By SAMUEL LEE
alltherage@thestar.com.my

IMAGINE being locked in a tiny dark room with no windows for 45 minutes. Not exactly your idea of fun? Well that’s precisely what fans of “room escape games” enjoy doing.

The concept of these games are pretty simple – they lock you in a room (usually dark and spooky) containing a series of clues and puzzles, and you use your wits and teamwork to find a way out.

For this week’s Off The Hook, we at R.AGE made a little escape from our office to visit two venues that offer these games in the Klang Valley to see what all the fuss is about. Well we clearly have neither wits nor teamwork, because we failed to escape both rooms we tried. Our editor Ian Yee blames the horrible grammar on the clues. #soreloser

Escape Dungeon

Located in SS15, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Escape Dungeon is one dungeon that offers five rooms, each with a unique theme and mystery to be solved in order for your team of four to six people to escape.

Each room has a difficulty and horror rating as well, with “Saving Ms Ryan” the easiest and “Ruins Of Damnation” the hardest.

We tried the “Haunted Chamber”, the most popular room, rated the highest in terms of horror – and for good reason. The props, background noise and overall design of the room will spook the heck outta you.

Escape Dungeon in Subang Jaya, Selangor, has created some really spooky room with their clever designs.

We had 45 minutes to figure out the clues to get out. It was tense, but a lot of fun.

Each session costs RM35 per person, with students getting a 20% discount before 6pm. And since there are only five rooms, it’s best to book your session in advance, so you get to try the room you want. The rooms are changed every three months or so, so you’ll always have new mysteries to solve.

For more details, go to escapedungeon.com.

Escape Room

Escape Room has four outlets around the Klang Valley – e@Curve, Petaling Jaya; Berjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur; Setiawalk Mall, Puchong; and Bandar Botanic, Klang.

There are six rooms to choose from. First-timers can try the “Abandoned Factory” or “The Mummy – Tomb Of The Ancient Pharoah”, rated lowest in terms of difficulty.

We picked “Prison Break”, which saw us handcuffed and blindfolded before we were ushered into the room. Again, we had 45 minutes to figure our way out – which again, we failed to do. Guess we’ll just have to go back and start with the easier rooms…

“Prison Break” is a prison-themed room at Escape Room, where you are handcuffed and blindfolded.

Prices at Escape Room are pretty similar to Escape Dungeon – RM36 per person on weekends, and RM32 per person during certain hours on weekdays.

To find out more, head on over to escaperoom.com.my.

The origins

ROOM escape games actually started out as a computer game genre, usually referred to as “escape the room” games, where players use items from their virtual surroundings to, well, escape a room.
In 2007, a company called Scrap Entertainment started organising real-world versions of these games in Japan, calling them “real escape games”. The games were held in schools, abandoned hospitals and stadiums, making them even more dramatic.

Since then, room escape games have spread across the globe to places like the United States (where Scrap Entertainment organised one aboard an abandoned ship) and Europe, eventually reaching Malaysia last year.

Some room escape games require a little improvisation and physical effort to complete.

Got some totally off the hook hang-outs, events or activities to recommend? Email us at alltherage@thestar.com.my!