You and your friends are locked in a room, handcuffed. The only way to get out is to solve a series of puzzles. You have only forty-five minutes to do it. If late, then…
The basement of Ispahani Centre in Nunagambakkam has four such rooms full of puzzles where people have been trapped and they have only their wits to help them out. This has been happening for four months now and from the look of it, people are loving it.
Real Escape Game by Freeing India, an amusement services company, aims at bringing a group of people together for them to have some fun.
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“When it comes to entertainment that people can have in a group, there are not many options in the city. A concept like this, where people have to play as a group, allows everyone to work as a team,” says Murali Barathi, founder and director, Freeing India.
The Lost Chamber, The Prison Chaos, Hell of Mirrors and 90 Degrees Cricket Fantasy are four puzzle rooms that participants have to enter. Every room has a different theme. The Lost Chamber can be played by two to three players, where all of them are handcuffed and locked in a pitch-dark room and they have to find their way out after solving various puzzles to open the secret door.
I solved it on time.
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In the Hell of Mirrors, players are divided into two teams. One team has to enter a dark room and the other, a bright room. The rooms are almost identical and they have to work together to solve the puzzles. Behind the doors of Hell of Mirrors, a crazy scientist has locked other scientists and the players are given the responsibility to free them. They have to understand the columns of numbers on the walls with bloodstains to escape. The 90 degrees Cricket Fantasy Game seems like it is tilted at 90 degrees and the participants have to look for gadgets, clues and puzzles to escape the trap door. “One doesn’t have to know the nuances of cricket to play this. Anyone can solve it,” says Murali, a business consultant, who moved to Chennai recently after being in the USA for 14 years.
Ask him why he chose this business for a debut. He says, “Entertainment and amusement is one industry where you get to see customer satisfaction instantly. We have youngsters, corporate professionals and families coming here. While IT professionals come and play together which helps them break the ice or understand each other's strength. For families, it's time to enjoy each other's company. Recently, for the engineers week, we set up such puzzles at the premises of an IT company.”
When people are locked in a room, there is no other way but to work together. “We have collaborated with a Hong-Kong based company and changed the games to suit the Indian market. This concept is very popular abroad, especially in Eastern countries. I read somewhere that it is catching up in China. I thought if it can work there, why not here,” he says.