SALT LAKE CITY — If you or your friends have ever considered yourselves amateur sleuths, then a new downtown entertainment venue may test your deductive and problem-solving skills in a big way.
Mystery Escape Room is schedule to open at The Gateway this week. The live action experience puts participants in a themed room containing numerous clues, riddles and puzzles that need to be solved in order to figure out the combination of the locked door. The group works together to unravel the clues and solve the mystery within the one-hour time limit.
The objective is to identify and follow the clues before time runs out, otherwise be “trapped” in the room that will fill with fake poison gas. The owners conducted a preview session recently at the new location next to Applebee’s in the space previously occupied by J. Brooks Jewelers.
“It does take a lot of mental work to be able to put (all the pieces) together,” said co-owner Les Pardew. ”We purposely made the puzzles so that they weren’t all the same, so having a diverse group (of thinkers) really helps.”
Among the themes participants will be able to choose from initially will be Moriarty’s Parlor, an homage to Professor James Moriarty, the archnemesis of famed fictional British detective Sherlock Holmes.
“It’s a trap that Moriarty set for (Holmes),” Pardew said. “It’s Moriarty trying to stump Sherlock Holmes.”
The room is decorated to look like an English parlor with period furniture and fixtures that have clues hidden in books, the artwork, as well as in nooks and crannies throughout the room. It makes for a nerve-wracking, but intellectually stimulating experience.
“It was pretty difficult, but not so hard that you were completely overwhelmed,” said preview participant Adam Stiff.
Fellow group member Dan Commins said he enjoyed the experience and the challenges posed by the numerous mysteries.
“It was a good exercise of the mind and definitely very fun,” he said. “It would take quite a few people to figure it out.”
“It was pretty difficult,” said group member Dylan Howell. “There was a lot (of clue searching) going on.”
As it turned out, even with a dozen people in the group, they were unable to escape and succumbed to the perilous scheme of Professor Moriarty. Even so, all three said it was something they would like to try again to see whether they could be more successful.
When it officially opens, other themes will include the Ghosts of Christmas based on “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens where guests will be locked into Scrooge's bedroom, along with a pirate mystery and a Leonardo Da Vinci mystery, Pardew said.
Depending upon what theme is chosen, participants can choose to dress in period garb to enhance the experience. On this day, Pardew was dressed as Sherlock Holmes’ trusty sidekick Dr. Watson.
The cost will run $30 per person for individuals and $225 for a group of 12. Similar mystery experiences have been successful in other cities in the U.S. as well as internationally, Pardew explained.
He said the challenging nature of the experience makes it an ideal team-building exercise.
“It brings people together in a way that is pretty significant,” he said. “It’s role playing and story telling, but you’re not watching the story, you’re actually in the story.”
In an effort to maintain interest and keep the experience interesting, when teams seem to get bogged down or stuck, monitors observing on video cameras offer small clues over loud speakers to get the flow going again.
Pardew said that while the game is meant to be challenging, the ultimate goal is for everyone to have fun.
“It really is about teamwork and working on divergent things, but trying to get it all to come together,” he said.
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