We went to London’s first digital ‘escape room’ and here’s what we thought

Its great fun, but at times a little confusing

Tried out all the escape rooms in London and trying to find something new for your Christmas work party/ family day out/ double date?

How about an all new immersive digital experience that puts you through a series of interactive challenges that can only be completed through teamwork (while wearing a funky hat with motion sensors on it).

The games , created by the founder of Tough Mudder, see up to six players put in a ‘LightBox’ – a room featuring a range of technologies including projection mapping, touch screens and motion tracking.

Part of the sell is that you can go again and again, as the digital element allows different adventures to be continually made, rather than in a normal escape room where everything’s fixed.

But is this a whole new genre of entertainment , or is it a fad that’ll fade in a year?

Heading into the unknown

Arriving at Electronic Theatre, next to Southwark Station , we had no real idea what to expect – this is the first digital ‘escape room’ of its kind after all.

The staff were friendly, asking us to put our stuff in lockers and told us that we would definitely trip over anything we chose to take into the room with us.

We were led to our room, and hanging on the wall outside were a selection of coloured hats, the plastic golfing cap type, with a huge spiky thing on top that resembled the atom balls you use in science at school.

Once inside the room a video started playing, taking up three walls of the room, and we soon learned we were playing an 80s themed ‘alien invasion’ game, where we had to prove ourself as able humans.

The instructions were confusing, and as the countdown to the first game started none of us had a clue what we were meant to do.

However, it soon became clear that we were basically playing a team game of Brick Breaker, where we use our bodies to slide the plate and bounce the balls onto the blocks.

It was a nice warm up, while we got used to the idea of how the system tracked us – and found out who the weakest members of the team were.

While I personally thought we did quite well we were only given a C+ grade, a measure we later found out was regarded as ‘teamwork’.

Source: We went to London’s first digital ‘escape room’ and here’s what we thought – Ellie McKinnell – MyLondon