SAN RAMON, CALIFORNIA – Between massive online games and increasingly elaborate analog ones, games of all sorts have gotten way more immersive.
If you want to truly immerse yourself in the world of a game, though, there’s really only one option: the escape room.
Visiting an escape room, you literally enter a space that’s entirely devoted to solving puzzles, following clues, and decoding riddles. And along with your friends, colleagues or family, you proceed through the game and “escape”–or not!
Escape rooms are surging in popularity, and one company has brought them to the 925 in a big way.
Escapology (6000 Bollinger Canyon Rd Ste 2400) has several extremely immersive, technologically advanced escape rooms on offer at City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon.
I stopped by with my family on Escapology’s invitation to try one out firsthand.
This was my first escape room experience, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. When you first enter Escapology, you immediately feel that you’ve been transported into a mysterious place of clues and riddles.
Victorian-style photos and clocks fill Escapology’s waiting room, and big leather chairs make it a comfortable spot to wait before entering your room. There’s even some table games to get you warmed up!
Escapology offers escape rooms with a variety of themes. Some are adult-oriented murder mysteries, like one focused on the classic Murder on the Orient Express. But there are lots of family-friendly options, too.
I visited with my wife, our 8 year old, and our 4 year old. For our crowd, Escapology had the perfect room: a Scooby Doo themed escape experience.
This one wasn’t scary for the kids. And for us Millennials, it was the perfect little bit of nostalgia!
A staff member led us back to the room. When we entered, we found a space set up with cheerful, somewhat spooky haunted mansion type vibes, and big video-based picture frames with all the classic Scooby Doo characters present.
The goal of an escape room–as the name implies–is to “escape.” You’re set loose in the room, and give one hour to solve riddles and follow clues that ultimately lead you to a numerical code.
You enter the code on a panel by the door, and if you get it right, you “escape” and win the room.
Don’t worry, though, you’re not actually trapped. The door is always unlocked, and members of your group can leave for the restroom or to take a break whenever you need.
When we entered and the timer started, our kids immediately set about searching the room for clues. Over the next hour, we followed Scooby Doo and his friends through a series of riddles and puzzles.
Escapology is known for their high-tech escape rooms, complete with bells and whistles like trapdoors that open when you solve a clue, video screens that transform in front of you, and lots of fun tie-ins to classic stories and characters.
My eight year old enjoyed collecting “Scooby Snacks” throughout the experience, plunking them into a little box–an action that would later have importance in the world of the game!
The riddles ranged from word puzzles and numerical riddles to physical puzzles that required searching the room or placing objects in the proper order. The room led us through an engaging but not-to-scary mystery involving a “ghost” that was kidnapping locals in a fictional town.
As you play the room, there’s a “Game Master” watching from outside via video. If you get stuck, they’ll offer a clue to help you move through the room. You can also press a little yellow button to request a clue at any time.
The clue function is helpful. Although it would of course feel good to solve the room with no help, for first-timers like us, the ability to ask for a clue helped to keep the experience moving along.
We never got frustrated when we couldn’t solve something–a clue would always lead us on to the next puzzle.
I won’t share too many details about the room, as anything I say here might be a “spoiler” if you choose to visit Escapology and play the room yourself!
But I will share that there are more dimensions to the room than you originally anticipate–another aspect that kept the experience engaging for the kids.
So, did we make it out? With the liberal use of clues, yes, indeed we solved the room with about 5 minutes left on our hour-long timer.
The experience felt well paced and fun. A staff member told us they can often extend the time a bit if you don’t quite make it out. But we were proud to solve the room and “escape” just in the nick of time!
The only downsides of the room were the fact that it was a bit dark, and on the loud side. That’s probably deliberate–engaging all your senses likely makes the room harder to solve. But it’s something to keep in mind if anyone in your group struggles with that kind of thing.
Overall, escape rooms feel like a perfect way to step into the analog world. It was nice to put our phones down for an hour, and spend it exploring a new space and working together with the kids.
We anticipated that the Scooby Doo room, with its kid-friendly theme, would be the easiest room at Escapology. But a staff member told us it’s actually considered a “Medium” room.
We played it on Kid Mode, a special mode that’s geared towards kids ages 7-14. Even so, solving it was really hard–at least for novices like us!
Escapology is a great spot for families. But they also offer rooms geared towards groups like bachelor/bachelorette parties, date nights, and people who just want a different way to get out on the town with friends.
Escapology even caters to corporate groups. A staff member told us that watching groups make their way through escape rooms–and seeing how they work together to solve problems–felt like getting a crash course in psychology. For a corporate team, that might make this the perfect experience to better understand colleagues’ problem solving styles.
Apparently, it’s working! Escapology is expanding to a new space in City Center, with more rooms and a dedicated party room for events.
We enjoyed our escape room experience and definitely plan to come back–maybe for an easier room this time around!
Website: https://www.escapology.com/en/san-ramon-ca/escape-games
