February 2016

CoLab Theatre: Crooks

After enjoying our experience a few months ago at CoLab Theatre’s Hostage, it didn’t take much convincing to get a group together for their new performance, Crooks. This one’s entirely separate from their three-part spy series and revolves around infiltrating a Cockney criminal gang and bringing down “the Don”. A few words on a webpage and a slightly cryptic voicemail in a YouTube video
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Escape Entertainment: Bank Heist

Outside the room Back in October, Escape Entertainment appeared on the London scene, taking over the venue that used to house Escape Hunt. We’d visited in December and, while Prohibition Pandemonium was better than its predecessors, I still found it disappointing – not enough to keep ten people occupied, obtuse puzzles and uninspiring decor. With that, Bank Heist had fallen to the
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Happy 50th - my top 5 escape games

During my recent escape room extravaganza, I completed my 50th escape room. To celebrate, I thought I’d look back through all those reviews and pick out my five favourite games and write a little on why I think they’re so good. #1 Time Run: The Lance of Longinus This London game is far and away the most expensive
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The only winning move...

How do you design a room where most people escape while still making sure that experienced players are suitably challenged? My musings on that, and more generally on “non-binary win conditions” – endings to game that are more than just pass/fail.

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Outside the room You should really read my review of their other room. The two rooms are pretty much the same, but I can’t bring myself to write a virtually identical review. In fact, I’ve decided to make up for the rooms being so similar, by trying to make the reviews a bit different… So, picture it, our two
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Sherlock Unlock: Chaos

Outside the room Sherlock Unlock opened to the public just before Christmas in a small business park in the Docklands. The location wasn’t great for us so we’d opted to play both games in one evening and save ourselves a return trip. In fact, I’d had so much interest that I’d booked both rooms for both slots. While there were
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Breakout Liverpool: Wanted (Cowboys)

Outside the room Ah, Breakout Liverpool. How do I hate thee? The last time I was here I lost a perfect record, and my London team mates have never let me live it down. It was a fair, albeit tough, game and I’m not one to shy away from a challenge, so I’d booked in
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Exit Strategy: the Illuminati

I hope I didn’t hurt your neck getting you to look at this upside down.  Outside the room Exit Strategy had been on my to do list ever since I’d had a great time playing St Helens vs the Lizards which they’d helped produce. I was just pulling together my intinerary for a visit up North
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The Escape Room (Preston): Taken

Outside the room After a break for lunch, we headed back to Escape Room Preston for a second game. If you’ve read the previous review, you’ll not be surprised to hear that we were only going back because we’d pre-booked tickets, but… we’d had a couple of hours to clear our heads and I was determined to go
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The Escape Room (Preston): Vampire Chronicles

I’ve seen better vampires… Outside the room On a previous trip to Escape Room Preston we’d played a couple of their games and while we’d not been overwhelmed by them, we thought they were worthy of a second visit, so booked ourselves in for a double session as a romantic Valentine’s Day activity. First up: Vampire Chronicles. Nothing
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