May 2017

Edinburgh Escape Review: Can You Escape?

A review of Can You Escape? Edinburgh’s Operation Odyssey room, a game that was amazingly well designed with clear progress, parallel, logical puzzles, a pretty set and a fun ending.

Edinburgh Escape Review: Locked In Edinburgh

A roundup of the three games at Locked In Edinburgh. The Secret Lab is the jewel in their crown but Animal Hospital and the Distillery both deliver solid experiences too.

Edinburgh Escape Review: Escape Hour

A review of Escape Hour’s Diamond Heist, a fun filled adventure which shows that it doesn’t take high tech puzzles to make a good game.

Edinburgh Escape Review: Exit Plan

A review of the three rooms at Exit Plan in Edinburgh. The experience across the games was almost entirely consistent – good, logical puzzles, great GMing, sufficient decoration to convey the theme but no more and a basic storyline that they didn’t expand upon during the games. Choose what you’re going to do and do it well!

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Handmade Mysteries: Poppa Plock

The second outing from Handmade Mysteries. Poppa Plock was a big step up in puzzling but with six people in the room and an almost entirely linear flow, the game always felt a little crowded and hard to engage with. Theatre was, once again, a strong point but for me not up there with Lady Chastity.

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AIEscape: Kill M.A.D.

AI Escape don’t make my life easy. This is another game that’s incredibly hard to review dealing with a difficult subject matter that made this an experience with more depth than most. Ignoring that, though, they’ve put together good puzzles in a beautiful set to make a game that’s well worth playing.

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Locked In Edinburgh: The Secret Lab

The Secret Lab is, to put it simply, a brilliant game. I was left pretty much speechless for quarter of an hour after playing. It delivered a coherent set of puzzles that meshed beautifully with the story, forced you to criss-cross the space throughout the hour, made good use of technology and pitched itself at a perfect difficulty level. The satisfaction at having made your way across the expanse of puzzles was awesome. At the time of writing, this is my favourite game. Ever.

- Overall rating:
Escape this Room

An impressive experience considering it was created for just a three week stint. Lots of high tech interactions, a game where you kept on expanding your space and a mixture of physical and mental puzzles led to an enjoyable game with the only real negative being a slightly over zealous games master.

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Time Run: Celestial Chain

The long awaited sequel to Lance of Longinus. Celestial Chain does exactly what I’d expect and push the boundaries of escape rooms. As far as I’m concerned the two Time run games are the best in London and whether you rate this experience of Lance of Longinus more highly will probably depend on how much you accept the new format.