The growing trend of escape rooms is here. The city of Bangor has caught on with the fever of horror seeping into this start to fall. On Sept. 22, the Bangor Escape Room hosted their grand opening at their location on Hammond Street.
An escape room is a puzzle box large enough to fit as many as ten people inside it. You and your friends enter into a room supporting an immersive storyline. As you and your friends become part of the story, you must all work as a team to figure out how to escape the room you have entered either by finding a key or passcode that opens the exit.
Each team is given just one hour to escape before the big bosses or other characters come bursting in. Bangor Escape currently has three rooms, which vary from the office of a former world traveler to a haunted high school locker room.
I had the opportunity, along with three of my friends, to be locked in the High Stakes room, which is designed as a gambling room for mobsters. We soon realized our group bravado would not be enough to get us out because we were not the super sleuths we thought we were. I will not reveal any aspects of the room, but I will say that the clues and secrets are switched up every three weeks in each room to keep you guessing. We were able to find items very quickly, but considering our group was so small it was very difficult to avoid us all getting stuck on one idea or another. We made it just shy of the escape door before falling victim to the mob boss waiting outside.
This program is run by a masterful group who are quite the escape artists themselves. This friendly, fun and energetic team helps you move through your room as best they can, given you only get three hints. Sometimes though, if you really need it, they can be heard giving a few extra hints in order to get things moving as was the case with my group.
I would definitely recommend trying out one of their challenging rooms, especially with Halloween coming up. This would surely serve as a thrilling holiday experience and is a great activity for you and your friends to enjoy together. That is, if you don’t drive each other mad trying to get out. Admittedly, there was more than one disagreement between my group, but in the end we were able to make amends.
If you are interested in taking your chances with 60 minutes, you can find the Bangor Escape Room at 1528 Hammond Street in Bangor, ME and you can book a room through their webpage.
