Like all the sane ones among us, I’d never want to find myself captured and imprisoned inside some sadistic game by an insane maniac like Jigsaw in the Saw movies.
But, somehow, being trapped in a room having to solve riddles, decipher codes and use clues to get out — without the fear of death if you fail, of course — is fairly appealing.
Escape rooms have been around for quite a few years now. Shepp used to have one of its very own, but it closed before I had a chance to experience it.
However, from what I’ve learned ‘playing’ them (or did they play me?) since, I’d be one of the first players to die if my life actually depended on it.
The first one I ever experienced was with my ex-husband on an anniversary weekend in Melbourne, sans kids.
The place was so seedy, on the rickety third floor of a CBD building, that when my head was bagged in a black sheath and my hands cuffed to a wall at the beginning, I truly feared for my safety.
We eventually got out, but not within the allocated time frame and not without clues.
Our kids would have been too terrified to play — not just because of their ages at the time — given the abandoned carnival-themed room full of ‘killer’ clowns and such.
The second time I entered an escape room was with them though (and without a husband) in Bendigo a couple of years ago.
We played a much less sinister, magic-themed room that had many similarities to the wizarding world of one Harry Potter and crew, which, with my now 13-year-old being a diehard fan, was a perfect choice.
Yet we still only made it out in under the target of 60 minutes (54 to be precise) with clues.
I swear the kids — who were 9, 11 and 13 at the time — are far more switched on than yours truly with these things.
If you like the idea of the game, but not so much the claustrophobic environment, a geogame might be more your thing.
Just like escape rooms, these are designed to walk you through a sequence of way-finding, riddle-solving and code-deciphering using all your collected clues, but on a live, interactive map in the great outdoors at a specific location.
If you were out and about in Shepparton’s CBD on Saturday you might have noticed an army of people dressed in Alice in Wonderland-themed costume, mostly with eyes glued to the phones in their hands.
My kids, my friends and I were a part of that cohort, playing a CluedUpp geogame, trying to free Alice from Wonderland before the Queen of Hearts could have her head lopped off.
Despite the distracting temptations and essential pit-stops such as newly opened mall playgrounds, loos and coffee shops that some team members surrendered to, we managed to finish the game and still place somewhere near the middle of the leaderboard (56th out of 100, if you want me to be precise, wink wink).
It was a fun day, but if I’m honest, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing most of the time. I was confused and feeling my age, but I can see how these events would be right up the alley of the younger, more avid gaming crowd.
They seem to understand apps, maps and gaming technology a lot better than this old duck.
And these games are possibly the perfect thing for getting gaming types out into the sunshine for some vitamin D and moving those bodies further than the well-worn path between the gaming chair and the fridge. They still get to game — just outside their bedrooms.
Not only that, they’re also a great way to spend quality time with family while you work together as a team to ‘escape’ from the game, while also escaping the monotony of every other regular day.
So, while we definitely don’t want an actual Jigsaw in our lives, we’ll gladly have a jigsaw puzzle of the digital kind any day.
Would play again*.
*Disclaimer: So long as my teammates are more cluey than I.
— Bree Harding is a former News reporter and a single mother to three children.
THE LOWDOWN
What: Escape games
Where: Various locations
Cost: From $40pp for rooms, from $60 per team for app-driven adventures
Websites: