Escape rooms have boomed in recent years with thousonds of new rooms opening up around the world, but with so much choice now out there how do you know which is the right room for you and where can you find your closest game?
Whether you are looking for your 1st escape room or you 100th here are some tips I’ve used to find the best escape rooms near me.
Facebook Groups: One of the great ways to find rooms is by joining one of the many Facebook groups. To name a few: Online Escape Room Enthusiasts, Europe Escape Enthusiasts, and UK Escape Room Enthusiasts.(of course there are many others depending on which country you are looking for so make sure to look for the right group for you). In these groups many enthusiasts and owners share their own games or the games they have played and let you know which ones they would recommend, you can even search the page for a place ie. If I was looking for a room in Birmingham, and you can find posts for recommendations for that area along with helpful hints.
Review Sites: If you want to delve a bit deeping into your search and find a comprehensive list of rooms (online and live) then I highly recommend heading over to EscapeTheReview - This site has it all! The Escape the review team keeps their site up to date regularly so you will be able to find games new and old. They have sorted the companies and games into sections along with the paces they are based. The site also allows anyone to review a game they have played giving you information on the best rated games in the area and what people liked/ disliked about each room (without any spoilers of course!)
A new way to search and play: There are many new websites and apps popping up for escape rooms but I think the one to check out is the new Morty app, the app shows you escape rooms that are in the location you are in at the time, so you’ve gone on a day out and are looking for escape rooms in Bristol, Paris, Boston… no worries check the app and see what rooms are in the area. You can also create a profile that helps you track and review your played games. Yes I know what you're shouting at your screen, but I just want to find a game, well that may be true but believe me it will only take one game to get hooked and then you will want to start recording your times and games so you can beat it in your next one.
The Future of online room search and play: I just want to finish this post with a quick look at how searching for an escape the room near me has changed during the pandemic over the last year. I think it’s safe to say that gone are the days of only being able to play live rooms in your area, I’m not talking about online rooms, downloadable rooms or box escape rooms here I’m talking about fully bred live rooms from the comfort of your own home! For these rooms you join a call over a video call (usually zoom) and your host introduces you to your avatar, they will be wearing a camera so you can see what they see. You can lead your avatar around the room and tell them what to do/ interact with getting live feedback as if you were playing the game in person. But why would you want to play a live room from a screen? Well you might be right there because I have found when playing some of these live rooms from my laptop I’ve been disappointed that I haven't been able to run around the room solving puzzles in person, but that’s exactly where the escape room near me part comes into play. This live game with avatar can be used to play the games that you might not otherwise get a chance to play and I, like others, have taken this opportunity to play rooms in other countries that we know we might not ever get to experience. I think playing a room that we wouldn’t have otherwise got to play in “normal times” has been an absolutely incredible and even when we come out the other end of these tough times I will be making sure to fit in some of the incredible rooms afar through the help of the many awesome live avatar games out there. So Thank You Avatars - keep up the great work.