How to Choose the Best Escape Room Themes for Your Group

Escape rooms are all about immersion and believability. Escape room themes are a big part of that experience. Escape room backstories give players their big “why” for solving the room, plus it influences the game’s mechanics and objectives. But rooms have gone beyond the typical “escape the room” or “jailbreak” themes to more innovative escape room story ideas and mechanics. Now, you’ll need to find the murder suspect, figure out the cure to a zombie virus, or create a potion to “solve a room.” Here are some of the amazing escape room themes you can try, from sci-fi-themed escape rooms to detective stories.

The Escape Room Theme

This is the theme that started it all. Most escape room plots typically involve a murderer or madman locking your team in an abandoned room or house. Sometimes, there’s a horror element at play, and you need to escape to safety before a ghost or zombie horde gets you. But regardless of escape room storylines, the objective is the same: you need to unlock the main door that leads you to safety. Most escape room themes are linear; solving one puzzle yields a clue that leads to another puzzle, and so on until you find the key to open the final door. One popular spin-off storyline of the escape room genre is the jailbreak. This puts you in the shoes of prison inmates who are often wrongfully incarcerated and have no choice but to break out of prison. With realistic bars and settings, jailbreak escape room themes are fantastic for letting you experience the thrill of escaping jail without having to actually go to jail. 

Sci-Fi / Fantasy

Sci-fi and fantasy escape room theme ideas are extremely popular for players of just about any age, thanks to cultural phenomena like Harry Potter and Star Wars.  The great thing about sci-fi and fantasy rooms is that there’s a broader range of gameplay mechanics and objectives, leading to some unique and awesome escape games. For example, a magic-themed room may require you to find a lost book, concoct a potion, or chant a spell to “break out” of the room. Spaceship rooms are also popular, where you might need to fix the reactor core to prevent the ship from crashing. One of the most fun escape room game ideas within the sci-fi genre is the video game theme. Most of these involve getting trapped inside a video game, and you need to play through the game’s levels to escape.

Detective

Detective-themed rooms are all about finding something instead of breaking out to complete the room successfully. The mission can be anything from searching a lost book or digging a key to open a treasure chest. Treasure hunting rooms are fantastic examples of detective themes. Just like a real archaeologist or pirate, you need to find clues and even avoid booby traps (pretend, of course!) to get to the chest of gold at the end. A sub-theme of the detective genre, but with a different mechanic, is the murder mystery room. Here you need to find the suspect and solve certain aspects of a murder case.  These rooms are more about gathering clues and interpreting them as opposed to breaking out. Murder mystery rooms add a nice twist and a refreshing change in gameplay because they require a different set of deduction skills on top of problem-solving ones.

Survival

Survival themes are all about preventing something catastrophic that will destroy the room you’re in or (worse) ending the world.  “Virus lab” themed rooms are one of the best examples of the survival category. Here, you need to either find a cure for the virus outbreak or prevent a virus from escaping the lab. If you love chemistry-based puzzles where you have to mix vials and chemicals, this is a treat. Another popular survival game theme is bomb diffusion. You’ll usually be in a building or a plane with a hidden bomb somewhere, and your task is to find and disarm it. Seeing and hearing a ticking bomb adds a whole new level of intensity to your game!

Thriller

For the brave ones out there, you can live out your very own horror movie with thriller-themed games. The objectives here can be anywhere from escaping a zombie horde or communicating with a spirit. But the common denominator is the scare factor. Some rooms even up the ante by introducing live elements inside the room. For example, a live actor might pose as a zombie, and you need to escape the room and not get bitten or infected. While it’s a good adrenaline rush, live thriller rooms might not be for everyone. Fun for Everyone As you can see, you’ll never run out of themes to try. And if you want a unique and fun escape room for two or more people, drop by Paranoia Quest today! Contact us for rates and reservations for our escape room in Atlanta.