As Concord Academy starts off the school year with hopes of transitioning back to normality, many faculty members, including members of the Student Life Office, began to focus on creating more opportunities for students to explore and engage with each other, both on and off campus.
Last Saturday, a group of 30 CA students went on a weekend trip to the newly opened Level99 Entertainment Center at Natick Mall. Level99 is a 48,000 square-foot, immersive gaming complex that opened during the pandemic in June 2021. The venue focuses on challenge-based entertainment, providing its players with over 40 themed escape room courses. Designed for teams of two to six, players need to work together in order to unlock additional challenges and rewards.
One student on the trip, Ola Oladitan ’24, described, “There were four particular types of escape rooms: mental, physical, skill-based, and communications.” Ola was placed into a team of four CA students, all of whom had to work together to advance past each obstacle they encountered.
According to Ola, one of the most memorable courses they experienced was a radioactive-themed room, where players had to hang onto monkey bars on the ceiling and figure out when to press buttons on the walls when they turned a certain color. Ola added, “We also had to make sure to not fall into the ‘pit of the radioactive slush,’ which was simulated by the painted floor with numerous sensitive motion detectors built in.” This room was particularly a challenge to the team’s physical and mental skills, but ended up being a very fun and rewarding experience.
When asked about the overall level of challenge at Level99, Ola commented, “a few rooms that were especially hard because of their high demand to your physical strength and mental capacities, but overall, most of the courses [they] encountered were not remarkably difficult.” In addition to the challenges themselves, Ola added that one of his favorite parts about this CA trip was that they had the opportunity to explore Natick Mall after their time at Level99. He also offered some feedback about the trip, suggesting that though the trip itself was already designed to last four hours, it would’ve been nicer if the duration was even longer, due to the vast array of activities offered at the venue. However, he would still highly recommend Level99 as a fun destination to anyone’s weekend, and he hopes that trips to the entertainment complex will continue to be featured on the weekend activities board for anyone who wishes to experience some adventurous challenges and team-bonding time with their peers.