Image: Real Escape Game
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“Be thorough” was an instruction the staff wanted us to internalize, as was “communicate” and “don’t use the tools to take apart the furniture,” but thoroughness stuck most. Once we entered the room and the clock started, the players, two-fifths of whom were strangers to me and many of whom mention playing video games during their introductions, scattered, combing, shaking, breaking every box, book, and chair they saw in the room.Carpets pulled up, tables flipped over, secret messages discovered, hidden compartments explored. My instinct knew there was more to the container with a few pens in it. Hinges on boxes and frays in clothing showed many of these items had been roughly handled in their short lives.After the scatter blitz, many of us loosely tied ourselves to focus on one object. I’ll go easy on the details, not to bleed the surprises or solutions on the internet, but there's a light dusting of spoilers ahead. Be warned.Two of the clues we found were completely innocuous, functions of the room so universally normal you wonder if you should bother worrying about escaping. One really nerdy clue is inside of a manga and I think the woman who discovered it may have read that volume of the classic Death Note before.All said and done, we didn’t complete the riddle and escape the room. Most people don’t. Only about 15 groups made it out before us, so we didn’t feel too ashamed. But it frustrating, especially those last 10 minutes when ominous dramatic music begins to play, and the strains of game design in real life become obvious.Ultimately, this live-action video game could be one of the first in an evolution of real-world video games.
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