Escape rooms have quickly become of the most sought after experiences. This puzzling phenomenon can be found all over the world with exciting new variations popping up across the U.S. PanIQ Escape Room is a growing franchise which began in Hungary in 2012 and has since expanded to the US with several locations from Los Angeles to New York City. We visited their New York location last week to attempt one of their challenging escapes.
Upon entering their Lower East Side location you will find a simple white waiting room with only a monitor and small poster of the room rules. Don’t be fooled by the minimalist waiting area, each room has been decked out to fuel your imagination with props, puzzles, and hidden doors. Before gaining access to the game each player must sign a waiver and listen to the rules. The waiver is standard practice to protect the business and the customer. Each room has been crafted for a safe fun experience, meant to challenge the mind not the body. There isn’t any heavy lifting, crawling, or other physically taxing obstacles.
For our Escape Room challenge, we carefully gathered seven of our very smart and quick thinking friends for the experience. Seven is the limit for each of the PanIQ Room. As horror enthusiasts, we chose to take on the “Insane Asylum” room. This is the scariest room in their current selection. This isn’t a haunted house, no one jumps out at you or tries to grab anyone. The theme is scary and there are a few creepy props. After a quick explanation of the backstory the door closed and we were left with one hour to escape. Each room is outfitted with a monitor in a kiosk at the center of the room. The monitor is for collecting hints and contacting the game master. The main door is left unlocked in case of emergency. The object of the game is getting to the next set or through a set of doors that lead back into the “real world”. Gameplay was quite challenging in the beginning but rewarding as each hint led to a new puzzle to solve or riddle to decode. We needed every single minute of the hour to escape. The challenges were difficult but still fun and interesting as we jumped right into our roles as patients being held captive. Every so often a message would be sent out over the loudspeaker as in a real hospital. Most messages were punctuated by a shrill scream adding to the horror theme. The game is more collaborative than competitive, each person contributes to a team victory.
We had an amazing time at Paniq. The game play was engaging and formidable with each of us clamoring for a victory down to the last 5 seconds. To win at PanIQ is an honor as they pride themselves on creating a demanding escape experience. The rooms at PanIQ are well thought out with interesting back stories, immersive decor, and amusing puzzles. In addition to the Insane Asylum, PanIQ has three other rooms with the fourth room in development.
To learn more and to make a reservation, head over to paniqescaperoom.com.
PanIQ Room NYC is located at 102 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002.
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