REVIEWS

MoviEscape Stockport – Escape The Meth Lab

Escape The Meth Lab
MoviEscape Stockport

Venue: MoviEscape Stockport

Room: Escape The Meth Lab

The Team: TDM, Mr Carrot

Date: 02/06/2018

I’d just had my car fixed so decided to take it for a bit of a test run and dragged Mr Carrot along for the ride. Thought we’d take in an Escape Room while we were out, so we drove aimlessly for a bit and ended up stopping off for a cup of tea at The Navigation Inn, then made our way back to MoviEscape at Stockport.

I’d been there before when I played Sawtopsy and Haunted House, but it was Mr Carrot’s first visit. For tonight’s fun, we had to Escape The Meth Lab.

The Story:
You have one hour to solve puzzles and clues to earn money. The more you solve, the more you earn. You and your fellow cooks have 1 hours to earn up to $1,000,000*. 

“Lets cook”

Breaking Bad was one of those shows that just passed me by to start with. Almost everyone I knew was raving about it and I eventually cracked and gave it a go sometime around the end of Series 4, and less than a week later I was all caught up and eager for the conclusion. I think it may be overdue for a rewatch too…

While it’s made clear right from the briefing that the room isn’t officially endorsed by the Production Company or Distributor, there’s plenty in there for fans of the show with some familiar faces and scenarios showing up along the way.

The theming is well done too if maybe a little sparsely, but it was easy to recognise exactly where we were, and not having any clutter helped us to concentrate our efforts on exactly what what relevant.

The title of the room is maybe a little misleading as the goal here isn’t to actually escape, but to make as much money as you can in the time. The wads of cash are hidden around the place with a maximum of $1,000,000 waiting to be uncovered. However, an interesting part here is the clue system, because if you need help then you have to buy it by giving up some of your ill gotten gains.

There was a nice variety of puzzles and for once we were well on form and sailed through pretty quickly without needing any hints. Well, apart from a small nudge right at the start which we got for free and were told that almost everyone misses that one particular thing.

While it isn’t MoviEscape’s best room (that accolade goes to Haunted House) we thoroughly enjoyed Escape The Meth Lab, but found it to be on the lower end of the difficulty scale. It’s probably be ideal for either someone new to Escape Rooms or fans of Breaking Bad, and if someone was both then it’d make a great introduction.

Result: Completed in 40 minutes with the full $1,000,000

Exit Strategy Liverpool – The Illuminati

The Illuminati
Exit Strategy Liverpool

Venue: Exit Strategy Liverpool

Room: The Illuminati

The Team: TDM, Mr Carrot

Date: 25/05/2018

Despite being pretty much on our doorstep, this was our first visit to Exit Strategy in Liverpool, and our goal was to investigate the disappearance of a David Icke style conspiracy theorist whackjob in The Illuminati.

The Story:
Reclusive conspiracy theorist Ziggy Roswell has gone missing!

No one believed him when he claimed that The Earth is run by a cabal of shape-shifting intergalactic lizards.

He claimed that they run the EU, NATO, the NSA, The Vatican, China, Russia. That they control every war, every uprising, all the intelligence services. That the moon is a hollow, reality-controlling super computer, and that they use wifi to enslave the human mind.

No one believed him, everyone thought he was nuts…But maybe he was on to something.

Enter his world, find out what he was working on. See what info he’s left lying around and eventually work out what’s become of him.

I think one of the reasons we’d taken so long to visit Exit Strategy was that it had a different booking method to other local venues. Instead of the usual online system we’d encountered in other places we had to either call or text a mobile number, and as we’d got used to doing things a certain way we’d just been going with the familiar. The process turned out as easy as you’d expect though, and a few texts later we were all sorted and booked in.

The venue is located in the basement of a 19th Century Gothic style building, and after making our way downstairs we were welcomed into a brightly lit space and were offered complimentary drinks. We were a little early, but after a quick chat to establish what sort of experience we’d had of Escape Rooms everything was ready to go.

Our briefing was given inside the room and were told that any clues we needed would come in via a TV screen accompanied by a doorbell sound to alert us.

The decor of the room was that of a slightly run down office, which was ideal for the story and worked well. One of the advantages of this kind of theme is that it’s so much more achievable for the ER company to create something that suspends your disbelief.

Once the clock was started (which was a timer on the wall next to the door) we noticed a few nice easy puzzles in plain sight to start us off. As ever, it was good for morale to ease us in gently.

With searching being one of our many weak points, it was a relief to find there wasn’t any excessive hunting about required throughout the room, everything seemed to either be out in the open or inside a locked object and obvious once opened.

There was a good mix of puzzles including a couple that were a bit tricky, but made perfect sense once we’d been given a clue or two. Nice use of some simple tech as well.

One final thing is that I’m not sure if Exit Strategy are more used to visitors during the daytime. Our game was at 6.30pm, and when we exited the building we found that the metal security gate in front of us was locked, by which point we’d also pulled the door closed behind us.

We found ourselves facing the challenge of being trapped in the small entrance area and having to escape for real! We cheated and asked for a clue… well, we phoned them and asked them to let us out. Can we count that as a win?

Don’t be deterred by the non-automated booking system as we really enjoyed The Illuminati, and it’s definitely made us want to come back for Exit Strategy’s other room, Nostromo.

Result: Escaped in 50 minutes

Ultimate Escape Llandudno – Escape From The Future

Escape From The Future
Ultimate Escape Llandudno

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

Ultimate Escape Llandudno – CSI Murder Mystery

CSI Murder Mystery
Ultimate Escape Llandudno

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

Code To Exit Altrincham – The Dark Ages

The Dark Ages
Code To Exit Altrincham

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

Golden Disco Ball

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

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