Time limit: None (90-180 minutes if played without stops)
Age limit: None
Player limit: None (I'd recommend 2-4)
Difficulty: Medium
Date visited: October 2024
Our family got the chance to playtest Escape the City, an outdoor escape game that has shades of The Amazing Race, The Da Vinci Code, and Nic Cage’s National Treasure movies. The game comes in a box mailed to your home and contains various objects and puzzles. You will need your mobile phone (with working internet) in order to play, as you will need to sign up for an account on their web app, scan QR codes, and access a map app to take you from place to place.
Essentially, the clues in the box will lead you to somewhere in the city, where you may need to consult real-world things to solve the next clue, which will then unlock the next location. Like any good escape room, there is a story behind the adventure, and the narrative progresses as you solve each puzzle. There is no time limit, so you can move at your own pace. I was told this particular game involves roughly 2.5km of walking (provided you don't take any detours).
We had an absolutely wonderful time with Escape the City: Sydney. It combines the brain-teasing fun of an escape room with a sense of adventure in an open world. We loved combining what was in the box to things in the real world to solve the puzzles, which were challenging but not overly difficult. I was initially concerned that the puzzles might be repetitive, but this was not the case at all, as they utilised different aspects of real-world locations as well as the items in the box and features on the phone. In any case, there are hints you can consult through the game app if you ever get stuck.
The game really allows you to explore certain areas of the city. In our case, even though we had been to all the places in the game before, the game really cast them in a new light and made us aware of things we never noticed. We happened to go on a warm, bright, sunny day, so it was perfect for taking pictures along the way. The best part is being able to play the game at your own pace. We did about half in the morning, then stopped to go have lunch with relatives and do an indoor escape room (to be reviewed next), before returning to complete the rest of the game. The final set of puzzles didn’t require us to go anywhere new, so we actually finished it off back at home.
As a playtester, I provided some feedback about the puzzles, locations, and gameplay, so hopefully the final product will be even better than what we experienced. It’s a fantastic way to explore a new city or enjoy your own one in a brand new way. The game itself probably takes 2-3 hours to complete, but I would recommend making a day of it so you can take breaks, enjoy a meal or beverage, and explore different parts of the city — wherever the game takes you.
Created by Escapely, Escape the City currently has game boxes on offer for multiple US cities, and are planning to expand to Sydney, London, Toronto, and Vancouver. The next time we take a trip we will definitely be checking to see if the city we're going to has an Escape the City box.
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