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Dipti Nair
Doha
You are in a dark room, handcuffed, with no visible means of escape. You spy a key nearby but have no idea how to get to it. It's not a dream and you are not on the set of a horror movie but a participant in an Escape Room game. And you are not imprisoned but there of your own free-will, in a set-up that you paid for.
Escape Room games, which have become very popular in Asia and the West, have been brought to Qatar by Adventure Rooms.
Haven't you watched movies like National Treasure or Indiana Jones and wanted to be in the protagonist's shoes and decipher clues? Adventure Rooms lets you do just that. A combination of a scavenger hunt and a puzzle game, Adventure Rooms is for those who want video game style adventures with real-life experiences.
Adventure Rooms Qatar is a franchise of Adventure Rooms that was started in Bern, Switzerland in 2012 and has since become one of the most popular escape games with numerous locations worldwide.
A group activity, it can accommodate between two and 14 people. The premise is simple: Find the clues, solve the puzzles and escape in the given time. Adventure Rooms Qatar has four different games on offer The Crazy Scientist, The Black Queen, The World Trip and The Prison Break. Each of these games is unique and has a different back story, setup and range of difficulty. While there is no particular order to play the games, The Crazy Scientist is the easiest and one that is most suitable for beginners, while The World Trip is the toughest. There is a time-limit of 60 minutes to decipher the clues, solve all puzzles and find the key to get out of the locked room.
Here's how it works. You and your team are locked in a room. Depending on the game, you could be handcuffed. Each of the numerous objects in the room, be it a book or a bottle or a card, is a clue to freedom. Every clue leads to a puzzle and solving it takes you to your next clue and so on. All the while, the clock is ticking. The game is thrilling and while there is no physical exertion of any kind, it's high on adrenaline and has no scary elements.
There is a screen high on a wall which shows a countdown of the time remaining. There is also a camera from where the 'gamemaster' watches your every move. While you don't need a high intellect to crack these games, a certain kind of puzzle-solving mindset comes handy. So, if you have always been fascinated by the Rubik's cube or enjoy a game of Sudoku, this one is for you.
The game while not really tough, requires thinking out of the box. But sometimes while working in a group, views clash and with the big red countdown timer that seems to mock you, you may not think straight. And if you have been stuck on a clue for a long time and you hear an alarm going off, don't panic, it's just the gamemaster giving you a hint on the screen.
"The whole point of the escape game is to see how different groups tackle an issue. While some groups work as a team and cooperate, others have each person doing their own thing," says Adventure Rooms Qatar Co-founder and Director Mostafa Abdo."And if at a time like that you don't give them a hint, they could waste the whole hour without getting further and we don't want that."
The concept of escape games, which is all about how you work as a team to solve an issue, while providing an exciting fun activity for families or groups of friends, is also ideal as a corporate team-building event.
"We have many corporate firms that hold their team building events with us. Our games give corporate clients the opportunity to experience one-of-a-kind team building events that are designed to enhance communication, increase creative thinking and promote teamwork. We take their teams out of the usual working environment and provide an exciting experience that leaves their groups feeling closer and accomplished as a team."
When it comes to corporate events, Adventure Rooms even offer an assessment service, built into the game, to identify personality types within teams. The P60 Personality Assessment is a global test that can identify what each team member brings to the table and how they can be expected to react in different situations.
Adventure Rooms Qatar has two game modes Standard and Duel. In the standard mode a group of 2-7 people will face the challenge all together and try to escape the room in the 60 minutes available, while the duel mode is intended for larger groups of 8-14 people. In the duel mode, the group is divided into two teams which simultaneously play against each other to see who can escape first.
And if you want to organise a surprise birthday party, Adventure Rooms offers that as well, where instead of a key to escape out of the room, you find a birthday cake at the end of the game. The games at Adventure Rooms are family oriented and suitable for children aged nine and above.
The possibilities for fun at Adventure Games Qatar are endless. It taps into that desire for social and physical interaction that one cannot find in solitary video games, while providing intellectual stimulation and a bit of thrill. The rush of the time crunch only adds on to the excitement. So step into Indiana Jones's shoes and try out one of the immersive games at Adventure Rooms Qatar.
You can book a suitable time-slot for the games online at www.adventureroomsqa.com.
