Nail-biting suspense comes to life at Port Melbourne’s new escape game venue, Exitus

HOW many journalists does it take to escape from a locked, darkened room? Our team tries out a new craze in Port Melbourne.

Leader journalists including Rebecca David, Greg Gliddon and Michael Gleeson took part in

BEING locked in a dark room with five colleagues is not usually my idea of a fun afternoon.

But this is the Apollo Mission room at Port Melbourne’s new real-time escape game venue, Exitus.

And for 45 minutes, we are not journalists, but astronauts battling for our lives.

A return trip from the moon turns deadly when our lunar module’s engines fail to spark to life.

Within moments of strapping on our seatbelts, the oxygen warning goes off: in 45 minutes, we will run out of air.

The race is on.

Between us and the emergency launch codes that will save us, are three padlocked doors, four mini torches and more than a dozen cryptic clues.

You might ask yourself how many journalists it takes to crack a combination lock.

The team is on the hunt for clues.

The answer is to have someone on your team with a propensity for riddles — because these clues are far from straightforward.

Luckily, reporter and sci-fi fanatic Rebecca David brought the goods.

In between spouting movie quotes — “Houston, we have a problem; I’ve got a bad feeling about this; In space, no one can hear you scream” — she manages to steer us away from humiliating defeat.

After losing precious slabs of time chasing red herrings, we solve the final puzzle and burst out of the room with 12 seconds to spare.

Our victory is recorded on the photo wall displaying the times achieved by other teams that have visited.

Exitus founder Glenn Etheridge said he opened the venue to capitalise on the “team building and entertainment craze sweeping the globe”, bringing video game-style scenarios to life.

“The games are quite challenging and require a combination of logic, intuition, problem solving and teamwork,” Mr Etheridge said.

Despite the locked-in-a-room premise, claustrophobes can be reassured that each of the rooms can be exited at any time by moving backwards.

There are plenty of wheelchair-friendly options, with the Prison Break, Casino Heist, Yellow Brick Road and CSI Melbourne rooms all fully accessible.

Leader journalists Fiona Sexton, Paula Maud, Rebecca David, Greg Gliddon, Michael Gleeson and Dana McCauley made it out alive. "Escape games provide a dynamic and highly interactive experience where groups are required to solve various challenges in order to breakout of the room within 45 mins." Picture: Martin Reddy