Neighborhood Spotlight: Infiltrate Evil Corporations and Decipher Ancient Mysteries at 5 Wits in Ballston

This content was written and sponsored by The Keri Shull Team, Arlington’s top producing residential real estate team.

In this video, Libby Bish from the Keri Shull Team takes us inside 5 Wits for a sneak peek at its realistic, hands-on adventures!

Like Walking Into a Movie

Walking into a 5 Wits adventure is like walking into a movie: The door closes behind you, and all outside noise falls silent. Atmospheric lights flicker, pulse and glow.

A compelling cinematic story unfolds, complete with special effects. The adventure’s outcome depends on your actions. When the door shuts behind you, you’re transported to another world.

5 Wits is NOT an escape room — each adventure progresses through a series of rooms and passageways, with a goal of earning a high score and unlocking secrets. Escape rooms didn’t begin to take root in the U.S. until 2012 — but 5 Wits was founded in 2004, before the escape room trend hit the U.S. It’s an entirely different approach.

At 5 Wits’s Ballston location, three adventures await you: Espionage, Drago’s Castle and Tomb.

• In Espionage, you’ll infiltrate an evil corporation by sneaking through the laser security system like a mastery spy and hacking the computer system to unravel their plot.
• In Drago’s Castle you’ll find your way out of a dungeon and through secret passages. Can you stop the dragon?
• In Tomb, you’ll explore and decipher an ancient tomb. Can you learn the secret name of the Pharaoh?

More Realistic Than VR

On each adventure you’ll use teamwork to solve puzzles, overcome challenges and dig deeper into the adventure’s secrets. The actions of your group will change both the difficulty and the ending of the story. If you’re struggling, you’ll get clues. If you’re making fast progress, the games will escalate.

At the end of each adventure your group will receive a score from 1-100.

Each adventure has lots of replay value — if you solved the chess puzzle in Espionage last time, your next run-through is going to require a completely different solution to solve. In the second room of Tomb, not only will the solution to the jar puzzle be different each time but Pharaoh will adjust the complexity and the speed of the puzzle to match your group’s skill.

Manager Dawn Charbonneau says that everybody can go to 5 Wits, but “people seven years old and up” are best — because although the games aren’t designed to be scary, kids under seven might still find the noise a little frightening.

Adventures begin every 15 minutes, and take about 30-60 minutes to complete.

5 Wits opens on February 1, 2019 as part of Ballston Quarter in Arlington.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to watch for our upcoming features as we explore the best entertainment venues Arlington has to offer! If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in the DMV area, The Keri Shull Team is here to help.