What IS an Escape Room?

DISCLAIMER: The room featured in the video is NOT the Jewish Escape Room. Illustration only.

You have probably heard about the Escape Rooms, but have no idea what they are or why they are so popular. If so, you came to the right place!

An Escape Room is a real-life, immersive adventure game.

Another way to describe it is a "Scavenger hunt in a room". You and your team will enter a room themed to a mission. You will have 60 minutes to complete the mission and escape the room. You will be solving puzzles, completing tasks and finding clues together with your team. Everything you see in the room is potentially a clue, so be careful not to overlook things that might not seem to be important.

Why Go To An Escape Room?

• An Escape Room is a great place to get out of your routine and try a fun, new challenge. (New things are often exciting)

• They help people bond. Playing an escape room is a group activity requiring your team to communicate. Everyone on your team has something unique to contribute and escaping will leave everyone with a positive, memorable experience. Even if you don’t actually get out of the room, the whole team will have a blast and make memories that you will share for a long time.

• They feed adrenaline rushes. It feels amazing to accomplish something you never thought you could do.

• Excellent exercises for your brain.

• They can teach important lessons.

Still not convinced? Check out our Top 8 Jewish Reasons to Visit an Escape Room! This piece from USA TODAY is another resource to check out. Why Escape Rooms have a lock on the US

What does it take to beat an Escape Room?

You don't need to know anything in advance to play an escape room, but certain qualities definitely make it easier. How well your team can work together to solve complex problems depends on your speed, teamwork and creativity. Make sure to be attentive to every detail, have patience and work together with your team.

Learn more here: How to beat an Escape Room

Who Should Go To An Escape Room?

Escape Room Guests...

Escape Rooms are perfect for family vacations, corporate team-building, or just having fun with your friends. (If you don't have a group to go with, you can even team up with strangers and make some new friends!) Guests of all ages have something to gain. You can have a birthday party, friends or family outing, school or camp trip to an Escape Room. Many have a Party Room on premises where you could serve food and celebrate!

Escape Rooms have been recognized as a superb date destination, they allow you to see how well you can work together and improve communication while having a lot of fun. See here, for instance: What Escape Rooms Can Teach You About Your Relationships.

History of Escape Rooms

People have always loved real-life adventure. Even in ancient times, people entertained themselves with quests such as labyrinths and corn mazes. Labyrinths and mazes eventually migrated to the world of video games. Remember Pac-man?

Especially in today's world of digital overload, we find the idea of a real life adventure extremely exciting.

Unusual in the world where experiences of all kinds migrate online, the concept of an Escape Room migrated into the physical world from video games! Crimson Room was one of the first Escape Room video games, made by Toshimitsu Takagi in 2004. In 2007, SCRAP, a Japanese company transformed the Crimson Room concept into live Escape Rooms. The founder wanted the rooms to be immersive. The rooms were themed and the players had to complete a mission before their time ran out. The game was so well received, the concept soon they spread throughout Asia and Europe!

According to the Economist, the escape room industry is booming. There are probably over 10,000 escape rooms all over the world. A horror movie called Escape Room, where "six strangers find themselves in a maze of deadly mystery rooms and must use their wits to survive", spread the popularity of Escape Rooms even more.

There has been some safety concerns after a fire in a Polish escape room killed 5 girls; here at OneBefore Escape, we follow all fire safety regulations. You can always exit the room in case of emergency or even to use the bathroom, we also have panic buttons and fire extinguishers.

What is unique about OneBefore Escape?

We are the First Jewish Escape Room in the Western Hemisphere. Escape Rooms are A lot of fun, to that fun we add A LOT of  inspiration and a tremendous amount of learning the you will absorb without even noticing:

• European Jewish history (from 11th to 20th century) you will touch as you meet the Medieval Sages, feudal lords, wandering mystics and ordinary thieves

• Love of Your Fellow and Self-Sacrifice you will witness when you hear about the Zeide and the Megaleh Amukos who risked their lives for others

• Jewish Pride, Education, and Assimilation you will learn about as you reconstruct a real Family Tree of an immigrant family 

• Thirst For Meaning, authenticity and depth you will appreciate as you learn about the greatest treasure of the Jewish people hidden in one of the rooms!

Tell me more? See here!

In few short months since we launched, the singular educational and inspirational value we offer to families and their feedback helped us rank #8 among 60 of TripAdvisor Fun & Games establishments in all of Brooklyn. And that's just the beginning! Moreover, we have been crowned as the Best Ethnic Escape Room Experience - New York by LUX Life Magazine in 2019 Family & Visitor Attraction Awards category!

Click here to Learn More!