A friend asked me a question about escape rooms that’s probably of more general interest, so I thought I’d write a quick blog post:
We all love to show that we’re the best, and the escape room community are no different with “battle mode”/head to head/competitive escape rooms. Obviously you can play the same room at different times and some companies (such as Escape Plan Ltd) even keep their own leaderboard, but what better way to see who’s the top dog than playing next door to the competition and getting to lord it over your friends/colleagues/family straight away?
Well, you’ve come to the right place. At the time of writing, there are four venues you can go to in London, and seven different games (soon to be eight!):
- clueQuest (PLAN 52 x 4, Operation Blacksheep x2)
- CLOSED:
Escape hunt (Theft from the Lab x2, Murder in the Artist’s Bedroom x4, Kidnapping in the Living Room x4) - Time Run (Lance of Longinus x 2)
- Hint Hunt (John Monroe x 3, Zen Room x 2)
- Escape Entertainment (Prohibition Pandemonium x 6, Bank Heist)
Summary: I’d recommend clueQuest. They have very good rooms, good staff and come at a decent price. Read the linked reviews for more thoughts, but if many of the players will be new to the genre then it’s a great introduction.
Time Run’s also a great escape room (in fact, as the review will tell you, I think it’s the best), but it’s expensive, which might frighten off some of the newer competitors.
Hint Hunt were the original London escape room, but I think it shows in the relative lack of “innovation” in their rooms. I don’t think they’re a terrible choice, but I think you can find better.
Finally Escape Entertainment is (for now) an unknown. I’ve not played their games. They’ve two options, only one of which is private, so unless you happen to have exactly 20 people available for your head to head, then you’ll probably want to play Bank Heist.
Hope that helps!