New escape rooms in Orange offer players a chance to save the day

Escape Rooms Connecticut owners Michelle and Julie Mateus, right, pose through an infrared camera inside one of the escape rooms at their facility in Orange. Escape Rooms Connecticut owners Michelle and Julie Mateus, right, pose through an infrared camera inside one of the escape rooms at their facility in Orange. Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close New escape rooms in Orange offer players a chance to save the day 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

ORANGE — There’s a new business on the Boston Post Road behind the everyday restaurants and retail shops where customers can feel the thrill of saving a space station from a multiplying new life form, finding a stolen sacred relic and saving a Brooklyn subway car from careening off the rails.

It’s an escape for sure, as the name Escape Rooms Connecticut implies, and is a first for the town during a national trend of such rooms soaring in popularity.

“It’s like acting and starring in your own movie,” said Michelle Mateus, who along with her wife, Julie Mateus, opened the business in October. “We love the experience we give to people.”

She said escape room entertainment began as a game in which people followed clues to try to get out of a room, but that’s evolved into having players resolve a story line. The business of escape rooms is growing, with USA Today reporting the number of escape rooms has surged to 2,300 locations nationwide this year. Escape New Haven has been drawing in mystery lovers for about three years and the rooms also are popular in other parts of the state.

The Mateuses, who live in North Branford, have been playing in escape rooms for years, seeking them out whenever they traveled.

Julie Mateus is a former New Haven police officer, who then became a North Haven police officer, retiring as a detective. Michelle Mateus is a district sales manager for Vivial, an advertising agency in Milford.

After Julie Mateus retired, they wanted to do something different and went to a business they love.

For Julie Mateus, the business is a sharp contrast to police work, where there’s bad stuff happening all the time.

“I personally love giving people a great experience,” Julie Mateus said. “It’s the kind of job you feel good about — it’s happy.”

Escape Rooms Connecticut has three rooms of story lines to solve using clues found in the room and a fourth room ready for another mystery to be created.

The custom-designed games take players into another zone and they have 60 minutes to solve it.

The three mysteries are:

“Sector X,” where the players are scientists aboard a ship who discover a new form of life that has reproduced and needs to be stopped before it takes over. There are codes to be cracked, colorful flashing lights, hatches, magnetic tools and the life form itself, which creepily pulsates in the corner. The easiest of the three, Sector X has about a 41 percent success rate.

“The Terminal” takes players into a Brooklyn subway terminal circa 1988 and the players become the subway maintenance crew who come in during a blackout to restore power and must get access to an inside shed to press the red panic button. The room has an old school soda machine and a wall payphone — both are used during the game — and is decorated with 1980s graffiti, some original, some recreated by a New Haven artist. Other 1980s touches include images or reminders of Garbage Pail Kids, actress Molly Ringwald and a boom box. The room has about a 32 percent success rate.

In “The Stolen Relic,” which has an Indiana Jones feel, players are to find an ancient, sacred relic stolen by anthropologist Victor Vanderwolf from a temple in Malaysia. The game involves an old-fashioned office and a tunnel to a jungle. The most difficult puzzle to solve, this room has about a 29 percent success rate.

The experience is immersive, realistic, challenging and fun, players say.

After conquering “The Terminal” their first time at Connecticut Escape Rooms, a group of friends returned recently to solve “The Stolen Relic,” with 12 minutes to spare.

“I think being able to solve the riddles is exciting,” said Jenny Paulson of Guilford. “And it’s just fun to get together.”

Her sister Nicole Civitello, also of Guilford, said, “I thought it was fun. I liked the problem solving. It was exciting when you figured it out.”

Players are watched from a high-tech control room where the women and their employees are available to offer clues if players want them and the milder “nudge” in the right direction.

Teams of from two to eight can play in each room. Many put off the clues long as possible because they want the challenge, Michelle Mateus said. Recently, as she watched the clock tick away as players were stuck on a clue, one of the employees beckoned from the control room, “Do you want a mini nudge?”

“It’s so fun to watch them,” Michelle Mateus said. “Win or lose, people always have a good time.”

Of course, there are some red herrings here and there and a few surprises.

Michelle and Julie Mateus said they want the experience to feel immersive and that begins when people enter the waiting room of dark red walls, soft lighting and, inside the door on the way to the rooms, a hallway of black walls.

The price to play is $26 each for adults and $22 for students and children.

In addition to the mystery rooms, there is a party room that can be rented for $100 per hour with a two-hour minimum if someone wants to make a celebration of it.

Mateus said the reward for solving the cases is “ the glory and satisfaction” of solving the mystery

Julie Mateus said they chose the Orange location in the back of a small shopping plaza at 500 Boston Post Road where Hawley Lane Shoes is located because the large space was a perfect size and that strip of road is filled with great restaurants for those who want to make a night of it.

The hours are scheduled by appointment, but they take walk-ins if they’re there and space is available. Winter is their busy season, the women said, because when it’s cold, people want to get together to do something different.

“Our goal is to give everyone a five-star experience,” Julie Mateus said.