What Should I Expect From My First Escape Room Experience in Dublin?

If you've never done an escape room before, it's completely normal to not know what to expect. Most people arrive with a rough idea — "you're locked in a room and have to get out" — but the actual experience is quite different from what that description suggests. Here's exactly what happens when you book at Incognito Escape Room in Dublin.

You're Not Actually Locked In

Let's clear this up immediately: you are never physically locked in the room. The door is always openable. Escape rooms are designed around the narrative of being trapped — not the reality of it. If you need to leave at any point, you can. This trips up a lot of first-timers who spend the first five minutes wondering how they'd get out if something went wrong.

What Happens When You Arrive

Show up a few minutes before your slot. You'll be greeted by your Game Master — the person running your session. They'll check your booking, give you a safety briefing, and walk you through the rules. The rules are simple: don't force anything, don't use your phone, and ask for help if you need it.

The Game Master stays outside the room during your session but watches via a camera feed and can hear you at all times. They'll give you a clue if you ask, or sometimes if you've been stuck on the same thing for too long.

The Briefing

Before you go in, the Game Master gives you a short story — the narrative context for your room. Why are you there? What's the situation? What do you need to do? You don't need to remember every detail, but it sets the tone and gives you a reason to care about the puzzles.

At Incognito, we have six themed rooms: medieval (King's Quest), Victorian detective (Baker Street Mystery), horror (Cabin in the Woods and Orphanage), Cold War (Bunker), and 1920s speakeasy (Prohibition). The briefing makes a big difference to how immersed you feel.

Inside the Room

You have 60 minutes. The clock starts when you enter.

The room is filled with objects, clues, locks, and puzzles. Some things are relevant — some are not. Part of the challenge is figuring out what matters. You'll search the room, find clues, connect them to locks or mechanisms, and unlock new areas or objects. Most rooms have a clear sequence — solving one thing opens the path to the next.

A few things that catch first-timers off guard:

Communicate everything. The most common mistake is finding something and saying nothing. Call out everything you see, even if you don't know what it means yet. Someone else will often make the connection.

Try not to fixate. If you've been looking at the same puzzle for five minutes and it's not working, move on. Another clue elsewhere in the room usually unlocks what you're stuck on.

Ask for clues sooner. Most groups wait too long before asking the Game Master for a hint. There's no penalty. A clue at the right moment can save ten minutes of frustration.

The End

The session ends when you escape — or when the 60 minutes run out, whichever comes first. Most groups don't escape on their first attempt, and that's genuinely fine. Escape rates vary by room and group size, and the experience is worth having regardless of the outcome.

After your session, the Game Master will debrief you: show you what you missed, explain the puzzles you didn't crack, and answer any questions. This is one of the best parts — suddenly seeing how the room was designed to work.

Is It Scary?

Depends on the room. Orphanage and Cabin in the Woods are our more atmospheric, horror-adjacent rooms — dim lighting, unsettling themes, designed to create tension. If that's not your thing, King's Quest, Baker Street Mystery, or Prohibition are adventure-driven without the horror element. When you book, you can pick whichever room suits your group's comfort level.

Who Does Escape Rooms?

Everyone. Couples, friend groups, families, corporate teams, birthday groups, hen and stag parties. The age range at our rooms runs from teenagers to people in their 70s. You don't need to be particularly clever or puzzle-obsessed — you need to be willing to communicate with your group and give it a proper go.

Groups of 2–8 work best for a single room. For larger groups, you can book multiple rooms and compare results.

Ready to Try It?

The best way to know what an escape room is like is to do one. Book a room at Incognito — Dublin's #1 rated escape room on TripAdvisor — and see for yourself. We're across two city centre locations, with rooms available most days including evenings and weekends.