By Jade Inglada
It was a fight for survival as hundreds of players attempted to solve their way out of Weingart Stadium on March 21 to “Escape from the Walled City.”
The game revolved around a scenario based off the popular anime “Attack on Titan.” The stadium acted as a small barrier town between the next section of the Walled City and the incoming Titans, giant humanoid monsters who have put mankind on the brink of extinction.
Players in the stadium only had an hour to use clues and puzzles to escape before the Titans attack. Anyone left behind when time is up “dies,” and is eaten by Titans.
“Escape from the Walled City” is based off the original version of the Real Escape Game, which follows a similar format. This concept incorporates the theme of “Attack on Titan” to create anime-related puzzles and encourages players to dress up as their favorite characters from the series.
The game is broken into three stages, and players can only pass on to the next phase by collecting clues to solve the puzzles given to them.
Players had an hour to solve the puzzles to escape the stadium and survive the scenario. Several participants got caught up in the storyline, running from clue to clue and cheering when they became one step closer to escaping the Titan’s wrath.
The game attracted East Los Angeles College students and people from around the Los Angeles area of all age groups.
The game was held three times at 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The second game of the day sold out with about 600 people in attendance. This was the first time REG held an event in LA.
Despite the high number of participants, the number of winners was drastically low, with less than 10 percent managing to beat the game and escape.
The first leg of the “Attack on Titan” U.S. tour was in San Francisco, California on Feb. 1 where 5,000 people participated.
Not all of the clues were easy to uncover, and the puzzles, while few, were time consuming and required plenty of thought. It made sense why working in teams is recommended to play. Some teams split up and formed a strategy – a few members went around gathering clues, while the others worked on solving the puzzle.
There were some drawbacks to the experience, and one happened right at the beginning of the game. Some instructions from the staff were not explained clearly enough, and caused confusion among the players.
The instructions needed to be expressed well before the game started, especially so the limited amount of time wouldn’t be wasted.
Although not all of the winners received prizes, they left with the satisfaction of beating a complicated challenge and knowing they escaped.
A raffle was held at the end of the game for a chance to win “Attack on Titan” merchandise.
REG is an interactive puzzle game created by SCRAP Entertainment, and has traveled around the world to various countries since 2007, attracting more than 3 million participants.
The final stop of the “Escape from the Walled City” game tour will be at Richmond County Bank Ballpark in New York on April 11.