Newstricky| Escape rooms are gaining popularity across the world and as they continue to become more and more popular, you may find yourself wondering what an escape room actually is. This article aims to take you through a quick explanation of what an escape room is and why they are so amazingly awesome.
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What Is An Escape Room?
An escape room is, in essence, a series of puzzles that are joined together by a narrative experience. When you arrive at an escape room, you are generally prepped on “the story so far”, this means that they give you a little background on what led to you being in this escape room and your part in the story that is taking place. Ultimately, you are supposed to solve all of the puzzles that take you through the story and allow you to escape the room before the timer runs out. Win or lose, when the timer runs out your time in the escape room is over.
The Puzzles- The core of the escape room experience comes from the combination of the story you are experiencing and the puzzles you are solving. In fact, the two are often even interwoven, meaning you need to pay heed to both in order to win. The puzzles in an escape room are often cryptic and difficult, requiring multiple steps to solve and sometimes even requiring you to solve other puzzles as a part of them. This is what gives the escape room its urgency and sets the tone for your time there. Solving puzzles under time pressure is stressful, but that is what makes them fun.
Why Escape Rooms are Awesome
So, now that you are a little wiser to what escape rooms actually are, you might be beginning to see why escape rooms are so mind-blowingly awesome.
They Form a Brilliant Narrative Experience- For one thing, escape rooms are predicated on the idea of taking you, as a character, through a perfectly crafted and incredibly intense story experience. That kind of experience is incredibly entertaining and engaging, meaning you are almost guaranteed to have a whale of a time if you love a good story.
They Use Actual, Physical Puzzles- Plus, the kinds of puzzles that these experiences make use of are incredibly complex and difficult to set up, which means you are never really going to run into anything like them anywhere else. For people who love puzzles, that is unbelievably cool. After all, where else are you going to get locked into a room and given a dozen riddles to work your way out.
Good for the Mind- These kinds of puzzles are incredibly good for your mind, helping you to engage and really use those logical skills that you might not be applying every day. Not to mention the benefits you get from really good social interaction, which you’ll need in order to solve the puzzles as a team.
Great Escape Rooms to Try
Now that you know all about escape rooms you might find yourself interested in giving one a go. Fortunately for you, they are popping up all over the world. Your best bet for finding a good escape room experience near you is to literally search “escape room near me”, just be sure to check the reviews.
However, if you are already familiar with escape rooms and are looking for something a little more engaging, then you might want to go ahead and consider some of the escape room variants below. They are a little harder to find, but they’re worth the effort.
VR Escape Rooms- One of the most interesting variations on current escape rooms is the Virtual Reality Escape Room. These make use of recent VR technology in order to fully ensconce the escapees into situations that they could never be put into in real life.
Linear vs Non-Linear Escape Rooms- Finally, most escape rooms are linear in nature. That makes them easy enough to engage with while their puzzles provide the challenge. However, some of the most difficult and interesting escape rooms are the kind that force you to go here, there, and everywhere, looping around yourself as you solve the puzzles. This can really add another level of complexity to the puzzles and make a fun experience truly entertaining.
