48 Seconds.

That was all that was left on the clock when I shoved in the last of the panels on the final puzzle. It was our last chance too. An oversight had already blown our one chance at a do-over. With two minutes on the clock the team, a collection of friends who had never worked together before, took a step back and went as calmly as we could through the possible outcomes of the last puzzle.

I wasn’t entirely sure we’d made the right choice when I slid the last panel in.

Thankfully, we didn’t suck.

And that, dear friends, is how we spent our last moments inside Burbank’s Get The F Out: The Virus escape room.

We had started by being loaded in one at a time, so that the attendant — in this case owner Bob Glouberman — could set us up with virtual reality headsets. The VR segment of The Virus exists to set up the story and the objectives, and to give a little misdirection as the last parts of the room is set up. VR isn’t an essential component of the experience, but it doesn’t detract from what comes next either.

Without giving too much — indeed — anything away The Virus is a really lovely, meticulously themed room with a few devilish puzzles. Technology and creative carpentry alike come together so that the puzzles fold in on each other. There’s a real sense that the logic of the room carries over from piece to piece in a way that gives the whole thing a heightened sense of continuity.

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The basic plot find you and your team cast in the roll of virologists who have just one hour to find a cure for a deadly pandemic before dire consequences befall you all. The theatrics that start the whole affair up help give a sense of urgency to the proceedings, and the occasionally shrinking room — yup, you read that right — doesn’t hurt either. (If you’re the kind of person who gets claustrophobic escape rooms probably aren’t your bag, but this one would definitely not be up your alley.)

Glouberman and his design team did an excellent job creating a little world with this room, and I had a hell of a lot of fun following the threads as my team tackled different parts of the puzzle. The Virus is fairly linear, but not so much that a full team (8 players) can’t find something to keep themselves occupied during most of the action. Maker knows our squad did.

In fact I learned a lot about how to put together a team from this adventure, more on that below.

I’ve been in a few rooms at this point, and The Virus has risen to near the top of my list. It proved to be a great way to kick the tires on my team, and I’d reccomend it to anyone who has some escape room experience under their belt or new teams of vets and first timers who get along well.

Build Your Own Escape Room League

There’s a meta-game to Escape Rooms, and that’s team building. Like Pokemon or the heroes of Justice League Unlimited you want to have a good mix of skills and personalities on board.

The first thing I have to recommend is find to find yourself a Codebreaker. Or two. The ability to quickly discern a small pattern out of a larger sequence is essential. Having someone around who is great at ciphers and crossword type puzzles is almost required.

It’s not a bad idea to have some great listeners on the team. Not every room gives you the means to write things down — The Virus does, thankfully — so you want someone who is good at keeping track of what’s been said. One person might act as a Scribe for the team. Another variation works as a kind of Quarterback — keeping track of who is working on what and practicing a little soft focus in order make intuitive leaps between puzzles. In either case paying attention to what the rest of the team is doing is key.

Another speciality is physical puzzles. Mazes can often happen, so can stranger Rube Goldberg like constructions involving liquids or devices that come together like Legos.

One type you can try to cut quickly are the grabby handed lone wolves. Thankfully my squad didn’t have any of those, but I’ve definitely heard tale of folks who try and hog puzzle pieces or tackle everything themselves. Teamwork is a must in a well built escape room, and it’s far better to hand over a puzzle your stuck on to someone else that for someone to go around taking over without asking.

If you’re looking to put your own team together thinking of these role hasn’t proved to be a bad start for me.