I had a hard time deciding whether or not I should mention the company that Conklederp, myself and four other of our friends patronized this last Saturday, or go into glorious detail about the specific themed escape room which contained one puzzle in particular that I had initially thought was too complicated outside of an Indiana Jones movie or an early Resident Evil video game, but it happened, it was awesome, but in the end we ultimately failed in escaping the room that we all willingly put ourselves into.
Escape Rooms are something that I've only recently heard about, easily within the last year. There was an episode of Extra Credits that covered them and an abbreviated breakdown on how escape rooms function. I tried to get a group of people (our D&D group) last October for a Zombie Escape Room, but our schedules couldn't be synced in time; end of the year obligations all around. But Conklederp was able to organize a day among four of our other friends who would be able to join in. In short, Escape Rooms are rooms that contain a number of puzzles that you are required to solve in order to "escape" from the room, often times with a time limit of one hour. Obviously escaping could happen with unlimited time, but that takes away from both the company's source of revenue as well as the tension, which helps to drive you as you scour the room looking for clues and puzzles.
Escapism Portland is the company that we decided to go with, partly because of the overall cost of the outing, but also because of the themes they have for their escape rooms. I won't divulge which of their currently three offered rooms we did, because some minor spoilers might be speckled throughout my talkings, and the last thing I want to do is possibly ruin a puzzle that someone took a fair amount of time to figure out and execute.
Alrighty then, now where to start.
Our group, some of whom had never met before worked remarkably well together. None of us had done an escape room before (which apparently surprised our host) but we all play video games at varying levels, so I felt that we would do well. Another aspect of our group that I feel very fortunate about is that no one took over the Alpha role, which might seem odd, that no one person took charge of collecting all the information from the various puzzles, or ordering people around. There was a clipboard with pen and paper for us to write notes on, but various people took hold of note taking at various points.
As for the puzzles themselves, we were told beforehand by our host what would not be used in the puzzles as apparently groups in the past spent a lot of time trying to figure out why certain objects were where they were and what would happen if they were rearranged somewhere else. Also that we didn't have to to worry about objects being hidden behind paintings, pictures, or anything else hanging on the walls. While initially this gave me an "Awwwwhhh," I later appreciated not having to worry about removing a picture or a clock only to spend an additional two precious minutes trying to put the object back on the wall by fitting the nail into the tiny hole in the back. An unlocked emergency exit (which was right next to the door we used to enter the room) was pointed out and again, I thought "Awwwhhhh" at having an obvious way out, but I understand the logistical and legal (fire code/safety) reasons for having the exit fully accessible. There was also a phone in the room that the host used to call us every 15-20 minutes to let us know how much time remained as there was no other time keeping device in the room. We were also able to used the phone to call out to ask for hints, which we only used once after misinterpreting one of the clues.
There were a number of highlights during our hour in the room, most of which I again, cannot divulge without giving away the secrets of the room. I will say though, that one of the combination locks that we had to find the combination for, I accidentally found. Upon further examining the room, I noticed the time on the numberless clock and thought that that might work. After putting in 832 (not the real combination, but for ease of explaining), the combination lock opened. We found what was inside (more clues to additional puzzles) and moved on. Only later upon examining a clue we had found earlier, did we discover that 832 was hidden within the puzzle. I looked back at the clock and noticed that the time had changed. It turned out that the clock was indeed functional (although the time was incorrect) and that the time (give or take a minute) displayed on it when I was looking at it, just happened to be the combination for the lock.
As previously mentioned, we were unable to make it out of the room, although I will admit that it was not for lack of understanding the puzzles. In the end, we had all of the pieces to the final puzzle and knew how to go about solving it, but there was another piece to a puzzle (that we knew how to solve), but we were missing an integral piece that allowed the puzzle to be solved. After the time was up, our host unlocked the door, congratulated us on getting as far as we did and asked if we wanted to know how to solve the rest of the room. We agreed (I'll get into that in a bit). It turned out that the missing piece to the second to last puzzle wasn't hidden by another puzzle, but in an area that we had searched earlier, but not searched well enough. If we had found that elusive piece, we would have been able to decipher a code which would have allowed us to find the final piece of the puzzle and unlock our way out of the room.
The largest downside I can see with this escape room, is that there is practically no replay value if you get to the end of the room without being able to solve the puzzle, but only if the same puzzles are kept in the same places. Escapism Portland currently has three rooms with two more on the way and I know for a fact that we (some iteration of our group) will be supporting them in the very near future. But without new rooms coming every few months (or at least two a year), then there will be a point where we will be unable to give this company any more money. So when our host asked if we wanted him to show us the solution to the puzzle, I at first thought "No, why would we want to see how it's all done?" but seeing that we only had a few more steps to go, it made sense. If we were to have returned to do the same escape room (paying the same amount because business reasons), then the experience would have been very diluted (not quite like going through Portal a second time, but more like having to buy Portal again to go through again) and we would have blown through the room in less than 30 minutes.
So in the end, even though we were unable to make our way out of the room, everyone, from what I could tell and from what we all talked about afterwards, had a lot of fun. We have even started planning on making our way to one of the currently other two escape rooms offered by Escapism Portland. So if you're in the Portland, OR area and are looking for an escape room, I would have to recommend Escapism Portland. Of course your experience might vary depending who all is in your group, which I feel is a pretty integral aspect of your own experience.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconain
