Room Escape Artist

While some escape rooms are experimenting with ways to make the experience different if played more than once, for the most part, escape rooms are considered to be a one-time thing. But people rewatch movies already knowing the ending. We listen to our favorite songs dozens of times. Can we get the same enjoyment from escape rooms?

Our family recently had the opportunity to replay several of our favorite escape rooms. And while nothing compares with walking into a space and experiencing its surprises for the first time, there’s a lot of fun to be had on a replay!

Why We Replayed

We’re drawing our experience from several visits:

First, after we returned from the Escape Immerse Explore Montreal (Room Escape Artist’s Montreal Tour) and kept gushing about the rooms we’d played, our children threatened to sue for emancipation unless we took them there. So two years after the first visit, we replayed several of Laval’s greatest hits with our kids.

Then, when David and Lisa were scouting rooms for the Escape Immerse Explore Time & Space (REA’s Chicago & Champaign-Urbana Tour), we joined them to replay Hidden Temple at 60 to Escape in Gurnee, another of our favorite games. Our group had two people who had never done the room, plus the four of us, who had done it about 6 years prior– when, notably, our kids had been 11 and 6.

Finally, when we had family visiting, we took them to The Passage at Twisted Limits, mainly because we wanted to show off how our local escape room had the splashiest first room we’d ever seen.

Each time, we had great experiences. We found ourselves enjoying the “oh yeah, I remember this” parts, the “I didn’t notice that before” parts, and the “I have more time to appreciate this now” parts! So, when might a replay be right for you?

Important Variables

How long ago did you first play the room?

Over time, your memories of the specific details of rooms may fade, especially if you’ve done a lot of other escape rooms to conflate with them. You may, for example, remember getting surprised, but not remember what surprised you! So while replaying a room that you played three weeks ago might feel like repeating a math problem, replaying one from three years ago might feel more like rereading a great book.

Peter: We hadn’t played Hidden Temple in 6 years, and walking in, I remembered exactly two puzzles: one had a very surprising solution, and one was in a room that was spooky enough that our younger kid had to be carried through it. 

Emily: I remembered the narrative of the room, but even if a puzzle rang a bell, I certainly didn’t remember how to solve it. So I was able to enjoy most of the room just as much the second time through. And it was fun to experience narrative beats again if if I knew it was coming.

Peter: It had also been several years since we had played The Passage, but to be honest, I didn’t remember anything except the thing I wanted to show off!

More surprisingly, we had the same experience in the Montreal rooms that we had played only two years before! We remembered (some of the) showstopping moments, but, for instance, one room had a particular trap, and Peter fell for it AGAIN the second time! Overall, while YMMV (your memory may vary), we remembered the experience of playing the game more than specific elements. It was less “we remember the spooky-room puzzle” and more “we remember trying to solve the spooky-room puzzle while also managing a terrified 6-year-old.” 

How did you play the game before?

If you have a photographic memory and can recall the solution to every puzzle you’ve ever done, then unfortunately, replaying might not be for you. 

That said, there might have been parts of the room that you missed! Were you in a big group solving puzzles in parallel? Were there strangers in your group that you had to navigate? Were your children fighting the whole time? Were you so focused on a single sudoku puzzle that you didn’t see the treasure chest emerge from the opposite wall in a cloud of fog?

There are plenty of reasons like these that there might be something fresh to discover the second time through a room!

How great were the non-puzzle parts of the room?

This is where the movie/ song analogy is most relevant. If the story or the experience of the room is good enough, it doesn’t matter if you remember the puzzles or not! In fact, the second time you can experience everything more holistically because you won’t catch yourself wondering: “How many puzzles are left and will I get out in time?”

This summer, we returned to Champaign-Urbana to play rooms at CU Adventures in Time & Space that we had not played on our previous visit, three years earlier. We had three new rooms to play but our children begged us to replay Rise of the Icarus which they had already played. They actually wanted to replay it because they remembered it! The (surprisingly active) final act of the room was so much fun, they wanted to do it again!

Good Reasons to Reply a Room

You want to share it with someone new

We can personally vouch for this reason; it’s pretty great. There is a different but equally satisfying joy in experiencing something familiar through the eyes of someone seeing it for the first time! During our favorite parts of the Montreal rooms, we could watch our kids’ reactions, which was pretty fun! In fact, watching someone else be in awe of a moment brought back our own feelings of awe!

You’re (personally) in a different place!

Maybe you struggled with a fun room early in your escape room career, and would like to revisit it now that you’re more experienced. Or maybe you’re excited to make your now 13-year-old solve the puzzle he used to be scared of! 

For a fresh start

Sometimes, the first time through a room is a subpar experience. Maybe there’s someone in your group who kept taking puzzle pieces you were holding. Maybe there were people in your group who didn’t want to be there. Maybe you were hung over. 

Going back in again on your own terms can make a second visit more enjoyable than the first! This was the case for Emily with Wardrobe for Sale at Escaparium. That room has a lot of parallel solving opportunities, and our first time playing on the REA Tour, our group was more focused on speed than sharing. The second time through with our kids, we had more time to just enjoy the set and the variety of puzzles, and the room climbed in Emily’s rankings!

You were a little kid, but now you’re not

The experience is different for kids. If you are 13 and you’re playing a room that you did before when you were 6, for all intents and purposes, you’re playing the room for the first time. This is even more true if the first time you played was in a group setting like a birthday party. The whole experience will feel brand new!

The Dangers of Replay

Most of the time, there wasn’t really a downside to replaying a room, besides paying for it again. There were only a few moments that stood out:

Emily had a work event at which she replayed a room that on our first playthrough, we had found to be just ok. Replaying a mediocre room with a group that is less interested in being there was not a particularly fun experience, and made the frustrating parts of the room stand out more.

There is a room in Chicago (now gone, R.I.P.) that we played three times, as each of our kids held a birthday party there. This was sad, because over time, we watched the condition of the room get worse and worse. It’s not fun if your favorite puzzle from the first play-through is broken for the second playthrough.

One of the rooms we replayed – that we were excited to show our kids – had an annoying puzzle that involved finding about 12 small stickers hidden on surfaces around multiple rooms. About a minute into this puzzle on the replay, we both had a sudden feeling of dread: oh, no, we forgot about this one. (This was the one moment where we wished we DID remember the answer!)

Which leads us to the biggest risk: there is always that chance that a replay might not live up to your memory of a great experience, and make that memory a little less great.

Tips for Replaying a Room

Play it cool

When bringing new people to a room that you’ve played, play it cool! Before you go in, avoid saying things like, “You’ll never even suspect there’s a third room!”

In the room, give your friends space to make the amazing discoveries that you did. When a puzzle unlocks, let them take it in for a second before announcing, “this one uses the poles from the last room and those three crystals.”

Protect surprises, but be a secret shepherd

Try not to telegraph what’s coming. For example, if you know where a hidden door is about to open, don’t stare at that section of wall the whole time.

That said, you can enhance surprises if you’re able to subtly steer your friends into positions where they will, say, get a front row seat for a cool effect (if you’re a nice friend), or get a front row seat for a jump scare (if you’re a mean friend).

Try to experience, not remember

Use this time to notice things you missed the first time around. Staying in the moment will let you enjoy the room as it plays out, as opposed to waiting for things you know are coming.

Conclusion

There’s a reason that people keep showing up for remakes, reboots and revivals. Some stories are fun to experience, even if you know what’s going to happen. It’s the journey, not the destination, right?

There’s joy to be had in experiencing a great escape room again. Have fun!