I’ve been on several teams that have done escape rooms, and most have some form of narrative / role-playing (there’s a decent cross section of murder-mystery, fantasy, etc etc, depending on the folks running the room). But the idea of tricking people into participating, especially with so many “fake” hostile elements, is a big red flag. The reason this wouldn’t get past HR at some companies is because those companies have an HR team that knows a land mine when they see it.
I do agree with what it seems your overall point was: that “escape room”-style team-bonding exercises could have merit, and also the idea that escape-rooms with a strong / compelling narrative are probably themselves more engaging / thought-provoking. The specific example happens to be bad, and the element of surprise has issues, but please don’t let that detract from the concept as a whole.
At the very beginning of the room, lbhe grnz vf qvivqrq vagb gjb qvssrerag wnvy pryyf naq n thneq jngpurf bar pryy ng n gvzr, sbeovqqvat pregnva npgvivgvrf juvyr jngpuvat gung pryy; rnpu pryy unf gb uryc gur bgure va pregnva jnlf va beqre gb rfpncr. (I've only shared information that you receive before the game starts.)
This is the closest I've been to what you described.
Any other example might've been better. I would personally not want to take part in such a thing, having been practically kidnapped and sexually assaulted, myself.
I'm also sorry, I stupidly didn't consider that anyone would've actually been kidnapped before, and wasn't actually thinking about this seriously. (I was thinking of much lighter reasons some customers' HRs might object.) Please disregard the above scenario suggestion.
For example, company signs up for an ostensible corporate off-site retreat meeting that suddenly turns into a team-building (obviously fake) kidnapping. (Blindfolding, and moving to the maze, kidnappers go elsewhere but can be overheard arguing about ransom, then the group manages to untie each other, and try to escape the building, while whispering and evading the occasional guard, time element when they overhear kidnapper threatening to wait only 10 more minutes for ransom call, etc. There could even be a second part, in which the team gets to a dead end, with a cache of laser tag toys, obviously to fight the rest of their way out of the building, and can team-building heal each other when they get hit.) Followed by refreshments, with messages from manager/CEO or product brainstorming, etc.
I'm pretty sure the exact above thing would never get past HR at some companies, but I've heard of big-name dotcoms doing questionable parties and team events, so maybe enough companies would pay enough for it?