Lillian Beach
Staff Writer
The recent virtual escape room, presented by Wooster Activities Crew (WAC) and hosted by “The Virtual Detective,” was an enjoyable way to spend Saturday evening, especially in light of the pandemic. Students were able to interact with one another over Zoom to solve the case before the (thankfully virtual) bomb exploded, while also trying to figure out where “John Axley” was being held captive. The escape room was one of many different “missions” that can be played and solved online.
After entering the Zoom meeting, participants were met with a view of a desk and “Detective Wilder,” who introduced the mystery and helped solve some of the clues by giving advice when participants were stuck. “Detective Wilder” took part in the call in real time, which I thought was really cool. He was able to interact with the desk on the screen, so if the group wanted to know about anything on the desk, he could pick it up and describe it. The various clues needed to solve the case were scattered across the Internet, and they pertained to websites or information that could easily be found. Players were also given a virtual “Case File” that was updated with each clue as they found them. Puzzles and cyphers were presented, and participants worked together to solve them in order to unlock the next clue. We had a total of 45 minutes to solve the case and defuse the bomb.
Having never been to an escape room, I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. A total of six students, including myself, attended the escape room. We worked together to solve the various cyphers, word puzzles and number puzzles, and I was impressed with how smoothly everything operated over Zoom. All students had their mics open and cameras on, which made communication between us fairly simple. Because all the clues were on our phones or our computers, we could all essentially view the same screen without difficulty. The only downside of an escape room in this format was that we could not physically interact with the environment. However, “Detective Wilder’s” participation solved this in a rather ingenious way, as I mentioned before, by interacting with whatever object we inquired about. I think one of the most enjoyable things about the escape room was making connections and solving the clues. I found it satisfying to realize that my hunch was right and the clue was solved. Our group solved the case and defused the bomb with literal seconds to spare (three seconds, to be exact). It was definitely entertaining to participate in “solving a case” and I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would take part in another one if the opportunity arose. I would highly recommend attending these virtual escape rooms for anyone looking to have a good time during the pandemic!