September 22, 2018 – I had first heard of Boxed Up more than a year ago, but at the time, all I registered was that it was somewhere on the east coast and sounded neat. An escape room where two teammates are locked in adjacent coffins and need to find some way to get out by solving puzzles in the confined space. I hadn’t given it much of a second thought until I saw the description of it while visiting Komnata Quest.
Christina was understandably nervous about the prospect of being locked in a box- even for non-claustrophobic puzzlers, it can be a little unsettling. Thankfully the people at Komnata Quest assured us that we’re never actually locked in, and freedom is never more than a firm push away.
Upon getting started, I found surprisingly little to interact with, which made sense in this kind of space. There was enough wiggle room for me to flip around and inspect all aspects of my environment closely. As advertised, the challenge occurs in quite the confined space.
The puzzles in Boxed Up weren’t symmetrical between the two coffins, so Christina and I had to work to find new ways to exchange information and resources. I have to give major kudos for the people at Komnata Quest for coming up with a puzzle that works in these kind of constraints, and I can’t help but wondering if we’ll see similar micro-room models crop up in places with little real estate but a high appetite for escape rooms.
Though our space was restrictive, the resources we uncovered changed the nature of what we could do with it. This puzzle had only a 45 minute time limit, and while I much prefer hour-long experiences, this challenge had a low enough puzzle count that I think an hour would have been a little too much. As it was, we solved the challenge with a few minutes to spare, narrowly avoiding exploding or suffocating.
Konmata Quest clearly took steps to make these coffins comfortable and clean so participants wouldn’t feel the urge to abandon the mission early. The coffins were very well ventilated and are probably more comfortable than most capsule hotel rooms.
Overall, I really enjoyed this as a slightly different kind of escape experience. The lower puzzle count and shorter duration are the only real downsides I can think of- the story and puzzles were integrated well and made for a fun immersive experience. Christina and I had a blast and were glad we chose to stop at Konmata Quest while on our Massachusetts leg of the 2018 journey.
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