RATING: 3 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 10:21
Can you escape sacred ground quickly enough to make it home in time to catch a new show on the USA Network before the show itself gets quickly canceled?
DIG – Escape The Room was a promotional partnership between USA Network (NBC) and Escape The Room – an established Escape Room company with locations in several prominent markets – used to create buzz surrounding their soon-to-launch new show, “DIG.”
The premise of the show centered around an FBI agent stationed in Jerusalem who, while investigating a murder of a young female archaeologist, uncovers a conspiracy 2000 years in the making. The show itself had some unexpected moments – perhaps most notably its quick cancellation.
The DIG- Escape The Room game connects some key moments from the show, including powerful gem stones players were tasked with recovering – similar in flavor to the actual show itself. As such the game did have a story – but in truth that story came from using the built-in narrative from the TV show it was used to promote.
Your experience at DIG – Escape The Room starts out in a Christian church, complete with stain glass windows, confessional booths, etc – though admittedly to anyone familiar with the TV show, this was somewhat out of place when one considers the story centers around Jewish history, and though there was a minister character who does play a pivotal role, he was not of a faith that is typically known to make use of confessionals. So – while the first scene looked nice, it didn’t entirely feel like it fit in.
The second of two rooms was the actual dig site, complete with a sandy area, rocks and wooden beams intended to give the impression they were holding the place together. Though the rocks were just molded plastic (as pictured by the exterior scenic above) it was admittedly higher quality than we would have expected for an attraction only set up to run for two or three days.
The puzzles themselves were basic, though they did at least try to connect them to the mythos of the DIG TV show.
Nothing here was tech-driven; instead everything was fairly standard fair combination lock and key.
Some minor physical interactions to trigger certain puzzles did help at least give a slightly more immersive feel to the overall experience. Again, we were left thinking it was better than we would have expected for a temporary attraction – yet not something truly noteworthy just the same.
The truth is DIG – Escape The Room was a fun experience, enhanced for me personally by the fact that it was at the time my very first taste of Escape Rooms. Though it might not be my favorite game, it did accomplish the important task of getting me hooked on the genre and made me want to see more.
I wasn’t really expecting anything walking in, and found myself surprised by the execution – not necessarily by something DIG – Escape The Room did per say, but the notion of Escape Rooms in general.
As with many games that have double-digit room capacities, we did feel as though 10 people was just far too many in this space to allow for everyone to stay engaged. There just wasn’t enough for every player to be working on at a given time. In this rare instance though, we can understand that with such a short run in a theme park with such a high capacity, it’s more about promoting the show than playing the game.
Though this attraction was just a temporary promotional tour, Escape The Room has seemingly expanded it in some of their markets into a full-fledged 60 minute escape room called, creatively “The Dig.” We want to be clear that our review is specifically discussing the promotional touring attraction we played while it was set up at Universal Studios Florida in March of 2015.
Venue: Escape The Room / USA Network (Traveling Promotional Attraction)
Location: Orlando, Florida
Number of Games: 1
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 30 minutes
Capacity: 10 people
Group Type: Public / You may be paired with strangers.
Cost: Free (This was a temporary attraction which is now closed.)