Escape rooms are a new pastime sweeping the globe and they’ve recently landed here in the states. At first mention, they sound a little intimidating, but they’re actually a visually and mentally stimulating activity that’s a lot of fun.
An escape room is just what it sounds like—the object of the game is to find a way to get out of a locked room in about an hour. If you’re feeling a little claustrophobic at the mere thought of it, take into account that your brain will be more than a little occupied deciphering written and visual clues to solve a grand riddle that will grant you exit from the room. Once you get started, your inner Sherlock Holmes takes over and 60 minutes feels more like 15.
Escape rooms first became popular in Asia and Europe before they arrived stateside. The first ones popped up in Los Angeles circa 2015. I recently had the opportunity to have an escape room experience at Hoodwinked Escape, an escape room facility that opened in December 2015 in Harlem, New York.
Michele Ware, an accountant turned entrepreneur, is the creator and CEO of Hoodwinked Escape. She worked with a European game master and strategist to come up with the four rooms that make up Harlem’s escape rooms: Asylum, Hangover, Military Mission, and Spirit of Harlem—the room I had the pleasure and challenge of escaping.
I was locked into The Spirit of Harlem room with three other enterprising women and we spent about five minutes just marveling at how beautifully appointed and detailed the room was. Then came the clue-finding. It’s possible to get stuck trying to decipher a clue that isn’t a clue—the way we did—and waste precious time. But at Hoodwinked, you could use the walkie talkie provided for each room to ask for a hint—you’re allowed three—to get you unstuck.
The ingenuity and creativity of clues in that one room alone was mind-boggling. You’re deciphering strings of clues that inform the next two and three moves you’ll make, and it creates excitement and momentum, which makes the time fly by.
We used all three of our hints and solved the final clue with mere seconds to spare. If a whole hour had lapsed, the door would have been unlocked from the outside and we would have failed at the game or been “hoodwinked.”
Whether you make it out with time to spare or time runs out on you, you leave the room with a heightened appreciation of your surroundings and how they inform what’s happening at any given moment. What I initially thought would be a slightly creepy, frustrating experience turned out to be an exhilarating one that left me feeling pretty smart.
Escape rooms are a great activity for couples or families, and a great way to spend an hour. Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Book a room at Hoodwinked Escape. You’ll be talking about it for days after.
