You know those little “escape the room” Flash games? Where you have to click on things to search them, and get clues, and use the clues to find other clues and eventually the way out? They’re a bit like My First Myst. And actually quite fun, at times.
Well… in a startling reversal of the trend of taking real things and making electronic versions of them, there are now real-world games where you’re locked in a room and have to solve clues to escape. I discovered, almost by accident, Escape Room Hub which lists a whole load of them all over the world, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that there’s one in Birmingham. It’s called Keyhunter, and it’s on Sherlock St (out past the Hippodrome). So we went on Friday night.
Basically, they lock you in a room, and you have to solve clues to escape. I’m not going to talk in detail about the clues, firstly because they ask you not to and secondly because that’d just ruin it for everybody. I will say this, though, as a warning. I originally booked their “silver” package, because I thought that the bronze one would be too easy. Then we had to reschedule for boring reasons, and so ended up doing the bronze one… and we were spectacularly, hysterically rubbish. You are allowed to ask for two hints via a little walkie-talkie they give you, and we needed both and still didn’t finish it in the hour. So, be told: it is difficult. I suspect that having more people in your team (we were just two of us) would help quite a bit, so bear that in mind. But it was thoroughly good fun! We spend two hours in the pub afterwards redesigning it, I admit, but if you want a new thing to do, try Keyhunter. I recommend it.