Image: Breakout Games/Konami/TikTok/Kotaku
There are so many games that focus on stealth, but so few opportunities for most of us to ever perform such acts in real life, at least without breaking the law. While that’s probably for the best, an escape room worker has found the perfect reason to use such abilities in real life, and she doesn’t even murder anyone. She is unbelievable.
The TikTok account for Breakout Games – a chain of escape rooms in the US – explodes. Having just hit one million subscribers, its feed is dominated by a staff member who regularly records herself on secret missions to sneak into live games without being spotted by players. Although we don’t know her name, we have great respect for her skills and pay tribute to her today.
Breakout Games has over 30 locations across the western half of the states that offer the kind of themed rooms you would expect from a place like this. There’s the Runaway Train, Submarine Survival, a Mystery Mansion and such, each with a series of challenges to be completed by a team of players working together to find secrets, solve clues, open doors and their to create escape. Aside from this working, sometimes a command prompt is required.
While it’s normal for many escape rooms to provide hints, perhaps allowing players to radio in on a limited number of hints from staff — or even requiring direct intervention — the Breakout Games TikTok account demonstrates something far more impressive. The unnamed, blond-haired associate breaks into the rooms, performs her wild deeds, and then leaves before either player realizes someone has joined them. And she films the whole thing.
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Oh, and best of all, her trademark is to wrap up her unseen escapades until then, slamming the door as she leaves, scaring absolutely everyone who didn’t know she was ever there.
Often these daring tricks are performed because a group is stuck and this extraordinary employee wants them to make progress, never knowing they were helped. However, sometimes she needs to sneak her way out of a difficult situation. Those are great too.
All the techniques we’ve learned from decades of playing Metal Gear Solid, Thief, and Splinter Cell are there. In a hostage-themed room where players are all blindfolded, we’re obviously in “your vision is based on sound” territory. Apparently this should make sneaking a bit easier, except that an important key has been dropped in the middle of the room and none of the players can find it. So our heroine’s task is to make her trip over it herself without tripping over herself. And it’s near.
This one blows my mind. It’s a tiny space and the guests are all just there. There’s no place to hide, nothing to hide behind, and it seems like wishful thinking that she would achieve her goal of closing a secret door that was accidentally opened before she should have . Surely the players saw them and just kept silent out of politeness, right? But then comes her characteristic door slam at the exit, and everyone screams! (More reasons to scream: the accompanying song.)
A recurring theme in these amazing gimmicks is how well the staff is able to not only nudge players forward, but make them feel like their swing is their own accomplishment. Watch as a guest is hailed as a “genius” by another party member for spotting a book that our player character just honked across the floor as loud as possible:
For Thief fans, here’s the perfect reason for one of the guests to have suggested, “Hmph, those must have been rats.”
The more we look at them, the more we invest in their actions and the fear of being caught. Once again blindfolded in the hostage chamber, just check the narrow gap she has to get through without alerting anyone. (And then, of course, her very conscious attempt to attract attention.)
You know that part in the games where you throw the object to distract the enemy? Yes:
And yes, we all have the same question: does it ever go wrong? Yes. Yes, it does. Very.
If you’re wondering or concerned that posting footage of people who don’t know they’re being filmed might be ethically questionable, room staff will get guest permission before posting videos. As evidenced by this equally tense… shall we say cutscene that reveals the moment the company boss found out about the TikTok account:
Unidentified Breakout Games employee: Greetings. you are garret You are Corvo. you are snake
Bonus: the things escape room staff see and hear during games are absolutely WILD.
