Great fun in a locked room

Photos by Deanne Scott: Mysterious start and mysteries unsolved - the room we missed.

Escapism

Strike Bowling

Level one Wintergarden

Queen Street Mall

Brisbane

This is a new venture in the Brisbane city centre – a trio of rooms to test your nerves and detective ability and just 50 minutes solve the mysteries and escape.

The rooms are Butcher’s Burrow where, in the presence of a severed

hand, contestants are chained up and need to

escape before more severed hands join the other one; Forensic where contestants are on track to unveil the name of a serial killer and The Garden, where everyone is trapped in a mysterious place where, apparently there is no escape.

I let my wife choose the room and, declining severed hands and secret gardens, she went for Forensic. So, there were three of us blindfolded and led into a room. The door was locked and we took off the blindfolds.

We were in a small and very plain room with two doors, the one we came through, and an exit. There was a double locked steel cabinet, a desk with two locked drawers, a locked metal briefcase, and a telephone. We also had a phone that linked us to the outside.

On the walls were a couple of posters one of police badges from around the world, another with police award medal ribbons, a list of suspects, and a map. There were also a couple of big green buttons for emergency escape.

That was it. Somehow we had to use our powers of observation and find clues to find the combinations for all those locks – and find keys for the normal locks.

I was lost from the moment I took off the blindfold. Numbers are not my game; however with some mental juggling and a few hints from outside, my partners worked some miracles, and were in second of opening the exit door when time was up. It was only then we realised that we had only done half the game – there was another room to conquer.

But I have to admit that 50 minutes fled by as we worked against the clock on the wall and had a lot of fun.

This was the opening week of this new game and I have a sneaky feeling we might be back now that we know a thing or two…

There are various packages for the experience from $37 which includes the Escapism experience, pizza, a drink on arrival for a minimum of five people. Various add-ons add ti the cost and experience.

Check out the details by emailing escapism@strikebowlingbar.com.au or call on 1300 787 453.