nearLondon

- Overall rating:
Tulleys Escape (Crawley): Mutiny

Tulleys deliver again with a beautiful set and solid puzzles. The one area where I felt that The Outfitters was lacking was on the physical puzzles front so it was great that this game was strong on that front with a couple of real standout elements.

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Tulleys Escape (Crawley): The Outfitters

An impressive first outing for a team with plenty of experience in immersion and theatre but no background in puzzles. Outfitters is a beautiful game with solid puzzles that is about as expansive as they come – I’d highly recommend heading down if you get the chance.

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Escaper MK (Milton Keynes): Cabin in the Woods

A disappointing room from start to finish. Darkness was used to make the game more difficult, decoration was minimal, puzzles were weak and lazy. For all but the absolute novice, this will feel distinctly lacking.

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The Panic Room Harlow: The Tomb

Two tonnes of sand, flowing puzzles and fun exploration during a game is hard not to love. Unfortunately there were too many parts that felt a bit stuck together with sellotape and sticky back plastic. Fun overall, but it wasn’t quite the immersive adventure it deserved to be.

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TimeTrap Escape Rooms (Reading): Rebellion 1136

A thoroughly enjoyable, feel good experience that managed to transport us from the streets of Reading to the Dark Ages. The GMs/owners are friendly, the room is pretty, the puzzles are fun and there’s a subtlety to the puzzle structure that shows experience beyond the time they’ve been in the business.  

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Salisbury Escape Rooms: FRAMED

An action-packed fun-filled sprint of a game, stuffed to the gunnels with fun original puzzles. If you ignore the somewhat drab setting of the police offices and concentrate on the relentless flow of the game you’ll have a great time inside the room.

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Houdini's Escape Room: Escape from Alcatraz

An well rounded experience from the moment you enter the shop to the moment you walk out the door. A tough start for novices but good plenty of good puzzles. Let down a bit by a couple of awkward moments in the game.

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ClueCapers: Rescue from Winchokey

A delightfully quirky experience that takes the Prison Break theme and turns it on its head. Aside from one or two weak puzzles there were strong solutions throughout with an emphasis on originality. I suspect experienced players are likely to particularly enjoy this unusual game.

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KLB Escape Room: The Inheritance

A fairly uninteresting room ruined by an early puzzle that required obscure, outside-the-room knowledge.

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Room Escape MK: The Sphinx Chamber

A game that would have been the worst one I’d ever played had I not just come from playing their first room. It’s an incredibly sparse space with almost no puzzle content, no flow and very little of interest which I left feeling frustrated and disappointed.