Category: Review
In Short: What a waste of great actors
I went in knowing it was Ian Mckellan and Helen Mirren and that was all. High anticipation. And it turns out that mattered. After an opening sequence that made it seem like it might be an octagenarian rom com, The Good Liar slowly began to reveal Mckellan’s glee in the shifts of mood needed for the long con. If I hadn’t been so sure that the character Mirren appeared to be playing was not a character that she, as an actress, could possibly be playing, I might have walked out of the cinema, annoyed at a woman being used as a foil for Mckellan’s fun. Continue reading
In Short: Where larp meets theatre and live art
In 1999 I left a show I directed and devised at the Edinburgh Fringe in the hands of an assistant in order to return to fulfil my customer service role in a fantasy larp. I have always believed that larp is a medium which shares a huge amount with theatre despite the lack of spectators. The Smoke Festival was the event that brought home to me that there are people involved in the hobby, away from the muddy fields of festivals, who have known this; been playing with it and testing the edges for a while. Continue reading
In Short: Diving into local history.
This is a room geared towards cultural tourism, the intro offers a story from the Granada region and places you into it, which is something I’ve been waiting to see in the genre. I’m not convinced the style of threatening video they’ve chosen is the best way to do that – as if you follow it through logically, you’re giving in to blackmail… but the thought is there.
We were hugely impressed with the Escape Park host who provided us with a great English introduction, hints and questions and made us feel welcome.
It’s a suite of rooms, so the decor is quite sparse whilst still having loads of interesting and beautiful things to discover. In fact, search is the major skill you need here, alongside the ability to discard red herrings. That’s not my favourite way to play, but there were enough little treats, and enough variety in the puzzles when we did find them that our team of 2 really enjoyed the room – squeaking through as “complete” but only thanks to a generous stretching of the hour – though we fear if we’d had our search specialist with us, we’d have been out in half the time.
Vital Stats:
Room: Unnamed
Company: Escape Park Granada
City: Granada, Spain
Date: October 2017
Team: Half of Mandala Studios team
Other Reviews:
Tripadvisor
Bookings: http://www.escapepark.com/en/
In Short: Oh let me play with language!
The (Egyptian themed) “Crypt” is Cryptology’s “harder” room and knowing this and believing we’d done very well on their previous room made me nervous about maintaining reputation.
I think perhaps it’s the most fun I’ve had with puzzles in a room overall. Partly – sheer variety. Partly – a tactile element involving water (I don’t envy the reset). And partly – lots of hieroglyphics – simple language problems are my jam. Playing as the Mandala team helps: we know our strengths and weaknesses and hand off tasks (mostly) seamlessly when needed.
However, although it was fun, it was also disappointing – the theme was only partially rendered – lots of sand textured surfaces and cod period décor – but out of period locks and other (redacted because spoilers) modern elements. It would’ve been less jarring if we had been told we were archaeologists rather than the Pharaoh’s prisoners.
Once again, the hints came a bit too fast – I like the “aha” sense of not getting something for a bit followed by subsequent realisation. Additionally, one puzzle had a fascinating but ultimately not very functional mechanism using heat reactive paint which threw us out of sync.
Loads of fun but I’m still crying out for something more immersive.
Vital Stats:
Room: The Crypt
Company: Cryptology
City: Nottingham
Date: December 2016
Team: Mandala Studios team
Other Reviews:
Tripadvisor
Bookings:www.cryptologyrooms.co.uk
In Short: Being told you’ve done well makes you feel good!
Cypherdene has a neat premise, which makes the room look right, even though the décor is fairly sparse and modern-day-office-ordinary, as well as allowing for the existence of puzzles because the whole experience is a test.
It isn’t difficult, especially once you realise the room generator loves puns. Even as a team of four not six, we ran out of things to do, particularly as it narrowed down to linear towards the end. Before that it had several clues all found on the same page of a tablet (frustrating because it lacked narrative sense as well as reducing searching fun) and hints seemed to come before we wanted them. But the hidden spaces were great, and even though we finished too quickly to experience the sound effect tension built in to the “achieve task” goal, we came out feeling kindly toward the room.
Whilst that might be partly the “simple can be effective” effect, it was also down to the host. They were so friendly and complimentary about our play-style! So complimentary in fact that they managed to persuade me to break an only recently formed rule, and agree to play a second room by the same designer in one day.
Vital Stats:
Room: Cypherdene
Company: Cryptology
City: Nottingham
Date: December 2016
Team: Mandala Studios team (4 of us forming a team that will become regular)
Other Reviews:
Tripadvisor
Bookings:www.cryptologyrooms.co.uk
In Short: So rich and yet so empty
Epicentre had strong story; thematic set dressing; a “collect” objective as well as the escape goal and a neat trick of starting the team in separate places.
There was a decent reason for most of the puzzles to be in the space, and lots of surprises. It was also a hugely tactile experience including manhandling some very large (but light) objects. A screen delivered audio/video track changed with time, so it didn’t fade away into the back of your attention.
We were pretty nicely immersed into the whole experience. It was only looking back that our criticisms began to emerge.
There were only 4 of us, and though we’d all been busy most of the time – much of that was wading through the deliberate red herrings which I’m not sure I class as fun. Additionally, we’d been held up for a long phase by a room not being illuminated (I think we’d misunderstood the computer/hint system and failed to realise how much we should ask it for things) and many of the “puzzles” were just “hide chains” followed by tasks. It was odd to realise that for all the richness of the experience, it was a little short on challenge.
Vital Stats:
Room: Epicentre
Company: Escapologic
City: Nottingham
Date: December 2016
Team: Mandala Studios team (3 of us teamed together three times before, plus 1 newbie)
Other Reviews:
Tripadvisor
Bookings:www.escapologic.com
In Short: Yes, Lord Curlew, we’ll do what you say!
Possibly the most unusual escape room experience I’ve had so far – both brilliant and frustrating.
Lord Curlew’s Study uses the (cheap but effective) “someone’s set these puzzles to test you” path to ensure narrative consistency, but then adds its own twist by giving you that person as an in room guide, via a portrait. Lord Curlew is your host, your hint system, and your controller throughout the experience – and control you he does.
It makes the room completely linear – if you stray too close to looking at something you shouldn’t at that given point in the puzzle chain, Lord Curlew starts to get annoyed. We didn’t push him far enough to get the 5 minute lock down consequence that is threatened.
The diversity of puzzles in the room is great – with some Crystal Maze type activities among more classic word games, plus a moment when the team is split in two – and there is kind of frisson to the challenge of wanting to get ahead of yourself and not being allowed – but that limitation is nevertheless frustrating. Forgivable, given the reason for it is to run two different experiences in the same space, but ultimately, an odd way to play.
Vital Stats:
Room: Lord Curlew’s Study
Company: Escapism
City: Nuneaton
Date: June 2016
Team: 4 person team (me on my 5th room, 2 friends I’d played with once before, 1 newbie)
Other Reviews:
Tripadvisor
Bookings: Room temporarily closed
In Short: Whodunnit? I can’t even remember
We played 2 games by the same company in 1 day, and the similarities discouraged me from doing that again.
Dr Wilson’s Office shared both strengths and weaknesses with Room 13. Once again the room was thematically dressed, with an enticingly written narrative set up, but the puzzles weren’t fully tied in to the story, and the story (classic whodunnit) didn’t offer any of the twists and turns or even tropes that you might expect.
There was also too little to do for a full team – meaning one of our group sat and hard cracked combination locks on a red herring briefcase that was empty! Good variety though, and despite an over reliance on hidden numbers, we felt challenged (and somewhat stupid at how long we took on a clock based puzzle). One of our team was particularly fond of the acetate based puzzles used in both rooms, and they did add to the variety.
It is fair to say that I am a complete storyhound, and am going to be more critical than most players about this kind of “disconnected” experience – but in a room that bills itself as a whodunnit – surely the puzzles should move the story along.
Vital Stats:
Room: Dr Wilson’s Office
Company: Escape Live
City: Birmingham (can also be played in Essex)
Date: May 2016
Team: 6 person team (4 had played 2 rooms together before, plus 2 newbies)
Other Reviews:
The Logic Escapes Me
Bookings: www.escapelive.co.uk
In Short: Not so scary after all
The look of Room 13 is strong. Clinical hospital bed and eerie gadgets, with revealed spaces adding to the institutional feel. But it never lived up to its “not for the faint hearted” promise. A video link designed to ramp up tension simply faded into background noise.
The puzzles were fun, quite a few “hide chains” but also others to actually think and solve – however they had no logical consistency with the story of the room, no reason why they were present and in those particular forms – which for me is a big weakness to a fully rounded experience. It was also the first room I’d played where the hint system was part of the real world not the story world of the room (up to 3 hints allowed by radio request) and I didn’t like that much either. We did escape – not smoothly, held up by a lot of wondering and wandering rather than getting stuck on any particular puzzle.
None of this makes it a room to avoid, but I’m looking for something a bit more immersive and I think as the competition grows rooms will need to think more and more about how to offer that.
Vital Stats:
Room: Room 13
Company: Escape Live
City: Birmingham (can also be played in Essex)
Date: May 2016
Team: 5 person team (4 had played 2 rooms together before, plus 1 newbie)
Other Reviews:
The Logic Escapes Me (Essex Room)
Bookings: www.escapelive.co.uk
In Short: Thank you mine host, you made my day
In this small space lies a quest to release an ancient bottle of wine, guided by a giggling and grimacing host who balances innuendo with a mildly creepy feel. The crumbling décor is a perfect compliment and the book of poetic clues to follow beautifully done.
Varied, if simple puzzles made for a rich, but entirely linear journey. This was necessary to protect the wine from possible plummeting, but slightly frustrating, preventing us tearing the room apart in search mode. I found the inclusion of puzzles that needed some manual dexterity alongside the spatial, numerical and linguistic skills I’d encountered previously added to the feel of being in an experience, not just a game, as did the disembodied voices that helped push the story along.
Our host, ever present around the curtained edges of the space provided hints, often with greater frequency than I would have liked, which is my biggest quibble with the room, as it really took the successful feeling off completing it in a time described to us as not far off the room record.
There wasn’t quite enough for all of us to do, but that’s probably the problem with playing games at “room limit” numbers
Vital Stats:
Room: Lady Chastity’s Reserve
Company: Handmade Mysteries
City: East London (play it East London, South London or Brighton)
Date: March 2016
Team: 6 person team (4 had done one game together before, plus 2 more)
Other Reviews:
Escape Review
The Logic Escapes Me
Escape the Review
Brervixen
Bookings: www.handmademysteries.com
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