By now you probably know the set-up of most escape rooms: you’ve been trapped by a killer/super villain/vengeful boss and are given 60 minutes to escape or face the dire consequences. There’s variation in time and antagonist which shape the scenario, but the structure is fairly consistent.
The Psych Ward, blissfully, is not that.
While you still have 60 minutes, a locked room, an arch-nemesis (of a sort), and puzzles galore the similarities end there. Because in Psych Ward you’re not looking to beat the room: you’re looking to beat each other.
Players are checked in by an in-world “nurse” and given hospital gowns and ID bracelets that turn them into the unwitting subjects of Dr. Griffin, a rogue psychiatrist with some interesting ideas about the potential of the human mind. One by one the “patients” are escorted into a testing center filled with an array of panels, dials, and screens. On the way in you get your diagnosis: sane or insane.
That diagnosis places each player on one of two teams. The game is relatively simple: solving puzzles turns on barcode scanners that provide points. Every sane player that scans their ID bracelet adds points to their team’s score, but if even one insane player scans their bracelet all those points go to the insane team. A big red button on each scanner means that any player can cut off the supply of points and thus stop them from being stolen. Or fake out everyone. The strategic layers are rich.
The puzzles themselves run a whole gamut from straightforward match games that one person can solve to physical puzzles that take serious teamwork. There are contraptions and devices galore, and the set decoration and videos running on the screens create a fantastic sense of place that was brought home by the wonderful “nurse” acting as out gamemaster. She stayed in character for every moment we were with her, and that gave us all permission to really get into the world of the room.
Get Noah J Nelson’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
SubscribeSubscribe
Crossroads Escape Games is an independent outfit run by Madison and Luke Rhoades, who made their name with The Hex Room — a game with a diabolic reputation I remain dying to play. The Hex Room’s unique set up — each player is isolated from the others — makes it possible for players to return to play again and get a new experience. The Psych Ward triples down on replayability.
While the available puzzles will remain the same any two games of Psych Ward are entirely unique. Team assignments are randomized, and there are multiple strategies and choice points available to players which alter the course of the contest. The Rhoades have successfully mutated the escape room formula by taking the escape out of it entirely. This is a puzzle driven game room which wraps players up entirely in the game world. Every session lasts a full 60 minutes much in the same way that a football game has a regulation time. The room itself is purposefully designed to have more puzzles in it than are likely to get played in a single match.
Somehow they do all this while still giving a dramatic experience complete with rising action and a frantic climax. I won’t give out specific plot and interaction spoilers, but fans of the mobile game Spaceteam will find some fun echoes in a match’s last phase.
Of course, only one team can win the game, so you’re going to want to go with a group of friends whose egos don’t bruise easily if they lose. Luckily the rise in popularity of board game nights have primed millions for this type of experience. If there’s any downside to Psych Ward it is that there is just the one instance of it. This game is a genre bender, the kind of thing that has the potential to revolutionize the emerging escape room industry by reframing the service game owners provide away from a specific type of experience and towards a broader category of interactive entertainment.
I’m so going to enjoy going back.
The Psych Ward is now open for booking. Tickets are $32 per person, for games of 5–8 players. Crossroads Escape Games is located at 4245 E La Palma Ave in Anaheim, CA.
NoPro is a labor of love made possible by our generous Patreon backers. Join them today!
In addition to the No Proscenium web site, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, in the Facebook community Everything Immersive, and on our Slack forum.
Office facilities provided by Thymele Arts, in Los Angeles, CA.
Discussion