Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

5 Wits

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Established
  
2004

Website
  
www.5-wits.com

Collection size
  
Interactive immersive adventures

5 Wits is a family entertainment center that has interactive immersive adventures with four locations in the United States. The company's slogan is "Your Adventure Awaits!"

Contents

5 Wits has many similarities with Escape Room Games, and has been called the very first escape room style attraction, having first opened to the public in October 2004.

Description

Each location features interactive adventures with themes such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a high tech spy mission, outer space, ancient Egypt, and medieval fantasy. In each adventure, a group of 2-12 guests are faced with puzzles and challenges they must overcome as a team as they work to progress through a series of rooms and complete their mission. There are computer controlled lighting and sound effects, optical illusions, and a wide variety of physical and mental puzzles and electro-mechanical effects. Guests can succeed or fail, and each adventure has multiple endings that will change based on how the group performs and what decisions the group makes.

The Foxboro, MA location at Patriot Place is unique in that it is the only location where a staff member, called 'adventure guide' goes with the group to help set the tone and if the group gets stuck, can provide clues. The adventures in Foxboro last approximately 50 minutes based on the group's ability to solve the challenges.

The other 5 Wits locations all provide automated adventures, without a human "Guide." The adventures in these locations last approximately 30 minutes based on the group's ability to solve the challenges.

Adventures

  • Deep Space (Syracuse, West Nyack, Albany) - A futuristic adventure where adventure goers get teleported to an abandoned starship and they must work together to figure out what happened to the crew, but not everything is what it seems.
  • Drago's Castle (Syracuse, West Nyack, Albany) - A medieval fantasy where adventure goers help a magical princess catch a fire-breathing dragon before it can destroy her world and ours.
  • Espionage (Foxboro, Syracuse) - A spy adventure where adventure goers become secret agents and must infiltrate the bad guy's base and foil his plans. The Espionage adventure in Foxboro is very different from Syracuse involving a bomb, while Syracuse has missiles that must be disarmed.
  • Tomb (Syracuse, West Nyack, Albany) - An Indiana Jones style adventure where adventure goers must answer the riddles of a long dead pharaoh or be trapped forever!
  • 20,000 Leagues (Foxboro) - Based on the book by Jules Verne, the group must repair a broken down submarine and battle a sea monster to reach the surface.
  • Haunted 20,000 Leagues (Foxboro) - This is a seasonal adventure only during the month of October. It used to be called 'Lights Out.' It takes place in the 20,000 Leagues adventure, but audio and lighting have been changed to present a darker, spookier adventure.

    • Origin of the Name

    5 Wits is named after the five inward wits from the writings of William Shakespeare and Stephen Hawes. These five wits were common sense, imagination, estimation, fantasy, and memory, thought there are also clear associations to the five senses. Each 5 Wits adventure requires the use of the five inward wits and is designed to immerse guests fully in a "5 senses themed" experience.

    History

    5 Wits was incorporated in 2003 by founder and president Matthew DuPlessie. The original business plan for 5 Wits, first called the Puzzle Room, was written and entered into the business plan competition at Harvard Business School in early 2003. 5 Wits' first location opened in October 2004 at 186 Brookline Avenue, Boston MA, hosting TOMB, 5 Wits first adventure. In 2006, 5 Wits spun off a sister company, 5 Wits Productions, Inc.[1], to design and build walk-through adventures for its growing business and provide services for third-party clients like museums, theaters, and theme parks. In 2007, 5 Wits opened Operation Spy an hour long walk-through adventure inside the International Spy Museum. In 2010, 5 Wits moved the original TOMB [2] adventure to Pigeon Forge, TN and opened a new location in Foxboro MA at Patriot Place hosting Espionage and 20,000 Leagues. Since then, multiple new locations have opened, primarily in New York state. 5 Wits continues to expand, with new stores currently planned in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania.

    Locations

    The company's four locations are located in:

  • Foxborough, Massachusetts, at Patriot Place, just across from Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL's New England Patriots.
  • Syracuse, New York, at Destiny USA.
  • West Nyack, New York, at Palisades Center. This location opened in 2016 in a space that was an IMAX theater in the mall.
  • Albany, New York, at Crossgates Mall. This location is nearly identical to the West Nyack location.

    • References

    5 Wits Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA