Sub Terra was a delight from start to finish. With a strong story that’s reenforced by a fantastic set, and great puzzles, it has firmly secured a place on my list of Top Ten Favourite rooms (to date). If you haven’t made the trip to Co-Decode yet, what are you waiting for?
Pressure Point: The Moonlit Wild (Ashford)
Pressure Point seem to have nailed developing games which manage to have not just good game play, but take you from the beginning, through to a peak, and finally a good, solid ending
Pressure Point: Murder on the Dance Floor (Ashford)
Pressure Point have designed a special game, full of humour and clever puzzles, with a fantastic set and fun music, and we’re just sad that we can’t play it again
Pier Pressure: Pavilion Perplex (Brighton)
Overall, this is a wonderful game; visually appealing with varied and interesting puzzles, and a clever clue system, but on top of that, it just flowed nicely and had a nice clear finale
Containment: The Lab (Worplesdon)
‘Difficulty by Darkness’ is how we’d describe this room. In addition to the darkness, the game felt as though it had a number of red-herrings, with several things in the room that we never did find combinations or keys for
Containment: The Bomb (Worplesdon)
Sadly, this room just didn’t live up to our expectations from the Sub; it was fun to play, and while there are no obvious problems with the game, it just lacked any sort of wow-factor.
Improbable Escapes: Legend of the Mayan Temple (Kingston, ON)
A fun room, with solid puzzles but was unfortunately let down by a truly terrible clue system
Trapped: Templars – The Secret Service (Okehampton)
Templars possibly ranks as the hardest room we’ve ever done. We’ve seen other teams getting decent times so it obviously just didn’t click for us. Give it a try if you want a challenge
Adventox: Alcatraz (London)
Alcatraz was a solid, enjoyable game, but it ultimately fell a bit flat for us. It’s tough to put a finger on exactly what it was; whether it was the ending in general, or just the fact that it wasn’t quite as much fun as their other room, ‘Haunted’
Mission Breakout: The Lost Passenger (London)
Mission Breakout’s website proclaims their games to be the most immersive in London. While the set and integrated puzzles certainly lend weight to that claim, we don’t feel like we can agree
TimeTrap: Station X (Reading)
TimeTrap have created an excellent experience with clever puzzles, excellent set design, and a massive amount of fun. I’m only disappointed that it took us so long to make it to Reading; Station X is one not to miss!
Deadlocked: The Testing Chamber (Reading)
There are no less than four ways this game could end, depending entirely on the choices made by the players, which could cause many to have a love/hate relationship with this room, and some might find that the existential dilemma created for them by the room is perhaps the most difficult aspect.
Lucardo: The Prison (Manchester)
A prison break is nothing new theme-wise, but this game was immersive and realistic and on a completely different level to not only to other similarly themed games, but also everything else on offer at Lucardo.
Lucardo: Virginia House (Manchester)
With the types of puzzles and the design choices, I would say this game is perfectly suited to small groups of enthusiasts (perhaps those that want to try their first room as a two) or larger groups of new players.
Escape Experience Windsor: Crown Jewel Heist (Windsor)
This is a fun room, although arguably on the easier side. If you’re in the area anyway, you’ll have a good time, but don’t go with a large and experienced team
LetsXcape: Sacred (Newark)
Costumes, puzzles, and one of the nicest owner/GMs you’ll ever meet. We preferred The Rig but Sacred is a very good room and has plenty to keep you occupied
Cave Escape: Carfax (Nottingham)
Carfax is a great room and it excelled in room design. Surrounded by the natural stone walls of the cave, the rest of the set was used to enhance this already impressive setting
Escapologic: Contraption (Nottingham)
Like most of the rooms at Escapologic this was a linear room with very strong set design. Don’t get distracted by all the funky items and you should be fine
Escapologic: Howitz (Nottingham)
Howitz is gritty, grimey, dimly lit, and full of jump scares and some really creepy toys, but if I were to give it a rating like a movie, it would receive a PG-13.
Bewilder Box: The Bewilder Box Initiative (Brighton)
If you’re like us, and putting off a visit to Bewilder Box, stop right now, and find the time to just do it! The Bewilder Box Initiative instantly became a favourite of ours
Escape 60: The Compactor (Folkestone)
The compactor had a very industrial feel, and was certainly visually impressive. There were a few surprises here and there, which kept things interesting, but generally it didn’t live up to expectations.
Get Lost Escape Rooms: The Krevokar Programme (Dover)
Our first room at Get Lost Escape Rooms and it set the bar high for the others. This room felt like we were experiencing a Resident Evil in real life. A fun game from start to finish
Elusion Rooms: The Pandora Heist (Southampton)
This is a fun room with a slightly different twist to most escape rooms. We weren’t a big fan of the format, but like Marmite, you’ll probably love it or hate it
Thinking Outside the Box: Magician’s Apprentice (Peterborough)
Everything in the room was on theme, and puzzles were logical. This is a fun room, that although perhaps a little ‘home-made’ is still worth the visit
Ctrl Alt Esc: Detention (Margate)
Detention was beautifully designed, with a good flow, and just simply, good fun, ticking all my boxes for a wonderful room.
Trapp’d: Red Rock (Peterborough)
This room is massive, and while we successfully completed it as a two, this would definitely be well suited to, and fun for, a larger group.
ClueQuest: CQoriGENES (London)
This room has almost everything I look for in an escape room: beautiful set design, clever puzzles, enough narrative to drive the game forward, and just a bit of humour
Tulleys Escape Rooms: Mutiny (Crawley)
According to Tulleys’ website, this is the easiest of their rooms. I would tend to agree, and think it would be an excellent choice for both enthusiasts and newcomers, alike
Tulleys Escape Rooms: Nethercott Manor (Crawley)
Tulleys have clearly spent an inordinate amount of both time and money to make this an experience that you are not likely to forget, and it has certainly paid off
Ctrl Alt Esc: Frankenscape (Margate)
We thought their other room ‘Spacescape’ was great – this was better! A solid room with an impressive ending
The Escapement: Egyptian Exodus (Margate)
The team have clearly put a lot of thought into this experience, and Exodus is one not to be missed.
Archimedes Inspiration: Project Delta (London)
AI Escapes are really going for full immersion with Project Delta, and have spent a lot of time to truly bring you into the world
QuestRoom: Red Giant (Los Angeles)
If Red Giant is anything to go by, the company may well be setting the standard for the future of escape rooms.
Escapade Games: Zoe (Los Angeles)
We heard this was the scariest room in LA, we discussed if this was actually something we wanted to do. I’m glad we did
The Panic Room: Prison Van (Gravesend)
For our final room of the day, we found ourselves back at The Panic Room’s Gravesham Market location, but this time outside, in a prison van!
The Panic Room: Old Father Time (Gravesend)
Of the rooms that we completed at The Panic Room, this was (in my opinion) the most beautifully designed room
The Panic Room: Enigma (Gravesend)
While Enigma is lacking the WOW-factor of other rooms at The Panic Room, it is still a solid, and enjoyable room
The Panic Room: The Don (Gravesend)
A solid room, which enthusiasts and new players alike will enjoy. A lot to do for a team of two, but plenty of space for larger teams
The Panic Room: Dino Land (Gravesend)
Dino Land was the perfect way to kick off an entire weekend of escapes, and lived up to all of my childhood dreams of visiting Jurassic Park.
Lock and Code: The Alchemy Enigma (Weston-Super-Mare)
The hardest part of this room was quite possibly the searching. Just when I thought we had looked at everything, we would discover a prop that hadn’t been used before and discover yet another piece of a puzzle or a key
XScream Escapes: The Corpsewood Killer (Ashford)
This was a really enjoyable room, but no real wow factors for me. It isn’t particularly scary, just a bit dark
Escape Reality: Fibonacci (Cardiff)
A decent but linear room that was challenging in all the right places, unfortunately let down by a terrible clue system
City Mazes: Subject 11 (Bristol)
As mentioned, the room was visually appealing, but some of the immersion was lost when the technology failed.
City Mazes: The Runner (Bristol)
Despite being billed as one of the company’s more challenging rooms, we breezed through this room as a team of four, obliterating the current record and topping the leaderboard.
Clue Adventures: The Book of Secrets (London)
Despite the sheer volume of puzzles, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this game to newbies, provided they have a larger team. For enthusiasts, it’s a solid room and a good choice if you like a plethora of puzzles.
Knockout Escape Rooms: Mad Scientist (Reading)
This room is light on backstory, but you definitely leave the outside world and become absorbed in your puzzle solving. At times a challenging room, but always fun
Escape Key: Plague (Newcastle)
I was expecting something that was more of an escape room combined with a history lesson. This was not that, but it was still good fun, although we did definitely start to feel the pressure towards the end!
Mystery Cube (London)
Only a 15 minute walk from the Underground, on the Northern Line, and there is no way to describe it other than “Fun.” Do it. You won’t regret it.