10 considerations for picking the right escape room
Take a wee look at restaurants: all offer food, a table and a seat to eat; you walk Hope street and find all places choke a bloke on a Friday night. The reason is that people like to try different tastes, different styles, want to enjoy different ambiances and divers designs, yet with the same objective: feel good, have a great time, and get well fed.
Escape rooms are no different: they offer the same thing ā enjoyment and fun in different styles, designs and ambience. People select a game based on their preferences and wants, personalities or the harmony and dynamics of the teams they are to play with. With escape rooms growing in popularity, there is an ever widening choice to pick a game.
As a rule of thumb, don't try to compare one game with an other, as all games are different.
Evaluate a particular experience by how it matched your expectations, and how much you enjoyed it.
Riddle Rooms offers 6 very different escape games all with unique themes and riddles - you can return 6 times with no deja vu feeling.
It may happen that you play all our escape rooms, and absolutely love 3, feel alright in 2 and feel like you don't really vibe with 1 - and that's okay. However, we do aim to give you the wow! with each visit. š To get to our point though, let's look at our top 10 things to consider when choosing an escape room experience for you and your team:
1. Location
Think about how you get there, how long it will take, and importantly, how to move on to the next activity you planned. If you're going to have a few drinks after the game or a nice dinner, it's probably best to have your escape room walking distance to good restaurants, bars and pubs. walk to the pub. You would want something in the city centre most likely, that's easily accessible by public transport.
2. Venue amenities, facilities to use
Is there a decent reception and waiting are in the venue?
Imagine you arrive 10 minutes earlier than the other half of your team, and you need to wait standing on the street as there is no seating area inside. Or you are pushed into a 4 square meters space with another arriving team and one that is just finishing and waiting for their mates.
Is the place safe and secure?
You'd either like to take your valuables into the room with you or lock them away in secure lockers provided. (At Riddle Rooms, you can do both, whichever feels more comfortable to you.) You'd also be pleased to know that entry to the venue is secure, and there are staff nearby on site to look after you.
Are there enough toilets?
If you're like me, you also like to use toilets right before entering into a "long-term" engagement, whether it's a 2 hour drive or a 75 minute escape room. It's also reassuring to know though that if needed, you can just pop out to use the bathroom. It's good to have at least one, but rather two or more toilets in escape room venues, so taking turns won't take forever.
3. Team size
Whether it's about too few players in a room designed for larger teams, or too many in a game that has a smaller space and more linear game flow (not enough for everyone to get fully involved), you could feel frustrated, bothered or bored. It's important to find the right size of space and game design for your team's size.
Our advice is to always check minimum and maximum player capacity of the game you want to play. In good escape room venues, these limits are there to ensure the best game experience for participants. If it says up to 5, you should trust the venue and not ask to squeeze in an extra player.
Following on that note, if a game is advertised for 2 to 10 players, if you trust the venue to be good and professional, assume there are team size driven variations to the game flow and puzzles in use. If you don't trust the venue, feel free to contact them and ask if there are any variations to the game when it's played by 3 or 10 players. If there aren't, the game is likely to be less than enjoyable.
At Riddle Rooms, both our Spy and Burns Room games have two versions, one standard for up to 6 players, and an extended one for 7 to 10 players. Mystery Room is for 2 to 5 players, and Mansion cannot be booked for teams smaller than 8 players (this game is specifically designed for large teams, from 8 to 18 players, for 90 minutes play time, making this game the largest in Scotland).
4. Age group
First generation games started out as logical-mathematical puzzles, linear game structures,
puritan scene settings. Later came the stories for setting scenes and more effort went into creating themes and immersive atmospheres. Tasks and puzzles were becoming more challenging with complex multiple association, too.
Content and scene setting however determine who the game is suited for, i.e. who would
enjoy, and who would not. The sort of things adults are unexplainably attracted to, such as
murder, adultery, and horror themes are not suitable for families with kids.
Games designed to be suitable and enjoyable for kids, as well as adults, must contain more ādoingā in addition to āthinkingā. Best games for families are such where kids and adults play together, thus making the experience a bonding and loving event.
Our Spy Room and Time Agent Room are designed with families in mind, suitable for families with kids 7 years and above. We also adjusted our Mansion Room game (different storyline, amended game flow and adjusted tasks) to provide super fun birthday party program for kids aged 9-15.
Before booking a game always check age restrictions and recommendations. If not sure, phone or email the venue to make sure you book the right game for your family.
5. Themes and preferences
We introduced themes and storylines when we talked about age-appropriateness, but it could also be a deciding factor due to preferences.
A space themed escape room might entice you, while it may put me off. Perhaps the thought of a wild west theme gets you excited, while you wouldn't go near a zombie themed game.
Moreover, there are different parts of your brain that gets worked by different type of tasks. Which ones do you enjoy more, left or right brain tasks?
Numbers, sequences and logic is all controlled by your left brain. Intuition, free association, storytelling, visioning and sensing are all āmanagedā by your right brain. Some of us are better at and enjoy more the puzzles and riddles that rely on our right brain, while others prefer to use their left brain for fun.
The best games are those that lends for both brain parts in order to provide thrills and satisfaction for all team members.
Our escape games at Riddle Rooms are designed to satisfy both parts of brains - puzzles, stories, sensing, logic are all parts of the game content and challenges. That said, Mystery Room is more right-brain pleasing, while Amnesia Room is more left-brain stimulating, however never exclusive to one or the other types of riddles.
6. Linear or non-linear game
What is a linear game?
Linear game means that you need to solve one clue after the other, in a linear way. If you solved clue one, you will get to clue 2, and so on. A non-linear game is where you have multiple clues and riddles that your team could work on at the same time, leading to different new clues (multiple streams of clues, that can overlap).
Who should pick a linear game?
Well, that depends. New to the escape game experience? First time players? Go for linear games. You move through the game together, see the whole sequence in real time as a whole team, learn how, what, when to do or find out.
Your team is max. 4 players? Linear games could work just fine for you.
You are only comfortable when you grasp the whole of what goes on in any one second in the
game? Definitely linear games for you! A multi-stream game could feel like chaos for you and make you feel like you're missing out.
For teams with 6 or more players, or when all team members are seasoned escapers, multiple stream games are a definite must to play for you. These games offer seemingly independent streams of challenges, thus keeping all players busy and entertained throughout the game, with the opportunity to leave a task and start or join an other one within playtime. The more players you have, the more complex game you ideally need in order to keep adrenalin and excitement levels high.
At Riddle Rooms, none of our rooms are 100% linear, all offer the choice of simultaneous puzzle cracking, yet on a spectrum of ten (1 being absolutely linear and 10 being chaos) the games are nicely spread. Amnesia would be a 2 or 3, Spy and Time Agent are around the 4, Mystery a 5, Burns Room is at 7 and our most complex game, Mansion Room is around level 8. This means, that you can play Burns and Mansion games even twice without being bored or uninterested, because you can take it for granted: there will be things for the second time you've never seen beforeā¦
7. Your safety and security
We recommend you always check basic standards of safety before you start the game (although in decent places your health and safety briefing is always delivered to you before you enter the play).
You need to know not only what you can, cannot, may or must not do int he game to stay safe, but also how you can exit the place quickly and safely in case of fire, technical failures, or any other emergencies. NEVER start playing without absolute clarity on how you can leave the room when you want: emergency key, emergency release button, all exits, etc.
Our rooms are totally safe, you are not at the mercy of any locking devices or staff at any time. Our Game Moderators are all well trained on health and safety procedures, you get the appropriate briefing, and importantly, you are never really locked in any of the games.
In our Mansion Room and Party Room games (larger size of teams, longer playtime, large room) our Game Moderators are actually in the play area with your team.
8. Deals and offers
We all like a good deal and getting things with a discount. Check out our deals section for any publicly offered discounts on our escape rooms, and subscribe to our mailing list for exclusive deals.
You might also want to stay together with your friends after the game, have a meal or just a pint, want to discuss the experience, have a laugh, etc. Some of the escape venues walk the extra mile to offer partnership deals to their customers, which could be a worthwhile consideration for you.
For instance, Riddle Rooms has a partnership with the Glasgow Award winning ROMA restaurant (literally just across the street) as well as with The Raven, a classic pub with a superb burger menu. And both are literally just a few yards away from the door!
When you pop in there and prove that you came from playing at The Riddle Rooms, you get chunky discounts off a la carte prices. This saving mounts easily to tens of Pounds for a team of 5.
10. Customer service and game moderation
We left this for last because it's one of the most important factors in your escape room experience and wanted to close with these thoughts.
No matter how good a game (the "product") is, you won't have a positive experience if staff is
not competent and focused ( the āserviceā).
You want staff to show dedication and self-assurance, providing good customer service to you during enquiries, booking and importantly, game moderation. If your moderator is running multiple games, handling reception and the hints system (the way you get help when needed during your game) is not adequate, chances are you'll not get the help you need when you need it or ask for it, and you will end up feeling frustrated and disappointed.
At Riddle Rooms, this is at the heart of what we do - we offer dedicated game moderator support, to provide you with the best escape room experience possible.
9. Availability
After discussing all the different considerations, your decision may come down to something as simple as availability. If you decide you want to play a game that afternoon or evening, or that Saturday (most popular day at escape room venues), you may end up booking where you find available games.
Since we have 6 different game rooms, you have better chances to find an available slot with us. Check our booking section or call us to see what we have available for your desired day and time.
Fantastic place, the amnesia room was at least the 4th room we have done at this place. Staff are super friendly and welcoming, explaining all the details with care (extra shout out to Alan, who was our helper today and did a fantastic job š). Compared to escape rooms at other places, the clues here are very unique, but actually solvable. Nothing worse than clues which are so random, you have no chance of figuring it out. No duplication in puzzles so far! All the rooms have a theme which is so enjoyable! Thank you for the great day guys!