A week before Christmas, a group of us found ourselves locked up in a room. Imagine the scenario: Lured into taking a free hotel room by a religious cult, we had a mere one hour to escape, or get brainwashed and risk a miserable death.
This is Brainscape Dubai. A brand new gaming concept imported from the UK where you actually pay to get locked up with a team of 3 to 5 adults, and play against the clock to find the key out.
We met the lovely Sanjwali, our Game Master for the night, at the Brainscape lounge. Designed to look like a chilled out space for gamers and spunked up with slogans and an eye-catching timepiece a la Sherlock Holmes, we were ready to put on our detective hats (and fill our pockets with the free Kitkat!).
Click to view slideshow.Kitkat calories don’t count at Brainscape. You need all that sugar for all that brain-drain needed to escape!
We signed an agreement sheet covering the rules of the game.
You have a choice of 2 different rooms; the Classic and the Da Vinci. Each room is riddled with clues that need solving, and one leads to the next helping you break free.
The Classic room is more to do with lateral thinking, while the Da Vinci room has more visual clues. I hear the Da Vinci room is beautifully done up in vintage luxe, but as newbies we thought the Classic room would be an easier choice.
The room itself (which I was not allowed to photograph) looks deceptively plain and ordinary. This urban setup with a very simple couch, television set and bookcase would befit any Dubai apartment. This simplicity put us off for a good ten minutes before we started deciphering the clues!
We got stuck far more often than we would have liked, and the Game Master threw us helpful clues via the television screen.
Sadly we passed the one-hour mark and made it out 15 minutes too late. We got brainwashed!
Sanjwali tells us that so far, the record time for escaping the Classic room is 34 minutes sans any clues, and for the Da Vinci room its 42 minutes.
Overall Brainscape was loads of fun, and great for team-building. I plan to return soon and try out the Da Vinci room (or the second Classic room adjacent to the one we failed to escape!). Brainscape Dubai also has plans of adding more games to their repertoire in 2016.
Are you ready to get locked up? Here’s hoping you have better luck than we did!
Brainscape rooms would also be ideal for your next company team building exercise, or perhaps you could plan this as an out-of-the-box birthday party treat!
Brainscape Dubai is located in Room 203 – Building 12 (Bay Square, Business Bay, Dubai). You can book a room online via their website or give them a call on 04 438 7724. They are open from 10 am – 10.30 pm daily, and their pricing is lowered on weekdays. Good luck!
