An eagerly-anticipated game that never lived up to its billing. As perhaps befits the cat theme, it felt more laid back than most games I’ve played but that took away from the excitement that’s core to escape rooms.

After an impressive introduction and a solid opening set of puzzles, the game never really got going – with two puzzles in particular that went well past fun and into tedious.

Two fun experiences which showed off the set design skills at XScream Escapes. Bedlam was our clear favourite, with more striking decoration, a real sense of exploration and better puzzles while the Corpsewood Killer was a more traditional style of escape room – still fun but a few weaknesses.

A beautiful game with a great sense of exploration, generally enjoyable puzzles and fun set pieces. A maintenance issue, a confusing puzzle and a disappointing cluing system detracted from what was otherwise a really fun game but I’d still recommend playing.

A game that more than lives up to clueQuest’s reputation with great story, decoration and puzzles. If you’re in or near London – play this game.

A fun room that is well suited to the Vaults. It has one big flaw that also happens to be what makes it unusual – one player will be trapped in a straitjacket for most of the game.

A beautiful set and some interesting electronics and mechanisms helped but some poor GMing and lack of player feedback took the shine off this game.

An utterly endearing retro sci-fi game with a good set, fun GM-ing and solid puzzles. Fun for enthusiasts and a great introduction for first timers.

Another unusual escape room from a company that just doesn’t do mainstream games. Lots of story and hard puzzles – probably too much for some people! Oh, and did I mention that it’s 100 minutes!

A fun medium-length mystery from A Door in a Wall. Blink and you’ll miss it though – this was a one weekend only event that took place at the end of August.