Breakout Liverpool has been around for a couple of years now and we’ve all taken it to our hearts. Whether it’s answering the daily riddles they post on twitter or pitting teams against each other on a works night out, nearly all of us have been locked in one of their rooms at some point, surrounded by padlocks, a starter clue and told we have 60 minutes to escape.
Last week I had the absolute week from hell. It was the culmination of months of hard work and the countdown to the opening of The Scouse Bird Salon and everything that could possibly go wrong, did. I had builders let me down, I had leaks, I had new builder come in and had to undo all the work that the previous builder had done because it wasn’t up to scratch and then to top it all off, we had a fire when the water heater blew and went up in smoke. To say I was stressed was an understatement. Thanks to the amazing team I have behind me (and quite a bit of money) it all got fixed in time and The Scouse Bird Salon opening was huge success.
However Thursday night (fire day) I’d had a Breakout Liverpool room booked for a while and I really didn’t want to go, I just wanted to crawl into bed and hide but I was talked into going anyway. It turned out to be the best thing I could have possibly done.
I mean, getting locked in a room with a series of vague and difficult puzzles might sound pretty stressful but solving puzzles actually took my mind completely off the difficulties I was having in real life and those 53 minutes where I was stuck in a hotel room trying to escape a murderer were quite frankly, a relief.
Breakout Liverpool have loads of different rooms with different themes; Wanted (cowboys and indians); Shipwrecked (pirate); Cursed Carnival (creepy fairground) and their newest one is called Vacancy. The premise is you’re on a road trip in America and no hotel has any vacancies apart from one. As you check in, the door locks behind you and it soon becomes apparent that the previous occupants have all gone missing in mysterious circumstances. You have exactly 60 minutes to solve the clues the previous victims have left behind in order to escape the same fate. If you’re not out within the hour, you die.
The rooms have difference levels of difficulty, Vacancy is a four star room meaning that its quite a hard one. We got stuck. A lot. But the room operator (hidden away in another room watching and listening to everything you do) is there to provide extra clues and hints via the TV screen as and when they think you need them.
Obviously I can’t reveal any of the answers or spoil any of the fun for you but we broke out with 7 minutes to spare and while I’d fully recommend Breakout Liverpool as a fun night out, it turns out that trying to escape from a room can provide a much needed escape from your problems too.
To book Breakout Liverpool you can visit their website here.