Welcome to the July 2018 edition of the London-focused immersive gaming rumours post.  Note that this is about London (and surrounding areas). If you want to know about escape games further afield, then you can follow exitgames.co.uk, where I publish a weekly update on the UK escape room scene.

June has been quiet both from a playing and blogging point of view – non-escape things have been conspiring to keep me away but I’m hoping to ramp things back up later this month as other things in my life calm down. I did manage to squeeze in a quick visit to Escape Milton Keyne’s Sabotage and AIM Escape’s Psychopath’s Den and Patient Zero 2150 so it wasn’t quite an escape free month.

Escape Rooms

AI Escape launched their latest game, Project Ðelta just as the last monthly update went out so I missed them off the initial published edition. Previous experience suggests that they’re likely to produce a top quality game and initial signs from players are good. While officially it only opened recently, they had a pretty thorough testing cycle so I expect it to already be a game that you can have confidence in booking early on.

Omescape have added an Aldgate branch to their pre-existing Kings Cross venue. Those of you who’ve been following the blog for a while will know that I visited all three of their Kings Cross escape games and while I enjoyed Penitentiary and Biohazard Laboratory, I had higher hopes given their reputation. Part of that reputation was built on enthusiasts’ opinions of Kingdom of Cats (over in the States) and the good news is that it’s come to their new venue! Admittedly that reputation was from a couple of years ago but I’m still excited to see what it’s like.

AIM Escape near Aldgate East opened two games last month, Psychopath’s Den and Patient Zero 2150. Two more games are due out this month with Spy Heroes and Hangover Déjà Brew set to join the line up. Full reviews for the first two will be out soon but if you’re going to choose, I’d definitely steer you towards Patient Zero which has great theming and a solid set of puzzles. One word of warning – both myself and other teams have commented on poor lighting and dubious colour puzzles so set your expectations accordingly.

London Escaped launch in August. They’ve currently got two games on their website – Da Vinci and the Prisoner. The games are imported from LA (possibly originally from Russia) so there’s some pedigree and you’d hope that they’ve been well playtested already.

The Grid opened their booking system last week with tickets available from 1 September. It’s not 100% clear how much the experience is an escape room – there seem to be elements of immersive theatre and a cocktail bar rolled into it. I guess we’ll see later this year.

Clue Adventures closes down Gangsters Treasure this month at its current venue. In theory, it should be opening back up in a new venue very soon afterwards but the question you have to ask yourself is whether you want to take that risk…

Want to know more about the person behind Trapped (Trapped in a room with a Zombie and Trapped in a Prison Van)? Well, here’s an interview. Incidentally – they’re moving to a new venue so that they can bring both their games to a single location (and also make it closer to the city).

As ever, if you’re looking for general recommendations in the capital then you can check out my London guide which lists my favourite games or the more detailed recommendations based on, for example, whether you’re looking for a two player or eight player game, like mechanical puzzles or need a wheelchair accessible game.

Immersive Gaming

If you’re of a certain age then you’ll have fond memories of watching Knightmare as a kid and probably screaming at the children for being stupid. Well, what could be more fun than doing the same but at adults? Knightmare Live has been going strong for the last five years or so and they’re back at Underbelly on 17 June and 18 July this year. Enter, stranger.

A Door in a Wall continue with their latest project, Dead Man’s Hand. I headed along last month and had plenty of fun rushing round Farringdon. Full review to follow but while it’s not my favourite of their shows, it was still plenty of fun and a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

For King and Country from Parabolic Theatre continues until 5th August in the CoLab Factory near Waterloo. I’ve posted my review of the experience but TL;DR it’s well worth attending.

Hunted, the urban game based on the TV show and produced by Fire Hazard, has arrived in the capital. I’ve not played yet but expect high-octane adventure on the streets of the city.

Dead Quiet started last month and takes place on various Saturday afternoons during July. I’ve not get any experience with the company, Immercity, but it sounds like it’s mainly immersive theatre with a bit of murder mystery layered on top. If you head along, let me know how you find it!

The Murder Express takes an Agatha Christie style story and throws you into the midst of the action. They’ve created a train for the game and you can purchase food and drink during the show so it’s a slightly different slant on the usual experience mentioned on these pages. It’s already opened and tickets are on sale as far away as September.

Puzzles and more

DASH 10 has sold out so unless you’ve already got tickets then your best chance is to offer to help out with the organisation. They usually look for volunteers to try out the puzzles a week or two before the competition so get in touch with them if you’re free in early September.

As per usual, Puzzled Pint takes place on the second Tuesday of the month. If you’re looking for some fun, sociable puzzling then it’s a great start. And if you’re nervous that the puzzles will be too hard then don’t worry – there’s a games controller who’ll help you out as much as you need. You can check out puzzles and solutions from previous months on their website here.

That’s all, folks

That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect, then let me know via email or in the comments below; or, equally, if you’re aware of other news, discounts or competitions, tell me and I’ll include updates in the next edition.

Thanks for reading!