London news and rumours – June 2016

news

Welcome to the June 2016 edition of the escape rumours post. Note that this is about London (and a little further afield). I do a separate (terse!) weekly post about UK news or you can read more in depth (although not quite so up-to-date) news on exitgames.co.uk.

Competitions and special offers

There are a couple of offers for London games this month.

Finally, check out PlayExitGames‘ card if you intend to visit a couple of different sites from their list this year – they’ve got Brighton, Cambridge and London.

Plans

It’s been a moderately busy May with a variety of fun activities – five escape rooms, a Door in a Wall event plus a TV and news appearance! Check out the front page for reviews.

If you’re more interested in what the future brings, here’s my current list of bookings:

  • June
    • 1: Agent November (Rainbow Syndicate) and a revisit to Escape Plan with my children…
    • 4:
      • Firehazard’s Undercover
      • Escape from the Room, Sutton
      • Wiretapper
    • 5: Hidden Rooms (Invisible Space)
    • 8: Block Stop (By the End of Us including the single player ticket)
    • 14: Agent November (Major X Plow Shun)
  • July
    • 11: Omescape (Penitentiary)
    • 31: Southend
      • Escape Live Essex (Dr Wilson’s Office)
      • Escape Live Essex (Room 13)
      • Alien Escape
  • August
    • 1: The Game’s Afoot
  • September
    • Budapest! Yes, I’m dragging a bunch of fellow escapers off to the European capital of escaping for a long weekend of being locked in rooms. We’re still deciding what we’ll play, but you can bet that the Pirate Cave will be involved! If you’ve got any suggestions, then drop me an email or comment below!

News and Rumours

Probably the biggest news this month is Agent November’s crowdfunding campaign to resurrect 2.8 Hours Later, the zombie chase game that saw over 70,000 players over its multi-year run. That in itself wouldn’t make it much of a news headline here, but Nathan, the man behind the Agent November brand, is aiming to inject some escape game goodness into what was, by all accounts, a popular and fun format.

I’ve previously reported on a potential escape room business called Mission Evasion, which had secured planning permission in Kentish Town. Well, I’ve since discovered that they’re due to launch this month under the name Mission Breakout (their website is yet to go live, but for reference it’s http://www.missionbreakout.london). The venue is particularly interesting because it’s the basement of a disused tube station, South Kentish Town. This ghost tube station opened in 1907 but closed in 1924 due to low usage, only to be adapted as an air raid shelter during the Second World War. Early bird tickets should be released imminently, but no details on the themes beyond one being based on a true story around codebreakers…

We say goodbye to Enter the Oubliette this month. I’m really sad to see them go as they were one of my favourite escape games and genuinely lovely people. The good news is that they’ve now sold out for evenings and weekends, so we can at least take solace in knowing that plenty of people will experience the fun before they shut up shop. It’s almost inevitable that whatever they move on to next it will be a lot of fun, so I can but hope that it will be in the escape arena.

Escape from the Room in Sutton opened their doors at the end of May with a single room, The Curse of Old Maid Milly. This is an enthusiast family-run business, which bodes well. Watch this space for a review in early to mid-June.

Congratulations to Enigma Quests who were successful with the crowdfunding campaign for their second room and expect to be beta testing this month and opening soon after.

Clockwork Dog have opened their three week long popup game. If you haven’t already signed up then I’d recommend you jump in now, because it’s both good and closing imminently!

The new A Door in a Wall game, Played to Death, has now launched. We had a great time there in late May, so if you like a little immersive theatre and a bit of murder mystery while wandering the streets of London then I’d recommend.

No updates from Escape Games LondonClaustrophobia, Clue Adventures or Escape Zone London. I’ll let you know when I hear more.

On the borders

I’m London focused, but the M25 doesn’t actually have passport control, so occasionally I look a little further afield. No news games within striking distance this month, so I thought I’d use this section to talk about some existing escape rooms that you may not have come across. This month I’m going to focus on…

Brighton

It’s less than an hour by train, so Brighton is most definitely a day trip option for Londoners and as a bonus it’s got two or three escape room venues for you to visit. Two OR three? Well, one of them is a copy of a game in London, so from a London point of view, I’m not sure if that counts.

Bewilder Box aren’t actually open yet, but they’re in the middle of what will be a successful crowdfunding campaign (full disclosure: I’ve backed it). When I chatted to the team behind it I was impressed by their plans. Their room is situated above a pub and has a kind of throwback sci-fi theme that I think will appeal to people who grew up in the 80s, especially with video segments from Hugo Myatt aka Treguard from Knightmare.

Lady Chastity is well known in London, with games both north and south of the river. Like Bewilder Box, their Lady Chastity game is situated in a pub. As far as I’m aware, it’s pretty much the same game as in London (although it caters for up to 6 people and therefore probably more like the northern version), so perhaps not an option for most of the keen readers of this blog, but if you’ve not played and you’re meeting non-London friends in Brighton, then it might be the perfect option.

Escape Game Brighton has two games, Murder at Brighton Pier and Laboratory of a Madman for 2-6 players. From what I’ve heard, I don’t think they’re most exciting games in the world, but they seem to garner reasonable reviews so I suspect they’re logical enough, just missing a bit of the theatrics that the other two are aiming to provide.

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, and I’ll include updates in the next edition.

Thanks for reading!

4 Comments


  1. // Reply

    Good to see you’ve got Omescape’s Penitentiary planned. Did it last month with my group and we were 2 minutes short of the record with 1 clue… it’s rock-hard though! Make sure at least one or two of your players are short…


  2. // Reply

    Heya. We just came back from Hidden Rooms ‘Invisible Space’. Save yourself £26. It was probably aimed at 5yr olds. We completed it in under 18 minutes…


  3. // Reply

    Re: Budapest – we were over for 5 days last month and managed to squeeze in 10 rooms and a hell of a lot of walking…

    Budapest recommendations:
    Verem: Dictator, although I’m sure Hanger 18 is good as well
    Gozsdu Mission: We did White Mission and Mafia Mission. Both excellent. Again, I’m sure the prison room is very good too
    Escaper: Safe House

    The above were brilliant and we highly enjoyed them. The guy who runs Gozsdu is very knowledgeable and a great person to ask regarding any other rooms worth seeing.

    Reasonable rooms:
    Claustrophilia: Wicklewood Heritage. Don’t bother with Voodoo tales
    Trap: The Egyptian

    Special mention for looking amazing:
    Mystique room: Shogun’s shadow – looks amazing! unfortunately quite a few puzzles are easy to brute. If you do go, mind your head!


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