Friday Fun: The Escape Game Nashville

My husband and two friends of ours went to the Escape Game Nashville a couple months back. I decided it would make a great Friday Fun post, even though it doesn’t exactly have to do with anything paranormal.

Still, it was a little creepy being “locked” in a room with only your wits to get you out. (Or the end of your hour playing time, whichever came first.)

THE ESCAPE GAME’S ROOMS

The Nashville Escape Game has a choice of four different rooms, each with their own mission to be solved to “unlock” the room. Since their descriptions are written so cleverly, I borrowed them, hence the parenthesis:

• Classified – “You and your team work for an international anti-terrorist organization. You have been assigned to a critical covert mission. Your objective is to stop a major international terrorist threat by gathering details on the impending attack. In this thrilling high-stakes mission you have only one hour to infiltrate and escape! “
• Nashville Escape – “Nashville has so much to offer, but this trip around the city may be way more than you bargained for!  Can you meet the challenge of finding your concert tickets and escape the room in time for the big event?  If you have never played an Escape Game before, this Music City-themed room is the place to start!”
• The Heist – “Stealing is wrong.  Most of the time.  Get ready for an exciting challenge of beating thieves at their own game.  If you succeed in your mission you will become National heroes! If you fail, you will be treated as a common criminal by the authorities.”
• Underground Playground – “Find surprises in our underground Kindergarten playground!  This game is  more than just ABC’s and 1-2-3’s, and accommodates up to 12 players. So get a group of friends, family, or coworkers together and test your wits in a room that is anything but Elementary.  Fail to escape and you’ll be repeating Kindergarten! “

 

You’re not allowed to take photos inside the rooms, but I did ask permission to take photos of the outside doors to a couple of them.

LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY

On the Escape Game Nashville site, each of the above rooms shows a completion rate percentage. The higher the percentage, the “easier” it is.

• Classified – 35%
• Nashville Escape – 37%
• The Heist – 27%
• Underground Playground – 46%

 

We chose to play the Nashville Escape room thinking it wouldn’t be the easiest, but also not the hardest. Maybe we’d stand a chance?

Ha!

Joke was on us. There’s a reason 73% of the people don’t solve it.

CLUES

The cool thing is you have a room monitor who can help you along the way if you need it. There are cameras in each of the rooms so they can see you.

There’s also a TV screen. Before you start playing you watch a run down of the rules. If you run into trouble, you can call your monitor who will pop a clue up on the screen.

The catch is, you only get so many “free” clues. Once you use those up, they cut into your time.

I forget how much each additional clue cost, but let’s just say it was three minutes. If you used three additional clues and finished in 60 minutes, you would’ve technically escaped but you would have been assessed a nine minute penalty, making your total time 69 minutes.

TIME MATTERS?

For us it didn’t matter. We didn’t finish in the 60 minutes and we had used so many clues we’d probably racked up another 60 minutes in the process.

But if you’re good enough, you can make it on their leader board.

Other than a nifty bumper sticker that said you escaped, bragging rights, and maybe your group’s photo on the wall, I’m not sure what that gets you, though. (But I’d like to find out!)

We still got a bumper sticker even though we didn’t escape.

WHAT DO YOU DO INSIDE THE ROOMS?

Basically, you solve puzzles and brain teasers that lead to other clues that open other doors, locks, etc. inside the room. This will ultimately lead you to getting the key that unlocks the door to the outside world again.

I’m not at liberty to say more, because you sign a disclosure before playing that says you won’t give anything away.

I will say everything you see in the room comes into play at some point of the game.

“HOW DO I SIGN UP?”

The Nashville Escape Game is the first of its kind in the South. Reservations are required, which you make online via their site: http://nashvilleescapegame.com/.

The cost is $28 per person.

If you don’t have enough in your group to fill all the slots for the time you reserve, you may be paired with other people. You can buy all the tickets for a room’s reservation time if you wish (and can afford it).

TIP

If you want to know what to expect (and get a little practice before going), you can play an escape-type game on your computer, tablet, or smartphone.

I was excited learning about a real live Escape Game here in Nashville, because I play the following games on my Kindle:

• Can You Escape Game
• Can You Escape 2
• Can You Escape – Tower
• Haunted House Escape – Can You Escape In One Hour?

 

There are more (many more), but I haven’t mastered the above yet so I’m holding off adding to my collection.

You can also buy the same games, as well as some additional versions, on iTunes.

They’re a great way to prepare yourself for the adventure ahead!

Have you done a real-life escape game? If so, did you solve it?