REVIEWS

ESCAPE ROOMS

7th April 2018

Ultimate Escape Llandudno – Escape From The Future

Venue: Ultimate Escape Llandudno

Room: Escape From The Future

The Team: TDM, Mr Carrot

Date: 07/04/2018

Having just completed CSI Murder Mystery, we had a short break before starting the other room at Ultimate Escape as there was another group in there finishing off, plus the room had to be reset. We nipped out and round the corner to Starbucks for a couple of Chai Lattes, then had a wander down to the beach before heading back to Escape from the Future…

The Story:
One day your crazy friend, Prof. Iterole (the Mad Professor), announces that he has invented a time machine and asks you to take it for a test drive. Like a fool you agree! What were you thinking? You should have known what was about to happen…

Your quest is to get back to your own time. After all, your dinner is nearly ready. Or was nearly ready. Or will be nearly ready. You have to discover what went wrong with the time machine (well something had to, didn’t it?) in order to find out what time you are in now (or to be more precise, exactly what time now is) and get back to your own time in time for dinner.

This is another innovative Ultimate Escape Game Room, with the emphasis on fun. All the tasks are fun and amusing, or sometimes just funny, as well as being challenging. It also includes an awesome feature that gives you an amazing experience to make your quest even more enjoyable and memorable.

Don’t worry, you won’t be required to become your own Mother or Father, but you will be required to have fun!

To start us off our host came into the room with us to introduce the story, and while there also pointed out a couple of ‘do nots’ as there was the potential to jam a vital part of the game if used incorrectly… and with this duly noted we got our first chance to take in the room.

After the ‘outdoor’ light and open airiness of the CSI room, Escape from the Future was in contrast much darker and enclosed. Again the room was fairly small and suited our team of two great, though there were a couple of tasks later on where extra bodies probably would have helped.

With the story being very much tongue in cheek, the elements of the Time Machine comprised various fun items that the Mad Professor had cobbled together, so the room had a very handmade feel. It was clear from the outset that some of the puzzles would rely literally on a playful approach and there was definitely a certain charm to this when we tackled them.

As mentioned the room was quite dark, which caused a slight issue in reading some detail on at least one of the room features, though we soon found we could use the main light switch as needed which solved this. This detail was VERY small though, and I’m speaking as someone whose eyes are pretty good for close up stuff, so it’d be worth making sure you don’t forget your glasses if needed.

As with the CSI room, the clue system was once again to simply open the door and ask if we got stuck, and this also applied when we encountered a small tech fail at one point. This was sorted quickly and without fuss by our host though, so caused only a minor interruption.

The intro story mentions an ‘awesome feature’ and it isn’t wrong. When this triggered it came completely out of the blue and we were unsure what was actually happening at first, but when it did… wow! I’d put it well up there in my ‘coolest Escape Room features‘ list, and even more impressive was that our host told us afterwards that he’d made this feature himself. Wow again!

Overall, the room maybe looked a little rough around the edges in places, but in retrospect I think this probably suited the ‘built by a Mad Scientist’ theme quite well. What mattered more to us was the fun involved and the inventive storyline and playthrough.

Llandudno was a little off the beaten track for us, but we’re glad we made the effort to visit as both rooms were quirky and quite different to our previous experiences. This kind of creativity is always great to see, and makes for a memorable change from the norm.

Result: Escaped from the Future in 54 minutes

7th April 2018

Ultimate Escape Llandudno – CSI Murder Mystery

Venue: Ultimate Escape Llandudno

Room: CSI Murder Mystery

The Team: TDM, Mr Carrot

Date: 07/04/2018

We were back in North Wales again for another fun day out and went a little further along the coast than last time to Llandudno. After a quick stop off at the top of the Great Orme to take in the bleak, misty weather and visit the cafe for a tea and a coffee, we headed back down into town to Ultimate Escape.

We’d booked both of their rooms for today, and first up was CSI Murder Mystery.

The Story:
DCI Bodgit and his overworked sidekick Sergeant Leggit (who prior to joining the police force had a building firm together called Bodgit and Leggit) are faced with a particularly puzzling murder case.

You and your team must take on the roles of DCI Bodgit and his/her faithful and Sergeant Leggit. Work as one team or optionally split into sub-teams to take on the roles of DCI Bodgit, Sergeant Leggit, Pathologist and Forensics expert.

Can you discover the clues which will lead you to the suspects and their alibis?

Can you solve the puzzles needed to get witness statements that will confirm or destroy their alibis?

Will the forensics evidence place the guilty at the scene of the crime and rule out the innocent?

Can you solve the murder?

We’d got some great directions emailed through with our booking confirmation, along with a parking suggestion which was free for a couple of hours. We were going to be a little longer though, so we managed to find a handy space just round the corner. The building was easy to find, and once inside we were greeted warmly and given a short briefing.

The goal of CSI Murder Mystery wasn’t to escape, but instead was to solve a murder and gather enough evidence to make a case against the guilty party, and while the theme of the room might sound a little grisly, the investigation was quite light hearted with the victim, suspects, and investigators all having very tongue in cheek names.

The room was fairly small and set ‘outside’ in a garden. With only two of us there was plenty of space, though I imagine it could maybe get a little cramped with a larger group. For us it meant we could spread out the evidence as we found it to get a good overview – and collecting as much evidence as we could is where we started as that’s the what the room is all about. We were a little daunted to start with, but thankfully things started to fall into place as we got into the swing of it.

We did mess up quite badly at one point as we were convinced we’d solved the crime, but with at least one locked box still to open something seemed not quite right… so, we decided to use the clue system (more than once). With escaping not being a goal, the room was never locked, and the system was that if we needed a clue then we could just pop our head round the door and ask! Very handy.

As it turns out we’d missed something by being a little careless and not examining a piece of evidence thoroughly enough. This completely threw our case out of the window and led to a frantic re-examining of evidence and a ‘doh!’ moment of realisation.

Special mention has to go to one of the boxes we had to open during the course of the room. Without giving away what it involved, it was one of the most fun and satisfying, yet incredibly simple things I’ve done in an escape room, and I can’t quite believe I haven’t encountered it before. It seems such an obvious thing to include, and I thought it was so cool to play with I actually ordered one for myself when I got home!

I have done a room with a similar ‘evidence gathering’ theme before (Identify at Breakout Chester), but CSI Murder Mystery was executed in a completely different style. It was like a cross between playing Cluedo and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (which is from a brilliant and fun game series for anyone that hasn’t played it) and it definitely made for a different kind of Escape Room experience.

A well designed and very engaging room, especially if you’re the type that likes solving contradiction style puzzles and making logical deductions from them. I believe the room is intended to create an almost board game style adventure and it certainly delivers the goods in that regard.

Result: Solved the murder in 57 minutes

30th March 2018

Code To Exit Altrincham – The Dark Ages

Venue: Code To Exit Altrincham

Room: The Dark Ages

The Team: TDM, Mr Carrot

Date: 30/03/2018

Since the last time we visited Code To Exit back in December, Mr Carrot and I have discussed on a couple of occasions that we’d probably underestimated just how much we’d enjoyed the rooms we’d done then. The Forger particularly stood out for having a completely original theme, and it’s nice to be surprised with something totally fresh from time to time.

We’d been eager to return to see how The Dark Ages compared… and it compared very well! So well in fact that it gets a

The Story:
This team game takes you back to the time of the Legend of Camelot. By revealing the secrets of the castle, you will be able to rescue the mystical Excalibur. Once you have the mythical sword you are only a step away from acquiring the Holy Grail. You need team work, skills and excellent powers of observation to complete the mission in time and escape the room.

With the previous two rooms at Code To Exit, The Forger and The Blueprint, we’d been briefed inside the rooms themselves, but with The Dark Ages the briefing happened in the reception area. There was a good reason for this though as the first task was to actually get into the room!

The room is located in the basement, and we were led to the stairs from where we made our own way down. Thankfully, getting in was a nice simple task and we were soon greeted by a room containing things that immediately caught our eyes – large physical puzzles, which we always love.

It was evident that a great deal of work had gone in to building the furnishings in the room as everything seemed custom made and built from scratch, which led to some wonderfully creative and unique tasks we hadn’t encountered before, and I’m guessing in some cases are unlikely to again.

I think there were only a couple of what I’d describe as mental puzzles in the room, as it was more of a series of manual challenges – nothing strenuous as they were skill and dexterity based rather than physically intensive.

Most important of all though, they were FUN!

An element of the room is the collection of multiple occurences of a certain object type to progress. Some of these objects are just lying around, some of them are hidden, and some of them have to be ‘won’ by completing the challenges.

One challenge in particular had the potential to be extremely frustrating, and indeed to start with felt like it would be an almost impossible task. One short learning curve later though to get the technique just right, and it quickly become… well, I wouldn’t say easy, but certainly manageable and extremely satisfying upon completion. I can completely understand how some people might become quite despondent while attempting this and give it up as futile, so it was good to note while chatting to our host afterwards that there’s a simple but effective backup plan in place should this happen, as I imagine does from time to time.

Bearing in mind the nature of a lot of the puzzles in the room, The Dark Ages doesn’t appear at first glance as though it would host a great deal of hidden tech, but like with The Forger upstairs, this is cleverly deceptive. While not overloaded with automation, what was there was utilised extremely effectively, and we were never in any doubt when we triggered things.

The only criticism I had if I was being super picky is that maybe the story progression didn’t really make too much sense which had the potential to break the immersion, but we were too busy grinning and having fun to notice really.

Yep, we loved it, and Mr Carrot tells me that this is his favourite room that he’s played so far – high praise indeed!

Result: Found the Holy Grail in 58 minutes

24th March 2018

Locked In North Wales Abergele – Black & White

Venue: Locked In North Wales Abergele

Room: Black & White

The Team: TDM, Mr Carrot, JM

Date: 24/03/2018

We’d made plans to visit Denbigh earlier in the week and thought it would be mad if we didn’t make the most of us being in the area, so we booked ourselves in to Locked In North Wales up the road in Abergele for afterwards.

Having never been there before and not knowing their rooms, we opted for their easiest, Black & White.

The Story:
Find a way out and Escape the human size checker board solving traditional escape room clues and puzzles before you completely lose your minds and get stuck in there forever.

Don’t worry though you don’t need to know how to play chess.

Once we arrived in Abergele, parking was nice and easy as there was a free car park just down the road at the library to the west, or a pay and display round the corner on Water Street.

We’d arrived quite early, but were welcomed in to the reception straight away where our host invited us to store our coats in the lockers provided.

We were also asked to leave our phones here, and while I appreciate and agree that any kind of recording in the rooms should be and was prohibited, I’d normally just turn my phone off and leave it in my pocket. The reception area was locked, and while I’m sure it was perfectly secure, with all the info I keep stored on my phone I’d have been a little more comfortable keeping it with me, but we did as requested. I guess I could have just left it in my pocket and said nothing, but… damn my honesty!

Locked In North Wales’ clue system was one that we hadn’t encountered before, in that we could ask for as many clues as needed (via intercom), but each one would cost us a minute of our time, and we ALWAYS need clues.

The room itself was decorated exactly as the description says – a human sized checker board with squares everywhere you look, which made quite a striking impression as we entered. Our host showed us the intercom, gave a few room specific instructions that related to a couple of the features in there, then left us watching a short intro video before the timer kicked off.

The puzzles themselves were quite varied and included a small amount of observation and searching, a couple of physical (though not strenuous) tasks, simple codes, and some maths…

Ahh yes, the maths, which I failed on miserably. It was a good job JM was with us as she used an ‘alternate’ method (yes, by which I mean ‘correct’) and saved us from sliding further behind than we probably already were. Note to self for the future… let someone else do the maths.

There was one tiny issue we had with the room, and that was a small amount of writing on a specific hidden item in there. Now, it was evident that this item had been bought with this text on there, but in the context of the room we found it to be quite misleading as it turned out to have a completely different function to what it actually said. Something as simple as a sticker over the top would probably solve this though. Hopefully, what I’ve said there is quite vague as I’m trying to be as unspecific as possible as to not give anything away, but hopefully if anyone has done the room then they’ll understand what I’m talking about.

Overall we really enjoyed the room, particularly the simple but effective theme, and we’ll definitely be back for more. We don’t really need an excuse to visit North Wales for a day out, but with the added temptation of nearby Escape Rooms we’ll hopefully be back sooner rather than later.

Result: Escaped in 58 minutes

(Actually 55 minutes with 3 clues)

23rd February 2018

Breakout Liverpool – The Facility

Venue: Breakout Liverpool

Room: The Facility

The Team: TDM, Mr Carrot, JM

Date: 23/02/2018

Mr Carrot had managed to get us tickets for the Terracotta Warriors exhibition at Liverpool World Museum in the evening (and it’s very impressive), and we decided to make an afternoon of it as well by taking in an Escape Room beforehand.

Breakout Liverpool was our destination, and we were headed for The Facility…

The Story:
You arrive at an unknown location for a once in a lifetime opportunity; a conference held by the critically acclaimed, Dr. Andrews. His work is widely known throughout the research circles, but he has remained hidden in the shadows for years. What you don’t know, is that Dr. Andrews has gone mad, creating a string of tests that have gone disastrously wrong. He has brought you here for his final experiment. You have one hour to escape his maze of tricks and games, before a deadly virus kills you all.

This was the first opportunity I’d had to use my Escape Game Card since I’d bought it, so at Breakout Liverpool we’d grabbed ourselves a 10% discount. It only cost £10, so with two or three uses it’ll have paid for itself – but, this is starting to sound a bit like an advert, so let’s move on…

One thing to note about The Facility, is that it required one of our team to play the part of the initial captee. While this person was certainly integral in moving the room on, they missed out on a few of the puzzles at the start. On the plus side, once they were released it was a fresh pair of eyes to potentially point out any blatantly obvious things that we’d overlooked as we often do.

The room had quite dark decor and was quite dimly lit with a couple of stronger light sources in places, but a decent quality torch was also provided so things such as entering codes into locks weren’t a problem.

There were a couple of immediately solvable things to get us started, not actually puzzles, more observations but it did mean we felt as though we were making progress straight away. This is something we always appreciate as it starts us off in a more positive frame of mind.

Other puzzles we found to be a good variation of logic, observation, and one particular one which was a bit ‘try it and see’. Not sure if we used the correct method for this or whether we stumbled through with dumb luck but whatever it was worked!

We were nearly caught out in a couple of places, as there were a few bits where elements of puzzles had a second use. We’re frequently in the mindset of putting things mentally into the ‘used’ pile once they’ve served a purpose, even though this isn’t a hard and fast Escape Room rule. It really should have been a little more obvious to us here that this wasn’t the case though as there was only one thing it could have been referring to.

The Facility is everything I’ve come to expect from Breakout – a well themed and constructed room, a good variety of puzzles, and staff that are on the ball and can gauge when clues are needed. This all adds up to a great experience.

Result: Escaped in 51 minutes