September 29, 2023

Break Free of the Humdrum at Doha’s Escape Rooms

#leisure

#puzzles

#escape rooms

#social activity

#themed games

#challenges

#entertainment

Doha has scores of entertainment and leisure activities to keep you occupied throughout the year. In winter, when everyone migrates outside, there are beaches, parks, outdoor sports greens, pitches and courts, markets and bazaars, open-air cinemas, festivals and events, out-of-doors theme parks, water parks, and much more. On hotter days, you can escape the heat at museums, art galleries, malls, libraries, indoor sports halls, theme parks, play areas and adventure parks, to name but a few. And, speaking of escaping, one indoor activity that has recently gained popularity in Doha, winter or summer, is the puzzling, challenging and entertaining world of the Escape Room.

Escape Rooms provide a morning, afternoon or evening of alternative and diverting entertainment for groups of friends and family, where deciphering puzzles and challenges is the one means of escape!

What is an Escape Room?

Image: BearFotos

An Escape Room is a themed game where groups of players work together under time restrictions to solve a sequence of puzzles and challenges to progress through the game to achieve the end goal - escaping the room.

The ‘room’ (or series of rooms) is a fictional location, which can be anywhere, though popularly a bunker, dungeon, prison cell, locked chamber, laboratory, time machine, etc., and of any theme. The game, which includes an elaborate back story, why you are there and why you need to break out, generally aligns with the room location and theme, as do the goals and challenges.

Once the clock has started, players must explore their surroundings to find and decipher clues, undertake tasks, solve puzzles and complete challenges to unlock access to each part of the game and, eventually, the door to freedom. The tasks, puzzles and challenges are a mixture of mental and physical assignments, such as decoding cyphers, maths-based problems, identifying patterns, completing word searches or crosswords, finding or retrieving specific objects, assembling objects, completing jigsaw puzzles, navigating mazes, unlocking coded combination locks, etc. No expert knowledge is required, but it helps to have people on your team with skill sets in maths, science, English, geography and general knowledge. The game is a real test of problem-solving, lateral thinking and, most importantly, teamwork!

While most games are heavily themed and theatrical, with interactive puzzles and challenges, some adventures also include video games, automation and virtual reality technology. Whichever you choose, Escape Rooms are full of atmosphere, interaction and fun.

So, where to in Doha?

Escape Rooms in Doha

Image: BearFotos

Check out any of the following Escape Rooms in Doha; each has its own unique games and themes, and all are a delight:

Adventure Rooms Qatar

The Adventure Rooms Qatar has four themed 60-minute games to choose from. Up against the clock, visitors can escape from Alcatraz (America's early 20th-century island prison for notorious criminals), a Mafia gang's headquarters, a MadHouse asylum or a nightmare. Each game, for 2-7 players, requires teamwork to solve puzzles, find a key and escape your chosen room before the clock stops.

The Adventure Room games are designed to encourage teamwork. However, if you want to add an element of competition to your play, you can have two teams of up to 7 pitted against one another to see who will solve the room's challenges first. Each team has 30 minutes to break free; who will prevail?

Aside from the Escape Rooms, Adventure Rooms also offer other activities, such as the Horror House - like a walk-through kid's haunted house but styled to make even the hardiest adult scream! Or, the Dine in the Dark experience - a pitch-black diner adventure designed to take you on a sensory journey.

The Details:

Location: Building 51, Qatari Bin Fujaah Street, Fereej bin Mahmoud

Location Map: Adventure Rooms Qatar

Nearest Metro: Bin Mahmoud Metro Station on the Gold Line

Opening Hours: Sunday to Monday, 8:30 am - 11:30 pm

Costs: Two person team - QAR 300 pp

Three person team - QAR 200 pp

Four person team - QAR 150 pp

Five person team - QAR 120 pp

Six person team - QAR 100 pp

Seven person team - QAR 100 pp

Contact: +974 7050 0139

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.adventureroomsqa.com/copy-of-escape-rooms

Instagram: @adventureroomsqatar

Facebook: @adventureroomsQatar

Other:

Booking is required online.
Escape Room games are suitable from 7 years upwards.
Children under 12 years must be accompanied.

Enigma Escape Rooms

Offering eight games, Enigma is Doha's most extensive Escape Room experience. The games cater for multiple age ranges and provide numerous difficulty levels (and levels of scariness) to cater for various tastes, skills and knowledge. Each game can be played with between 2 - 7 players and lasts for 60 minutes.

Bunker 38 (beginner level) - an underground bunker escape game - and The Final Match (intermediate level) - a football-match-based game - cater for visitors 7+ years. The Dungeon of Doom (intermediate level) - a mediaeval dungeon setting - is designed for players 10+ years and has a 'scary' warning advertised. The Asylum and The Experiments (intermediate level) - games requiring escape from zombies and flesh-eating asylum patients - are prepared for competitors of 12+ years and carry a 'scary' warning. The final three games, Antar Prison, The Cursed Tomb and Quarantined (difficult level), requiring escape from a tortuous prison, an ancient Egyptian tomb and a high-security human testing facility, are designed for those of 14+ years.

Enigma Escape Rooms are located in Doha Festival City’s Virtuocity - Qatar’s premier digital gaming centre. Aside from the Escape Rooms, the centre offers a vast multipurpose esports arena for competitive play, VIP gaming rooms and Virtual Reality rooms - which even sport four VR Escape-Room-style games.

The Details:

Location: Doha Festival City - Virtuosity, Al Shamal Road, Umm Salal Muhammed

Location Map: Virtuocity Qatar - Gaming Theme Park

Nearest Metro: N/A

Opening Hours: Saturday to Wednesday, 1 pm - 10 pm; Thursday and Friday, 1 pm - 12 am

Costs: Two person team - QAR 390

Three person team - QAR 460

Four person team - QAR 580

Five person team - QAR 670

Six person team - QAR 750

Seven person team - QAR 800

Costs are per room.

Contact: +974 4042 0444

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.virtuocity.qa/enigma-escape-rooms/

Instagram: @virtuocityqatar

Facebook: @VirtuocityQatar

Other:

Booking is required online.
Children under 12 years must be accompanied.

Scavenger Escape Doha

Scavenger Escape Doha has six mind-boggling themed Escape Rooms to solve. Players, in groups of between 2-6, are given 60 minutes to work together to decipher puzzles and complete activities of varying difficulty levels to open the door of their chosen game and escape.

The Escape Rooms include a quest to find a hidden chest in a North African bazaar in the Egyptian Adventure (beginner level), an escape from a horror chamber in the Torture Chamber (difficult level) and another from a dingy jail cell in Prison Break (difficult level), solving mysteries in at the Grand Budapest Hotel (intermediate level), finding missing musical masterpieces in Mozart's Mystery (intermediate level), and preventing a contagious virus from being released in Secret Surgery (difficult level).

The Scavenger Escape Rooms are located at the Megapolis Entertainment Center at The Pearl. The Megapolis centre is a state-of-the-art indoor entertainment venue offering a variety of leisure activities aside from the Escape Rooms, including arcade games, virtual reality, simulators, bowling, table tennis, billiards, darts and karaoke.