September 2018

- Overall rating:
Escape Game Brighton: Secret Agent - The Black Box

By far my favourite of Escape Game Brighton’s three games with prettier decoration, solid puzzles and a couple of nice tricks. I’d still recommend the other venues in Brighton instead though.

- Overall rating:
Escape Game Brighton: Murder at the Pier: Revenge

Puzzles that are mostly reasonable but nothing exciting, decoration that is lacklustre and tired and a shared GM. If you’ve not played every other game in Brighton, then I’d recommend heading to one of the other venues instead.

- Overall rating:
Escape Game Brighton: Return of the Mad Scientist

A weak set, a non-existent story, a shared GM, and the puzzles that, at best, were OK. There are plenty of good games in Brighton, but this isn’t one of them.

- Overall rating:
Bewilder Box (Bright): Judgement D.A.V.E.

A thoroughly enjoyable experience with humour, strong characters, fun sci-fi decoration and good puzzles. A room that manages to appeal to enthusiasts with stronger-than-average puzzles and first-timers with calm-inducing humour, plus a cluing system that feel like it’s just part of the experience.

- Overall rating:
Pier Pressure (Brighton): Modrophenia

A wonderful homage to a part of Brighton culture that I knew little about. Decoration-wise it’s impressive and there’s a decent story as well. A great option if you’re looking plenty of varied challenges.

- Overall rating:
Pier Pressure (Brighton): Pavilion Perplex

From the grand entrance right to the finish, a visually impressive game with chunky, thematic decoration. Expect a few weak puzzles but not enough to spoil the experience.

- Overall rating:
Prison Island Benálmadena (Málaga, Spain)

A collection of repeat-as-often-as-you-want games that challenge mentally and physically. A really fun experience that I think will become more prevalent over time.

Trends: Team challenge arcades

Thoughts on one future direction of the ER industry where teams play many entirely separate individual games as part of an overall experience.

- Overall rating:
Pressure Point Escape Rooms (Ashford): Murder on the Dancefloor

An absolute joy to play. Interesting theme, beautiful execution, good, logical puzzles and plenty of humour thrown in. I don’t know what Pressure Point’s magic is, but they make games that just seem to flow really well and where you come out on a high.

- Overall rating:
Pressure Point (Ashford): The Accused

A very solid prison escape game at its core with a few twists that made it more interesting. A couple of novel puzzles, some humour and a slightly more interesting story led to us coming out on a real high.