole team on the same page if they need to check the status sheet.
Something that helped us was keeping tab on all the active locks blocking our way. A tip here is to mentally separate the locks by physical keys and combination locks. You can take this further by associating keys with certain types of locks (desk locks vs dead bolts should clearly have a different amount of teeth). Similarly associating groups of numbers that are uncovered with the combination locks you've encountered that have the same amount of digits, will aid you greatly as you complete puzzles and move on with your rewards. Dates and other sets of four numbers are ideal for combination locks, and if necessary, try your numbers in different combinations or sets.
Our preparation did pay off, since there were no restrictions to what we were able to bring in beforehand. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as we actually needed our smart phones for some challenges (basic apps we already had) although for other challenges they left dictionaries and encyclopedias in the room for us. I also think it helps to have someone in your group who is experienced with technology, as more then one challenge was based on a simple modern technology. That said, don't overthink the challenges, they make them simple enough for most anyone to solve and generally give you all the tools you need.
Overall we had a blast, I couldn't image a more fun, generally non-technical, team building activity!! I highly recommend this for puzzle enthusiasts, work groups, and friends alike! In my humble opinion the following traits would make for the best teammates; logical, attention to detail, intuitive, calm under pressure, cooperative, non-linear thinkers, and ultimately, problem solvers. Final thoughts, hear all ideas out, this is a group effort over everything, keep your cool, and organize your clues. My recommendation, find one near you, try it out, and have fun (it's just a game :).
