Have you ever spent so much time deciding what to do on a Friday night that you ended up just staying home and watching Netflix? You are not alone. Deciding where to spend your precious weekend nights can be paralyzing. As a data analyst at heart, I tried to make this decision a bit easier by taking a data-driven approach to one of my favorite activities to do on the weekends: escape rooms.
If you’re looking for an adventure with your friends, I can think of no better place to turn than an escape room. They are immersive, competitive and a ton of fun. But even if you know you want to play an escape room, there are still so many to choose from… how do you go about choosing the right one?
If you’ve played more than one escape room, you’ll know not all escape rooms are created equally, which is why we polled escape room enthusiasts (aka people with over 20 escape rooms under their belt) with this simple question:
What are signs of a poor escape room and an excellent escape room?
These experts stated these 5 signs of an excellent escape room experience:
1. Game Masters are energetic & knowledgeable about the episodes
2. Puzzles match the story’s theme
3. The set of an episode is immersive (immersive = key to look for in reviews)
4. Clear communication of rules and episode story
5. Offers a Loyalty Program
And here are 5 ways an escape room experience might fall short:
1. The Game Master is unenthusiastic and not fully knowledgeable of the episode story
2. Too many clues are given during the episode.
3. Locks, keys, tools, props, and game equipment break or malfunction.
4. Difficult booking process and poor episode descriptions
5. The room is poorly designed, lacks props, and wall decor.
As an enthusiast myself, I make sure to read reviews specifically looking for these keywords and this strategy hasn’t served me wrong yet!
I hope this lens was helpful for you on your weekend night out! If you’re looking to try your first escape room experience, I would recommend Fair Game, The Warriors Way, or Once Upon A Time! All of our episodes are now private so that you will only be playing with the group with whom you came.
Blog written by Cole Baggett – Data Analyst
