Escape Rooms 101 

These days, it seems that everyone is talking about escape rooms. They’ve made appearances in reality television shows and sitcoms—there’s even entire movies about them! Still, every day we meet people who have never played one. With literally thousands of escape rooms throughout the world in all different shapes, sizes, and themes, there truly is something for everyone, making escape rooms a unique, fun thing to do. They’re a great time for families, or groups of friends.  They’re even a fantastic tool for companies to build teamwork and staff morale. 

For the uninitiated, here are the basics. 

Arrival and Setup 

When you arrive at Quest Reality Games, our friendly Game Masters will greet you, have you sign our online waiver (if you haven’t done so already), process your payment, and give you a stamp representing the theme you have paid to play.  

You’ll be provided with free lockers where your team can store all your personal effects, such as purses, jackets, etcetera (particularly cameras, cell phones, and recording devices, which are not permitted in our themes). If you require reading glasses, best to bring those along, and hang on to them for using while you’re playing the game.  

Once you’ve got your things stowed away in our free lockers, we recommend you take a moment to use the washroom—after all, you’re about to be locked up for an hour, and thinking about a full bladder can be a real distraction when you should be focusing on puzzle-solving! 

When it’s time to begin your Quest, your Game Master will introduce themselves and check your stamp, read you our rules, and provide you with the background story and objective for your chosen theme (pay close attention—there may be secret hints in their introduction!). They will also offer you the choice between an easy, standard, or difficult experience. Your choice won’t affect the nature of the puzzles, but it will affect how your Game Master interacts with you—and how much information and assistance they’ll provide during your Quest. This is your chance to ask any questions, and then it’s GAME TIME!  

Your group will have one hour to explore the room and solving puzzles and riddles to advance through the game. Most escape rooms offer you hints to help you progress if you get stumped anywhere along the way (we provide two hints).   

What To Wear 

There’s no dress code to play our escape rooms, but you should dress for comfort and for movement. There’s no climbing or crawling in our themes, so skirts or a dress can be worn. If you’re thinking of playing an escape room as something to do after work, you might want to consider bringing a change of clothes with you to the office and ditching the necktie before your gameplay, so you can enjoy the full benefit of 100% blood-flow to your thinker!  

Some of our rooms do contain hay and sand, so you definitely don’t want to be  wearing  nice pants, or a fancy dress. We recommend wearing comfortable shoes—it’s no fun navigating your way through the Great Pyramid in a pair of 3” heels! Don’t worry—if you do find yourself ready to play while wearing your nice patent leather, we offer shoe covers. 

What to Expect 

Escape rooms come in a variety of themes, from horror to modern day adventures to time traveling. While there are some escape rooms that are for adults only, ours are designed to appeal to all ages. There are no age limits or restrictions for our escape games (players 14 and under will need to have an adult player 18 or over with them), and people from all walks of life have enjoyed experiencing our themes. In fact, many times, we’ve had players from 3 or more generations playing together! Regardless of the composition of your team, you’ll need to be prepared to work together as a team if you want to solve all the puzzles and escape within the allotted time. This is why many businesses are opting to take their team out to an escape room for a corporate event—it forces players to work together, but is still fun and exciting enough to keep players entertained. 

The forced social aspect is the best part of playing an escape room. Other common group activities (paintball, laser tag, etc.) leave a lot of room for a player to go lone wolf and forget the rest of the team, but you can’t do that when you’re playing an escape room. There is no top player when you play an escape room; the whole team succeeds or fails together, and if you all escape, you definitely feel closer to one another by the end! 

Our escape games are designed for you to use your wits, and not meant to be physically demanding.  Although you should dress for movement, our indoor escape games do not require running, jumping, or  any  physical  strength. However, you may need to bend over or lift small things in order to  escape. No force is required for any of our puzzles, just mental strength! Is mobility a concern for you? Don’t worry, our facility is fully accessible, as are most of our themes. 

All our escape games are private experiences. You will not be paired up with strangers. Once you book an escape room it is reserved exclusively for you and your teammates—unless, of course, you’d like to invite some new friends! 

Common Fears 

People have various reasons for avoiding escape rooms. Some fear suffering claustrophobia, or tell us that they’re worried they won’t be able to solve the puzzles. A lot of people are also worried that they’ll fail. But like any new experience, escape rooms are a learned skill, and the more you play the better you’ll get. You need not worry about failing. The nature of escape rooms is that they are designed so only a small percentage of players are actually successful at escaping.  Otherwise they would be exit rooms—and what’s the fun in that?! You won’t always solve the game, but the challenge of figuring out how to solve puzzles, and the thrill when you do solve a puzzle is all part of the fun. In fact, we bet once you get that rush, you’ll be hooked! 

As for anyone worried about being locked in, at Quest Reality Games for your safety, you are never truly locked in our rooms. So you can play with piece of mind knowing you can leave anytime you need to. 

If you haven’t been to an escape room yet, what are you waiting for?! Book now!