Sark took me to the Otherworld art installation in Columbus, OH today, and I gotta say, it was awesome actually!
You can touch absolutely everything, take pictures (no flash) of anything you want. There were a few dozen rooms with various themes, all of them with interactive mechanics, and half of them had puzzles as well. This is what I think people expected that Willy Wonka disaster of an event would be, or something similar anyway, but Otherworld actually delivered really well!!
You get your wristband at the door and then you can take one of several entrances, but all the rooms are interconnected so it doesn't matter which. If no one's told you, you don't necessarily realize there's going to be puzzles, but I realized something was up by the end of our first room, and figured out what it was by the end of the second room, so it's very easy to catch on to, I think.
If you can solve the right puzzles, you can activate the end mechanic for a light and music show! Unlike an escape room, you're not locked in, you can leave at any time, but it very much had escape room vibes. I had a TON of fun figuring out what we needed to do, and watching other people try to figure out what to do.
There was one group of kids (young teens it looked like), who were trying to figure out one of the puzzles and after watching them for a bit, we offered to give them a clue since it was one we solved already. They were so excited to find out it actually WAS a puzzle with an answer. I just pointed out one of the panels to watch and let them go from there and they solved it with a lot of yelling. I hope that they continued solving the rest of the puzzles- we went in the opposite direction, because of the yelling.
In fact, all the kids we saw were having a blast. There were also plenty of adults wandering about. Because of the way tickets are sold by time slots, it should not ever get super crowded, and there were hand sanitizing stations all over, and staff lurking to clean stuff and assist as needed if someone struggled with a puzzle. They were happy to tell you whatever you wanted at the entrances and exits, so you never had to stay stuck if you didn't want to. They've also named the creatures you see.
There was also a Rick Roll in one of the rooms, which was hilarious.
Anyway, super fun experience. If you have the ability to make it out that way, consider checking it out!
