In celebration of the end of October, Halloween and spooky things, UMass Boston brought escape rooms to campus on Wednesday! There was a private company that came into McCormack from 12–5 p.m. and set up in some rooms. There were two different escape rooms you could try, either a Hogwarts or a zombie one. If you had time and no one else was waiting you could even do both rooms! We chose the zombie one because not everyone had prior Harry Potter knowledge, and we didn’t have time to do both. We formed a group of about six or seven people, working with other students who wanted to join the solving of this puzzle.
We were given an introduction by the worker who set up the escape room. It was set in the future, and there was an infection being spread after something went wrong in a lab, Frankenstein style. There are now new beings walking among the Earth with us, and they’re hungry for human flesh. Our purpose was to find this antibiotic that was hidden by a doctor before he was infected by the zombies to try to save humanity.
The room was not filled with too many things or clues. Comparing this to other escape rooms I have seen or been in, typically they will give you a few clues to help you solve the multiple locks or puzzles. There was a book, a microscope, a desk, fake rats, blood smeared on the wall, a tiny chest with a chess piece inside of it, etc. There were a few signs hanging up around the walls as well as bookmarks hidden in random pages of different books. We had a few pieces, and we knew they would all connect, but we had no idea where they fit alongside each other.
One thing the instructor of the escape room told us was that the purpose of these activities is to communicate with your teammates. One person could notice something small or insignificant, and another person could have noticed a different small, insignificant clue and in turn they fit together. That’s how you solve these puzzles, so talking and working with one another is the key to being able to get out of the escape room successfully, and it’s not an easy thing to figure out.
We almost didn’t make it in time, as you’re given thirty minutes to solve it but luckily the worker was nice enough to come in and give us a hint further when we were struggling to solve the puzzle with three minutes left to spare. These rooms can be very difficult to figure out, we were only the second group that day to solve it!
We went a little after 4 p.m., so it could’ve totally backfired and been super packed with a long line but instead we were able to start immediately and finish in perfect timing. It was a fun, different way to celebrate Halloween. Typically, you’ll see escape rooms in a mall and they’re usually pretty expensive (ranging around $20 per person) so this was a great activity to bring to campus for free. Make sure you keep an eye out for other free activities to do on campus, as there is always something new and interesting to do! There’s something for everyone so look out for those posters around campus advertising these sorts of events.
