So, it was my oldest nibling’s, Ry, 16th birthday on Saturday…and as part of the celebration, my sister, Christy, booked an escape room experience for four of us (Christy, me, Ry and Kate, our close friend/Ry’s surrogate aunt).

I’ve never actually done an escape room in person before, though I have done various different online experiences and interactive experiences. A physical escape room was something that was entirely new to me, so I was really looking forward to it.

The storyline was fairly straightforward. Our (the players) car had broken down, and the owner of the nearby hotel had kindly offered the use of one of their hotel rooms for the night: room 12. The only stipulation was that, if we were able to get out of room 12 (which was the initial escape), we were to stay away from room 13.

So. Room 12 was small and only had one bed. After an initial discussion about who would get the bed (we decided on Ry, since it was their birthday), we got to work on finding the key…since we were locked into room 12 overnight, as the key had been lost in the room somewhere. (I know, I know. Terrible service).

The main puzzle in room 12 involved figuring out the codes to unlock a piece of luggage that had carelessly been left behind by the previous occupant of the room. The puzzles were pretty interesting and easy to figure out; though as Christy pointed out, we had Kate and Ry with us…both of whom are very competitive…so we had a fairly good chance of completing the escape room, even with the 50% success rate.

It was after we got out of room 12 that things got especially interesting. At this point, we were no longer looking for a way out of the room. We were trying to solve the mystery of the hotel. What happened in room 13?

There was obviously a huge amount of effort that had gone into creating the escape room, to the point that I was beginning to feel bad about the mess we’d made in the lobby of the hotel. There was also a lot of scary, supernatural stuff going on in the hotel! For instance, the lights went off a few times (which made us scream and at one point, Kate just held her arms out so we could all hudde together) and some of the doors randomly opened. Clearly, there was something very sinister going on in the hotel that was centred around room 13.

In the end, we did manage to solve the mystery of room 13…in just under 40 minutes and only using one hint. Our GM had a lot of complimentary things to say about that! Speaking of which, Freya did an awesome job at playing her role; wonderful experience all around and giving us the hint we needed to figure out the last puzzle, while knowing when we weren’t actually asking for hints and had just accidentally hit the front desk bell (though the lights went off right after I knocked a box onto the bell, so we did think maybe that was meant to be a hint…but apparently not).

As I mentioned, this was a really great experience and definitely one that I want to repeat. I wouldn’t play the same game again, since there’s no challenge in finishing a room you’ve already beaten once, but there are plenty of other escape rooms available at the location.

Check it out here!

So, I’ve got really into the interactive experiences. I went to the Doctor Who: Time Fracture experience twice, and then to the Guardians of the Galaxy one. Only the once, but I want to go again. And this time, I went to Saint Jude.

The concept of Saint Jude was immediately intriguing. The basic premise is that the ticket holder is a Guidestar volunteer; someone who uses newly created technology to talk to people in comas. This is done with a system that translates their brain patterns into speech able to be heard through the headphones. And there is also a microphone that the Guidestar can use to speak to the patient.

The setup prior to the interactive experience worked very well. It was required to go upstairs, but the experience is also easily accessible to wheelchair users, as there is a lift. Actually, a lot about the event seemed like it would be suitable for people with sight and hearing problems. The majority of the experience requires you to speak and listen, but there’s also a way of having the text on the screen to read, along with the Guidestar actually being able to type out what they want to say. I thought that was really good.

While the majority of the experience did take place through the system, known as EchoSump, there were also some live actors involved. These people acted as helpers and guides, but they were also part of the overall storyline, so their presence felt very seamless.

At first glance, the setting of Saint Jude did have the feel of a hospital, which made sense, as the goal of the Guidestar is to help the coma patient, also known as a sleeper, under their care. For me, at least, my interactions with my sleeper took a rather sinister turn.

I’ve only been to Saint Jude the once, at least for now, but I really liked the individual feel of the experience. When I first realised there was quite a large group of people attending, I was a bit worried about how it would work. Would multiple people be trying to direct one storyline? I needn’t have worried, as every person had their own workstation to interact with their own particular speaker.

Since my sleeper was in a coma, and therefore dreaming, there was a really intriguing mix of memory and fantasy that I needed to sort through by talking and trying to guide them through what they were seeing. At various points, a memory morphed into a dream, or vice versa, and I was kind of floundering, with a confusion of, ‘What do I do next?’ I don’t think I deliberately guided the story in the path it took, but since I’ve only experienced it the one time, I can’t say how similar events would unfold if I was assigned to a different sleeper.

The experience makes use of AI technolgy, which was a little awkward at times, as like with all computers, there are some misunderstandings. For instance, for some reason, my name became Matt during the course of the conversation. Since my name is Sarah, I don’t know quite how that got picked up. There were other minor misunderstandings, too, so a few kinks that probably need to be ironed out. The voices didn’t sound computer simulated, though, which was a massive point in the experience’s favour. I’m not sure I would have been as thoroughly engaged as I was if I’d been able to hear I was speaking with actual AI. It definitely wouldn’t have helped my suspension of disbelief.

The experience was extremely engaging and I was able to be drawn into the storyline and my conversations with the sleeper. I could also really easily picture what my sleeper was seeing in their mind, due to the descriptions given. I did hit a snag where I was completely lost over what to do and came close to having to call for help. However, the system was able to provide enough prompts that I didn’t need to ‘break character’ and admit I was stuck.

All in all, I really enjoyed the experience. It was tense and engaging and I’m happy with how it turned out. I did receive a printout of my ‘personality assessment’ before I left, which I won’t share here; partly because it got really creased when I put it in my bag, but it also contains really major spoilers.

I’d like to experience Saint Jude again and see if there are different paths available for me to take, though I’m not sure I could make another trip to London for that alone. If I went again, I think it would have to be on a day I was already planning to do something in London. But I definitely think it was a worthwhile experience the first time. I would highly recommend attending this event.