Year-Round Festive fun!
It’s a Christmas catastrophe! Santa’s sleigh is grounded. Join the elves and save Christmas before it’s too late!
Only you can become the miracle workers to get every bit of the sleigh ready and packed before Santa has to head off.
Will you be a Christmas hero or a holiday humbug? Whatever the case you better Ho, Ho, Hurry Up!
We were up in Nottingham in April and decided to mop up a number of games that we had yet to play, and what better time to play a Christmas game than in April?! It’s always a good time at Cryptology so we decided to book in for the missing games, Ho Ho Hurry Up, and Witchful Thinking. First up, Christmas!
Liz and I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas games. We love them because they’re so warm and fuzzy, and generally just have a lovely festive feel. But we hate them because historically we seem to do really really bad at them.
I love the Cryptology venue. It seems to be an old department store, and even though it doesn’t work, I quite enjoy that there’s a massive escalator in their lobby.
We arrived bang on time, and were greeted by the owner, Mark. We’ve met Mark numerous times and could spend hours talking with him about all things escape room. But on this occasion, we were not just here to talk. No! We were here to *check notes* save Christmas!
After a bit of catch up with Mark, our host for Ho Ho Hurry Up arrived. A suitably dressed Elf named Oleg. Oleg led us up the stairs and then there we stood, outside the entrance to the game.
We received the ‘elf and safety briefing (yep, I went there) and our mission briefing, and then it was time to get down to business.
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
Other than office themed rooms, I feel like Christmas games are generally quite easy to sort in terms of set design – tinsel, elves, presents, Christmas tree, and sometimes a bonus for snow. That’s not to put down Christmas rooms, I’m just saying they’re hard to get wrong – especially when many are pop-up short term games.
Ho Ho Hurry Up had all those things, and more. I quite like that companies are starting to keep Christmas games as permanent fixtures as it means that they seem to invest more in them, both in terms of puzzles and tech.
This game didn’t have the biggest floor area but we still had plenty of space, and larger teams would too. The lighting was great, the music was delightful, and the host, spot on. This game for sure got us in the Christmas spirit (in April).
PUZZLES
The reason we’ve struggled in the past with Christmas games is that they generally seem to be made on the easier side, family friendly if you will, and we have a habit of overcomplicating puzzles. We seem to be getting better at them so maybe the curse of Christmas games is over?
Ho Ho Hurry Up was indeed family friendly and perhaps on the easier side, but it was crammed full with a variety of puzzles and they were a joy to solve – well most were, one or two were a tad frustrating, for me at least.
Searching, observation, skill (to an extent), pattern recognition, logic, and wordplay made up the bulk of the puzzles. One or two of the puzzles also used colour, in case that’s an issue for you.
Solving the puzzles generally resulted in combinations for padlocks, perhaps some tech, or maybe, if you were really lucky, some character interaction. Plus, there was an exceedingly hilarious, if strange final task that had us laughing straight through to the end.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
Oleg was a wonderful host and managed to bring the joy of Christmas to a warm April day. His briefing and debrief were both enthusiastic, and thorough. He was clearly watching us progress, and with how this game is created, he definitely had to.
Clues were delivered in a fun way as and when needed, and that’s all you really need to know about that. I believe we needed a hint for a search fail which is pretty standard with us!
Not sure where this fits, but Cryptology run a really cool software behind the scenes called ‘Tempus’. As an owner I understand it’s great as it does all the housekeeping for games/teams, but as a player, it’s really cool. After the game you get an email with your photo, GM’s name, how long you took etc. But it also gives you access to a player portal where you can see lots of cool stats about all the games you played there. We love stats.
ANYTHING ELSE
I love an out of season Christmas game, and Ho Ho Hurry Up had all the things we love about Christmas. The puzzles are family friendly, and fun, and the hosting was spot on. Even if it’s the middle of summer, get booked in for some festive fun!
Success/Failed
Final Rating:
Operation Puzzles Room Design GM/Clues Excitement
Team: 2 players – 37 min
Address: 107 Upper Parliament St, Nottingham NG1 6LA
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