PHOTO COURTESY ENTER THE IMAGINARIUM

If escape rooms are going to stick around, they’d better be as good as “The Mind’s Eye.” (And “The Mind’s Eye” is very good.)

The escape-room trend exploded in the early 2010s and showed signs of slowing in the latter half of that decade; COVID closed many locations. While the games are not opening at quite the same clip they once did, the artform does seem to have weathered the storm — and I’m very much in favor of anything that allows a group of people to get together and enjoy a night out in the real world.

That’s not to say I haven’t been through some disappointing escape rooms; I certainly have. Games too focused on silly point systems, games too stingy with the clues to solve, games that are all gadgets and no theme — escape rooms are easy to get wrong. Fortunately, Pittsburgh has some good ones, and “The Mind’s Eye” is instantly among the best.

Part of the Enter the Imaginarium series of rooms created by Bricolage Production Company, “The Mind’s Eye” is a clever and technologically advanced series of challenges wrapped around the tale of Daedalus and Icarus. Daedalus is not too happy about his son Icarus plunging into the depths, and you have to find a series of magical objects to change the course of history (the course of myth, actually).

It’s a lovely theme, and it adds plenty of flavor to the game. To win, however, you’ll have to work your way through a series of challenging — but never deliberately confounding — puzzles. Some involve combinations deduced through clues on the walls; others will require you to listen and watch carefully as a series of lovely, detailed projections transform the room into a variety of locations.

PHOTO COURTESY ENTER THE IMAGINARIUM

Unlike many games, which throw you to the wolves with little assistance, you’ll be helped along; a disembodied voice will chime in and help you along the right track. These clues never give away the game and aren’t designed to ensure that you’ll win; my group managed to get out, but we came within 30 seconds of defeat, solving the final puzzle in the nick of time.

Speaking of groups: You’re gonna want a pretty sizable posse. I brought three friends, and our quartet felt like the minimum required to get through the game (up to 10 can play, and you’ll never be matched with strangers). The satisfying thing, though, was that we didn’t need numbers simply to cover territory or work out difficult puzzles; we needed each individual brain to look at the puzzles from different angles. It’s a game of lateral thinking, not mere code crunching.

There’s also a pretty impressive bit of stagecraft at hand, particularly in the early going. (I had no idea how that “elevator” managed to relocate us.) Perhaps it’s fitting that a theater company has consistently produced above-average escape rooms; this is a form as much about immersion and scene setting as it is about clever puzzles.

Bricolage is well aware of how to draw people into a story and execute that tale with sets and effects. In reality, you’re in one room; in your mind, you’ll remember a journey.

“The Mind’s Eye” is one of two escape rooms open at Enter the Imaginarium, which recently relocated from Harmar to Shaler Township. It’s the kind of place that enlivens an area — something beyond the stores and restaurants that dot every plaza. Other escape-room operators should take note; if you put thought, care and craft into these experiences, they can become truly memorable.