...surviving our first escape room...

My fella and I survived the Real Escape Room  Patient Zero event last weekend. One of his friends had a birthday party and gathered a group of gamers (and me) to try out the event. I felt that the real accomplishment was that the event with his friends didn't begin until 9:45pm; so, not only did we survive but we stayed awake!

I always enjoy time with my fella but I cannot say that I actually enjoyed the escape event. For starters, being locked in a room didn’t sound like such a fun idea. I’m always anxious about being able to find bathrooms. In my defense, I have one kidney but I’m sure that’s just an excuse I’m making :p For each game (Event? Escape? I’m not sure what the appropriate vocabulary should be) there are approximately ten people. Without leadership, which I felt we didn’t have, people do not naturally communicate. That’s one thing that I appreciate about my workplace culture which is similar to American Deaf Culture—people communicate what they’re doing and what has been completed. It’s a natural part of the communication process. 

Last Saturday, my fella’s friends solved numerous puzzles independently but then they didn’t state what had been accomplished so others tried to solve the already solved puzzles. It was a huge waste of time. I found myself trying to announce to the group what had been done but in the end, I’m an introvert who doesn’t care for games (in general). It might have been the topic though. While I like zombies, I’m not that interested in going up against a computer who taunts players.

On their website, the event is described as: 

Welcome to Nano-Gen Enterprises.  We have invented wifi-programmable airborne nanobots that make viruses to CURE anything and a SUPER-computer named Josie to program them.  

Bad news is:  Josie has gone insane.  

She created a nano-virus that heals the body quickly - but destroys every part of the brain that makes us human.  Infected people are vicious, hard to kill and… well… eat people.  The media calls them “Zombies”.  

Before he died, Dr. Figaro Skaramousch left clues on how to neutralize the virus before anyone else turns.  But he had to hide or disguise everything so Josie’s robots could not find them.  You will have to solve the clues he left you and re-program the nano-virus before it reaches epidemic proportions.  

And, the worst news is:   The moment you enter the room you will be infected.  You have only one hour before the disease has done to much damage to your body to reverse and you become one of them.

It’s also important to point out that the puzzles do not require any previously learned knowledge. So when my fella’s super smart nerdy friends where channeling their knowledge about chromosomes, they should have been reminded that the group of adolescents who (completely judgmental) appeared as though they wouldn’t pick up books if their escape game depended on it had solved the puzzles and escaped the exact same room right before we entered. Everything you need to solve the puzzle is IN the room; you just have to piece it all together.

We’ll probably go to another escape room in the future because my fella had a lot of fun with his friends and it’s a nicely structured outing for gamers.