6 elements an unforgettable experience can't do without
'Wow, that was amazing!', 'it felt like I was standing in the Efteling!', 'a round of applause for this room, my goodness!', 'how on earth did you manage to create this?!' Just a few of the things I've shouted when stepping out of escape rooms that completely blew me away.
I know I've been in a good escape room when I just can't stop rattling on to the host about how fantastic the experience was. That rattling then carries on with my teammates, who eventually exchange a knowing look. They resign themselves to the fact that we'll be talking about the room we just played for the rest of the evening. Sweet of them, really, to put up with it. I've been playing escape rooms since 2019 and the counter stands at 110. By now I have a pretty good idea of which elements make for the ultimate escape room experience. I'd love to tell you more about them.
There has to be an answer to the question: why am I doing this?
Naturally I'll start with 'the puzzle'. But I don't want to talk about the quality of the puzzle, the type of puzzle or how hard the puzzle is. I want to talk about the why of the puzzle. If I have to solve something in an escape room, the puzzle needs to make complete sense at the moment it presents itself. If I'm standing in a restaurant kitchen and have to put tomatoes on a scale, I don't give it a second thought. But if I'm standing in an abandoned nuclear power plant with high levels of radioactivity all around me (oh no!), it's pretty strange if I suddenly have to put tomatoes on a scale. You get what I mean. The moment I think 'why am I actually doing this?', something has gone wrong and I'm pulled out of the flow.
Along the same lines: using technology doesn't automatically make a good escape room. A heavy lock with an iron key suits an escape room with a medieval theme far better than an electronic keypad on the wall, right? A good escape room answers questions like: 'why is this hanging here?', 'why am I doing this?' and 'why is this happening now?'
A good escape room stands or falls with the quality of the host
Perhaps the most important element of a good room: the host. The host plays such a big part in the experience that it has to be mentioned here. A host keeps your team in the flow as much as possible, by being present as little as possible. You don't want to hear or see game hosts, because they essentially pull you out of your experience. They're not part of the story, after all. A game host has to keep an eye on the time and your progress, but shouldn't give a hint too soon either. Then again, giving a hint too late is just as annoying, because by then the team is frustrated. That's something you want to avoid as a game host too. A good game host knows exactly when to step in. In our team, by the way, that's sometimes quite a challenge: I can work on a puzzle for ages without getting frustrated, but one of my teammates can't. They'd like a hint much sooner. Good luck, game host!
If the finish is good, the escape room usually is too
The finish of the room plays a big part in creating atmosphere and holding on to the feeling that you've stepped into another world for a while. Loose wires are neatly tucked away, the paint has been applied by a skilled hand and the right materials have been used to build the set. If I walk down an alley and the wall is made of brick, I think: 'wow!' If I walk down an alley and the wall is wallpaper with a brick pattern, I notice that too. It doesn't suddenly make that escape room bad (far from it!), but it does take something away from the experience. If you step into a space and think: 'wow, what a set!', you can safely assume that just as much care has gone into the rest of the room and that you're dealing with a good escape room.
Light and sound
Light and sound matter a great deal to me when it comes to a good escape room. They add to the atmosphere of the room, but they do more than that. Let me start with the light. A good escape room makes clever use of light: it guides you through the room, as it were. Do I spot a spotlight aimed at something in the corner of a room? Then there's no mistaking it: we need to do something with that. Some rooms also use light as a subtle hint system; somewhere a little lamp suddenly starts to flicker, for instance. You get a hint, without getting a hint. That's lovely, because it keeps you nicely in the flow.
Sound and music play a very important part too. My experience with sound and music is that you only notice it when it's not right. When the sound is far too loud, for instance. Or when the music suggests the endgame is about to begin, when it turns out it isn't. One more example: when you can't make out the hint over the intercom, because the sound is actually too quiet. In a good escape room you're not thinking about the sound at all, because it's right.
As always, there are exceptions of course. If you've played Stay in the Dark, you know what I'm talking about. In that escape game the music was clearly present and it even guided us. That made the experience so intense that I still sometimes wake up at night with that tune in my head.
The End
In a good escape room you know when you've reached the end of the room. There's no doubt whatsoever: you're there. The good rooms give you an endgame with an intriguing puzzle, a spectacular chase or something else innovative. We've raced out of burning houses, fled in a truck and saved the world by placing an artifact on an altar. See, then you know the end is in sight.
A room with an unexpected twist is often what makes an escape room truly good
There are only a few rooms that have a twist in them and that truly took me by surprise as a player. These are the next-level rooms. The rooms that belong at the top. I'll try to explain what I mean by a twist, without giving spoilers. As far as I'm concerned there are two kinds of twists: the technological twist and the story twist. With a technological twist, the technology in the room blows you away and you'll find yourself shouting that it's just like an Efteling ride. Think of spaces you've already been in, which turn out to have changed completely when you return to them.
The best twist, though, is the story twist, if you ask me. The rooms that pull that off are rare. These are rooms that push you one way in the story, but at the end the opposite turns out to be true. You've been doing something completely different from what you thought, and you never noticed. If that happens to you, you're dealing with a truly good escape room.
