Breakout and escape are not usually nouns to describe a fun Friday night, but for many Bearden students, escape games have become the latest craze that everyone is compelled to try.

The Bark even sent one of its reporters to write a first-person account of what the experience is like.

Sophomore Marissa Noon can attest to why this escape situation has become so fascinating and intriguing to many students.

“It’s really mind-twisting,” Noon said. “It makes you think, and I think a lot of people really enjoy that kind of challenge.”

The objective of the escape game is to find all of the clues in the room the player has chosen and to escape in under an hour. The goal seems simple enough, but the execution, according to previous players, is difficult.

“It was very challenging,” senior Jackson Craig said. “We had to ask for a lot of hints, and if we didn’t ask for hints, we wouldn’t have made it out.”

While the experience was challenging, it also allowed the groups to bond with their friends even more than they already had. With the bonding time also came a self-evaluation, and both students felt that they had learned how to think outside their normal thinking.

The students saw the positive effects the game had on themselves and their friends, and teacher Mrs. Glenda Inman – who has twice participated in an escape game – agrees that critical thinking skills can be developed by playing the escape game.

“It would definitely cause students to think outside the box, but also to do so as a collaborative effort and to learn leadership skills and group roles to solve problems,” Mrs. Inman said. “I think it’s great for leadership teams, for students, for clubs because they would gain a lot of benefits from [playing an escape game].”

From a student and teacher point of view, escape games are beneficial to team bonding, to inventive thinking, and to understanding different thought processes.

For future escapees, Noon, Craig, and Mrs. Inman gave advice to follow about the games to make the process easier and to make sure everyone can successfully breakout.

“The first time I played the game I was super nervous, and I think that kind of threw me off a little bit, but just go in, relax, have fun and get the work done,” Noon said.

“Definitely ask for the hints,” Craig said. “Don’t waste time trying to figure something out if you can’t.”

“Don’t waste any time,” Mrs. Inman said. “You’ve got to get in there and start working from the very beginning because you really don’t have time to waste five minutes being stuck on something.”

There are several escape games in the Knoxville area including but not limited to Breakout Knoxville (all three interviewees participated here), Escape Games Knoxville, and Which Way Out.