Escape rooms, they are not like any computer games of virtual reality machines.
“We started off in a square room. Once we finished one of the clues, the lights went out completely and strobe lights started going off. When the lights have came back on, the room has expanded.” Described by Adrian Pasqualini.
To many students, “Escape Room” is not an unfamiliar term. Every escape room challenge, for example like this escape room las vegas, starts with a given background story and a set of clues which guides you and your team to solve the mystery. It may sound easy, but the tension and suspense created while being trapped in a real-life space is simply ineffable. If you have ever wondered about where to go after midterm, escape rooms are great options! Some of the well-known escape rooms are usually from franchise companies. Adventure Rooms, Confundrum Escape, and Qube Escape are just a few of the many choice out there. With a variety of escape rooms to choose from, how can one decide on which one to try?
We sat with Adrian Pasqualini at the Applied Health Sciences coffee shop to speak about some of his amazing escape room experiences. Adrian is a first-year computer science student and he has quite a long history with a variety of escape rooms all over North America. On the top of his recommendation list, the Palace Game Escape Rooms were exceptional.
“I would say that was definitely the best escape room that I have been to. It just had the highest production quality.” Said Adrian. “Usually for most escape rooms, you get regular puzzles and locks, those are all fun if you incorporate them well but these people had lights on the walls, pressure sensors on the floors, detectors to detect your movements… they incorporated all the puzzles around that really, really well.”
The Palace Game Escape Rooms are located in San Francisco and It has been rated as the “Best Escape Room Company in the country”. There are currently 5 games to choose from and each booking costs around $500 per team with a maximum of 10 players. Comparing to other escape rooms which costs around $20 to $30 per person, this surely is a pricy, but worthy one.
For a less costly recommendation, Adrian ranked Escape the Six, which is located in the city of Mississauga, as his second favourite experience. The cost of Escape the Six escape rooms are more affordable, around $25 per person. If you can’t make it to this one, Adrian pointed out that in selecting any escape room, puzzle layouts really determine the quality of the experience. Bad escape room designs really show through when the players are confused about the instructions.
“I went to one in Toronto. I actually can’t remember [the name of it] but it has something to do with foxes and some scripted society. Basically, it was just one room with a bunch of puzzles scattered around it and then there was a guy inside the room with us from the company and he kind of gave us hints that we didn’t asked for. Even with all that help, we still didn’t escape.”
From a bad experience, Adrian explained the benefits of choosing linear puzzles instead of non-linear ones.
“I would say that you would have to look at the type or the layout of the escape room.That one was non-linear, in a sense that you can do any puzzle you want in any order and the order didn’t matter. I think linear puzzles are better, where you do one puzzle and that one gives you the clue to do the next. Those are much more structured and you always know what you’re suppose to do.”
Adrian made a great point, but obviously a good escape room experience will never come without bonding and teamwork. Adrian hopes his advices will really get everyone into games that’s worth the time.
“Just have fun! You want to go have fun with your friends and escape rooms are definitely a good choice.”
Correction: There was an error in crediting this article. This article was written by Kai Yuan Chi, but was mistakenly published under a different author. Imprint would like to apologize for this mistake.
