Escape rooms are the new paintball, the hot corporate team-building activity that’s quickly taking hold across America, including the Valley. Already there are at least nine locations around Phoenix, according to the authoritative website Escape Room Directory, offering some version of the experience – which, like karaoke and cosplay, started in Japan and is already a phenomenon from Budapest to San Francisco, where it arrived in the U.S. in 2012.
In a nutshell, the adventure involves locking a group of players, usually numbering between 8 and 12, in a room filled with objects that contain clues or keys to their escape. The time limit, typically an hour, is part of the appeal: It’s a fast-paced race through a series of puzzles that engages every player’s knowledge and abilities, set in a cleverly themed environment that invokes their inner actor. “It makes the players the characters in their own adventure,” says Lisa Radding, an NYC researcher who’s become a self-proclaimed “room escape artist,” playing and reviewing some 65 escape rooms across the U.S. in 2015. “Each solved puzzle accelerates forward motion, following the story structure that you would expect from a good book or movie.”
| SOME OF THE VALLEY’S GREATEST ESCAPES | |
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Phoenix Puzzle Room 106 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, 602-253-0746, |
Escape the Room Arizona 7017 E. Main St., Scottsdale, 480-524-0393, |
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Epic Escape Game 844 N. Fourth Ave., Phoenix, 602-258-0758, |
At PanIQ Room 1638 S. Seventh St., Phoenix, 480-363-6566, |
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ACT Room Escapes 5047 E. Elliot Rd., Phoenix, 602-527-3009, |
Phoenix Escape Room 6040 N. Seventh St., Phoenix, 602-900-4111 and 1422 W. Warner Rd., Gilbert, 480-264-7512, |
