I recently tried an escape room for the first time with a group of friends – it’s called the Riddle Room, it’s in Minneapolis, and it was AMAZING!
I had heard about escape rooms for the past few years, as they’ve been seeming to get more popular for groups of coworkers, friends or family members. Friends who had done them have said so many things about their experiences, that they were SO much fun. I was curious and subconsciously added it to my bucket list of things to try someday, so when a place in Minneapolis called the Riddle Room invited me to visit with a group, I jumped at the opportunity.
What is an Escape Room?
An escape room is a room where a group is “locked” in (usually not really locked in but are supposed to feel that way), and there are puzzles that need to be solved within a period of time so they can get out or just accomplish their mission.
But honestly, the goal of the rooms here isn’t to escape – it was just to solve the puzzles to the end.
The Riddle Room
The Riddle Room is located at 509 Central Avenue in Minneapolis. They have 4 different escape style-rooms that range from more beginner to advanced (in order):
- Sheriff Roy – That darn sheriff has sent his deputies to arrest you! Problem is, they won’t tell you what you’ve done. All you know is that you’re pretty sure the proof of your innocence is somewhere in Sheriff Roy’s office. If only you can find it before his deputies return…
- Pretender – The Prince’s evil brother has captured the throne through deceit! You and your ragtag team of medieval mercenaries have been hired to sneak into the castle and recover the proof that the Prince is the rightful heir to the kingdom.
- Bunker – You and your team find yourselves the last people standing between the world and nuclear annihilation. You must solve the codes and stop the launch before all of humanity is reduced to nothing more than smoking ruins and radioactive goo.
- Utopia – Your presence is requested by the Ministry of Public Harmony for a gentle calibration scan and adjustment. The procedure is quick and harmless, and we’ll return you to your scheduled tasks in just one hour.
They have a nice waiting area with puzzles to work on (how appropriate).
On the wall in the waiting area is a scoreboard showing average times for groups in each room, with the percentage of wins, or times people successfully solve the puzzles and “escape.”
Our Experience
I invited a group of 5 friends from work to join me, and we picked the game “Pretender” which seemed good for our group, as only 2 of us had done an escape room before.
Games are scheduled for 1 hour. We were brought to our room which is full of puzzles and themed decor, and then given 1 hour to solve all the puzzles to the end. We were told we can leave to go to the bathroom but that the clock doesn’t stop if we do. (So we all made sure we took care of our bathroom breaks first.)
You can’t take pictures inside the room, so I can’t share any here, but our room was very well-decorated in a medieval theme, with desks and many drawers and places with locks. There was even a recording of fire crackling. Our guide told us the few basic rules, and let us know that this was supposed to be a fun experience. So if we were getting frustrated, we were able to ask for help.
Then our guide told us to start, and we were not given any information. So when our guide left and closed the door, we just started looking around. We found some papers that got us started and off we went.
The whole experience was very cool. Every time we figured out a puzzle and opened up another lock to reveal the next clue, it was so exciting. And each of the puzzles were different. I think there were about 15 different puzzles we had to solve to get to the end, and some were very hands-on and creative. Having a group solving them together was the best part, and honestly, we would recommend doing EVERY step together. There was one part where we split up into two groups, thinking it would save time. But then it backfired because our focus then wasn’t together as one, and we missed one of the puzzles and got stuck.
Our guide checked in on us regularly, offering to help get us back on track if we wanted her to. We were mostly fine except for two times – the time we split up and then got off, and then at the very end. We actually got to the end, but couldn’t figure out the very last puzzle and just ran out of time. Our guide came in and helped us – we were surprised we didn’t figure it out but thought if we had just had a couple more minutes we would have gotten it.
So in the end we believe we did it – we saved the kingdom from the prince’s evil brother!
The excitement and teamwork was so strong throughout our experience. We worked very well together. Some in our group were quicker at solving the puzzles, but we all contributed something. So it definitely works well as a team-building activity.
I can also see it as a great family activity. My kids were a bit young for the rooms, as they recommend the rooms for ages 10 and up. They have more information about this on their website here. But it’s definitely a fun thing for families to do together.
Discount and more information!
The Riddle Room’s website is https://www.riddle-room.com/. Here you can learn about the different escape room options, and what to expect.
ALSO – SAVE 20% on your first booking when you use my exclusive code FRUGAL. It’s good for any of the games!
(Disclosure: We were provided with a complimentary escape room experience in exchange for my sharing my experience here. All opinions are 100% mine.)