Escape Rooms Hottest New Trend in Interactive Immersive Entertainment

(TRAVPR.COM) USA - December 21st, 2017 -

Monterey, CA, December 21, 2017  — Exodus Escape Room on Cannery Row in Monterey, part of a hot new trend in immersive entertainment, has announced that it is adding a new room on Dec. 1, just in time for the holidays.  

The new Vault Heist escape experience joins Exodus’ two existing rooms, Sherlock’s Study murder mystery and Masquerade Manor criminal investigation, all with the simple goal of working together with other players, crack codes, solve cyphers and study clues within 60 minutes to escape the room.

Escape rooms are based on escape-the-room video and online games, as if the classic board game “Clue” became a live-action game you play with others in real locations.

In Vault Heist a team of heist experts (players) break into a bank vault to steal items from people we know are involved in highly illegal and unethical ventures that are going against the common good. The vault is used by four or five of these people with questionable moral character who might have things locked in the vault that can be used as evidence against them or used to expose them or shut down their illegal operations.

The “team leader” (not part of your group) has already gone into the vault under disguise to scope out the layout and to plant things to help the team complete the heist. He will break the team in, but will sit out the heist in order to disable the alarm system, which he can only do for one hour. The team has one hour to complete the heist and get out of the vault before the alarm goes off.

Exodus Escape Room on Cannery Row was founded earlier this year by entrepreneur Christina Riddoch of Monterey. Riddoch said she would play escape games online together with her granddaughter Andrea. They went to a live escape room in Kansas City and were hooked, so much so that Riddoch wanted to open one in Monterey.

She contacted an owner of an escape room in Los Angeles to discuss franchising and even attended an escape room conference in Niagara Falls. But it was that first experience with a “live” escape room in Kansas City that sealed it for her.

“I was literally on a high from it for days,” she said. “You feel alive again, it was such an experience, it got us outside of ourselves.”

She talked the escape room operator in L.A. into franchising, found a suitable location above and behind The Whaling Station restaurant on Wave Street in Cannery Row, set up two escape rooms there and opened to capacity crowds — “It was nonstop until 11:30 at night that first night,” she says.

In Exodus’ existing rooms, Sherlock’s Study is recommended for four-10 people and Masquerade Manor is recommended for four-eight people. Vault Heist is recommended for x to x people.

In Sherlock's Study, in the midst of a murder investigation, Sherlock Holmes has been kidnapped by the very murderer he was trying to catch. It's up to the players to piece together the evidence he has left behind in his study. Will you be clever enough to step into Sherlock’s shoes and solve the mystery?

In Masquerade Manor, wealthy and famous composer Ludovico Manin is the prime suspect in a recent, high-profile crime. That night, during his annual Masquerade Ball, is the best chance to look for evidence against him. Disguised as guests, players must infiltrate the ball, find proof of Manin’s guilt, and leave without being detected. Can you find the stolen object and escape in time?

The rooms are monitored by video cameras with audio. If players fail to solve the mystery and escape, they can return to take another crack at it for half-price.

“Ours is family-friendly since we're on Cannery Row,” said Riddoch, referring to some of the more gruesome or frightening escape rooms out there. “I think Cannery Row needs this.”

Originating in Japan as Real Escape Game (REG) in 2007, Seattle-based Puzzle Break became the first American-based escape room company in 2013. They are patterned after video or online games such as Zelda, Myst and Crimson Room. There are estimated to be more than 3,000 escape room venues worldwide. There's even a website directory of escape rooms (escaperoomdirectory.com) and people who are fans of the games are called Escape Room Enthusiasts.

"There is a growing consumer demand for social play experiences that are live and unique and can't be repeated," Sam Roberts, assistant director of the Interactive Media and Games division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, told the Los Angeles Times. Roberts says that immersive entertainment will be the next frontier of gaming — "the future of play spaces," he said.

“It's just so much fun,” said Riddoch. “It's great for team-building, it's fun playing it together with friends. It's such a great experience.”

Exodus Escape Room

765 Wave St., between Irving and Prescott, Monterey

Monterey@exodusescaperoom.com

(831) 324-0513

http://exodusescaperoom.com/monterey

Media Experiences Available Prior to the Event.  Please Contact Marci Bracco Cain at Marci@ChatterboxPublicRelations.com to Schedule a Private Tour.

Contact:

Marci Bracco Cain 
Chatterbox PR 
Salinas, CA 93901 
(831) 747-7455

http://exodusescaperoom.com/monterey

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