Escape rooms seem to be popping up everywhere.
In 2014, there were about two dozen escape room entertainment facilities in the U.S. As of February 2021, there were 2,080, a number that has since declined slightly because of the pandemic.
“In a chaotic world, escape rooms make sense,” vox.com said of the craze, which often involves players collaborating in a game to figure out how to leave their thematic enclosure.
Aficionados point out that “escape room” is a bit of a misnomer as it’s not the room you’re really leaving beyond. It’s reality.
That is the case at the Spring Branch District’s Escape It, where Stacy Palafox, director of operations, said: “We pride ourselves on detail.”
Escape It provides sensory experiences.
“Most other escape rooms you’ll find are merely lock and key, but our escape rooms also hold many automated and electronic props leading to a more interactive experience such as cannons that fire, shaking elevators and talking sphinxes,” she said.
“This is accompanied by aesthetic sets fitting of (each) theme, along with smells to accompany the feel of the room, such as formaldehyde in the Pandemic room and a sea scent in our Titanic room.”
Escape It is one of two escape rooms owned by Shannon Brinkley, Palafox said, with the original one located in Humble. Escape It West Houston opened April 1 at the Marq’E Entertainment Center, taking the place of another escape room enterprise.
Most of the games at Escape It are hour-long experiences where you search for puzzles, riddles and clues to open props, locks and doors. The Apollo 13 game is only 30 minutes and is a walk-through experience where you are guided by “Mission Control” on what needs to be repaired on your spaceship to make it back to earth successfully, Palafox said.
Two NASA engineers were invited to try out the room, including an engineer from the Apollo 13 mission. They came close but were not successful in escaping in time, according to the Houston Chronicle, which quoted Brinkley: “I think they were overanalyzing the mission and every maneuver.”
Besides Apollo 13, other current challenges at Escape It at the Marq’E include:
— Da Vinci Code Breaker: Modern day scholars continue to unlock Da Vinci’s secret messages and predictions. Take an hour to explore his art gallery and unlock the mysteries of Leonardo Da Vinci.
— Alamo: Commander William Travis has asked you to retrieve his letter to Sam Houston and deliver it to him. Santa Anna’s army is closing in and you only have one hour to find the letter.
— The very timely and maybe almost too realistic Pandemic: As you enter the laboratory you and your team are exposed to a (fictional) biological pathogen. This pathogen turns anyone infected into the living dead. You have one hour to search this bloody and gory mess of a lab to find your cure.
Speaking of a pandemic, Escape It has put into place updated cleaning procedures and all escape rooms are cleaned and sanitized before each use. All bookings are also private, which means your escape room adventure will only be with people you know.
Experiences cost $24.99 per person.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to check it out.
Escape It Houston West
7620 Katy Freeway, #110
Houston, TX 77024
713-842-7903
https://escapeithouston.com/
— by Dorothy Puch Lillig
