Exit 4 Escape Rooms offers four challenging escape experiences in Allen, all of which require participants to work together and communicate in pursuit of escaping, co-owner Amy Bryant said.
Bryant, a former scientist, owns the business with her husband, Brad, who was a music teacher. The couple sought out a business they could contribute their differing skill sets to and run together. The Allen location opened in April 2023, Bryant said.
The business is a franchise of a company that was founded in 2016 in New Jersey, the company’s website states. Some of the founders included independent filmmakers, which Bryant said influenced the design and quality of the rooms. There are 16 Exit 4 locations across nine states, according to the company’s website.
The specifics
Exit 4 aims to offer “smart, dumb fun” with high-quality escape rooms, rather than escape rooms that are scary or claustrophobic, Bryant said. The Allen location offers four rooms to escape from, including:
Cabin of the Jersey Devil: The Jersey Devil has returned to the Pine Barrens, and participants must work together to stop the “centuries old reign of terror” before they become the next victims, the business’s website states. The “fun spooky” room requires “chaotic thinking” and is the majority-favorite of the business’s staff, Bryant said.
Davy Jones’ Locker: The participants will act as a crew of pirate ghosts looking to retrieve the treasures of their recently sunken ship. This is the business’s most difficult room but favors logic-forward thinking for the multi-step logic puzzles found in the room, Bryant said.
The Wizarding Hour: Participants must work to free magical beasts from a professor that's looking to sell them through a “sinister magical creature black market,” the business’s website states. It is the business’s most popular escape room and Bryant describes it as a “hands-on thinking” room.
Video Valhalla: Set in 1993, participants enter a video rental store where they will work together to break into the video return slot in an effort to rewind a rented video and avoid rewind fees. Bryant said players must employ visual thinking skills in this “silly” and novice-friendly room.
Each room has a signature scent, such as buttered popcorn in Video Valhalla or an ocean scent in Davy Jones’ Locker, which are available for purchase in the form of a candle. All Exit 4 escape rooms are based in Downtown City, a fictional universe that subtly connects the stories told in each room, Bryant said.
“If you're really into it and like to do that kind of thing, you'll see things in the rooms that refer to other rooms and characters in other rooms,” she said. “They're all kind of set in the same universe but you don't have to know that to do the escape room.”
Bryant said the business will continue offering these rooms as long as new customers continue to book them, but future room changes could include the addition of other Exit 4 room concepts such as T-Rex Lockdown—a dinosaur-themed room—or The Lone Wolf Rises, a superhero-themed room set in Downtown City.
How it works
Puzzles in the rooms employ a mixture of locks, physical puzzles and technology-based puzzles, Bryant said. Traditional escape rooms allow players to request 3 clues and Bryant said while players at Exit 4 can use that guideline, the business also allows unlimited clues if they are requested.
“You’ve got a game master who is there to help you as little or as much as you want to get through the room, and they enjoy doing it,” she said. “They want to help you through the room, but at the same time, [they] help you solve the puzzles yourself, not just give you the answer.”
Escape rooms at Exit 4 require a minimum of two players and a maximum of eight, its website states. Exit 4 escape rooms are private, Bryant said, meaning booked groups are in the room alone and not paired with strangers.
The rooms are family-friendly, but aren’t necessarily designed for children, Bryant said, noting that players age 15 and younger are required to have an adult in the room with them. Some rooms feature dark and spooky elements, but none are designed to offer scares akin to a haunted house.
“The rooms don't feel like the super intense haunted house vibe,” Bryant said. “It's more emphasis on the puzzles and figuring stuff out and working together.”
Quote of note
“A lot of people still think: Escape room, you're locked in a room and super stressful and searching for keys and people trying to to make you feel like you're not very smart,” Bryan said. “It’s like, no, it's supposed to be fun … The outer door is always unlocked and your game master is there to help you, not trick you.”
What’s special about it?
Participants often notice different details about the rooms they’re in, pushing groups to communicate and work together to succeed, Bryant said. As a result, the business attracts groups looking to do a team-building exercise that emphasizes communication, she said.
“What we really like is groups that … listen to each other and they try each other's ideas, even if it seems silly,” she said. “You're gonna be wrong a lot, that's part of being in an escape room. ... Exploring the wrong idea will often lead you to the right idea.”
