Breakout Games Comes to Plano!

Our team at Plano Profile had the pleasure of trying one of the challenges at Breakout Games’ newest location here in Plano.

For those of you who have never heard of Breakout Games, imagine this: you’re taken into a small room blindfolded, handcuffed to a bench, and you and your team have exactly one hour to “breakout” of the room. Simple enough, right? Not so much.

“Escape games are real life adventures where you and your fellow players have an hour to break out of a room by cracking codes, solving riddles, piecing together puzzles and finding clues. The game originated in Japan and is based off escape the room video games created by Toshimitsu Takagi in 2005,” according to Breakout Games’ website.

Our team participated in the “Hostage” challenge. The premise: we were on a flight which was crash landed by hijackers and we were now hostages, hence the blindfold and handcuffs. Hidden in the room are various clues and challenges to complete in order to find to code for the door which would grant us our freedom! (Note: for safety you’re not actually locked in the room but in order to have maximum amount of fun we suggest you suspend reality for the time being.)

Luckily this challenge wasn’t real because we had to ask our lovely moderator, who watched us through cameras, to give us a few hints along the way. And while we were incredibly close to solving the last bit of the challenge, we unfortunately did not escape the room in time. Overall, we had a fun time even though we were bummed we didn’t escape. Next time we have a feeling we’ll be able to complete the challenge!

Team Member Thoughts?

Alex Cronin: The clues are an interesting and an appealing mix of in-your-face-simple and why-didn’t-I-pay-attention-in-school-complicated. It appeals to the adrenaline junkie in me as well as my occasional hankering for a Sudoku puzzle. It’s also really a great way to get to know people; you’ll be surprised by who solves what and you’ll definitely learn a little something about teamwork. You’ll also discover which group members have the math skills necessary to pass a 3rd grade pop quiz and which (like yourself) skate by with luck and calculators. My advice? Don’t be too afraid to ask for hints and be creative in your problem solving. Be curious. Explore. Look at everything sideways, upside down and backwards. And don’t peek below your blindfold because that’s cheating.

Rebecca Silvestri: It was fun, if a little frustrating! I feel like now that I’ve done one I would definitely do better next time. They key is understanding that everything is in the room for a reason and that each clue you find leads you to the next. I just wish we’d escaped! I’ll be doing it again for sure!
(c) Copyright Dana Rogers Photography