Friends celebrate a victory at Escape Plan in London. A 90-minute visit allows for a briefing, up to 60 minutes for the escape and a photo and debrief once you're out. (Courtesy of Escape Plan)
Friends celebrate a victory at Escape Plan in London. A 90-minute visit allows for a briefing, up to 60 minutes for the escape and a photo and debrief once you're out. (Courtesy of Escape Plan)
Escape Plan places contestants in a set of rooms decorated like a World War II prisoner of war camp. Clues are hidden throughout the rooms that help you unlock the doors that bar escape. (Brendan Mills/Courtesy photo)
Getting out of Escape Plan's World War-II-decorated rooms involves relying on a journal filled with cryptic references to puzzles found throughout the rooms. (Brendan Mills/Courtesy photo)
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Group members at Escape Plan in London brag about their success. A 90-minute visit allows for a briefing, up to 60 minutes for the escape and a photo and debrief once you're out. (Courtesy of Escape Plan)
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The clock ran down to zero and we had failed. The door to freedom was still locked, and the room we were in still held a few secrets we had yet to penetrate.
What does the German text on the wall mean? What was the point of the rope?
The voice of the moderator came into the room: “I am not opening the door until you figure this out.”
We had some work to do.
We were playing a version of a game known as “room escape,” versions of which have become popular recently in London. The basic idea is that you’re locked in a room and given a certain amount of time to solve clues to win your freedom.
The version of room escape we chose, called Escape Plan, put my wife and me in a room meant to re-create a World War II German prison barracks. A table with a chess board and dominoes stood in the center of the room, bunk beds occupied most of one wall, and a board with a list of supplies hung beside another door. A dresser and some boxes filled out the rest of the room. A door, secured with a combination lock, guarded the next room.
If we actually had been trying to escape a Nazi prison camp, we would have been eaten by the guard dogs we heard barking in the background.
The key to getting out is thoroughly searching every inch of the room for small clues and then figuring out how they apply to the locks spread around the room.
Not all of the combinations are solved in the same way. Some involve deciphering code; others require you to solve a riddle or spot details in series of photographs. If a problem proves too difficult, teams can call in the moderator for one of three hints.
Almost 40 percent of teams fail in their efforts to escape the rooms, yet those who try seem to enjoy the challenge: Escape Plan is highly rated on TripAdvisor.com.
Even though we didn’t make it out in time, and probably had more help from the moderator than most, we would do it again. The interaction and desperate pace you must maintain to find and analyze clues make it one of the most entertaining experiences in London.
Twitter: @AMathisStripes
