A decent room with nice theming*
The world has been infected with a virus. You have two options; sit around and let it take you or redouble your efforts to retrieve a vaccine from an old medical facility.
In order to get your hands on it, you must find a way to defeat the lock down on the lab.
The quarantine timer is set to 60 minutes, after which the room and all traces of your work will be incinerated. You must do this to save humanity as we know it…
This was our third and final room of the day at Escape Peterborough and we really hoped it would be better than the first two rooms we did. It didn’t help that when we did Espionage earlier in the day we could hear the team doing this room (it’s next door) complaining about a reset fail which meant they didn’t get out.
Unfortunately, we were kept waiting once again so went into the room late which didn’t set the best first impression. However once we got into the room we were pleasantly surprised as this looked much more like what we were hoping to find in the other rooms.
This room didn’t feel overly linear as Liz and I were able to split up and work on different things for the most part. We found a clear starting point and got straight into solving the room.
The first puzzle was easier than it should have been due to a lazy reset but that was minor and even then it wouldn’t have taken much longer to solve than it did.
There was one observation fail on my part and that is due to me trying to help the GM by not unnecessarily moving items thus enabling a quicker reset. Turns out we actually needed to move this item as it enabled us to progress with the room.
Out of the three rooms we did at Escape Peterborough on this day, this was the strongest of the bunch and it would have received a higher rating if it wasn’t for the many issues with the company*
PUZZLES
All of the puzzles were (at least tentatively) linked to the theming of the room and most were based on logic rather than hunting for items around the room.
There was one piece of tech which we particularly enjoyed, despite it taking a long time to solve, as it relied on communication and teamwork.
Later in the game they introduced a piece of technology that we haven’t seen before in an escape room, and I think we know why we haven’t. Despite it seeming cool at first, and us knowing exactly what to do with it, it gave ambiguous answers which just ended up delaying us.
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
This room was actually well designed and fitted within the storyline well, there was nothing truly exceptional or any wow factors but it was a solid room. Probably the best suggestion I would offer for improving the room would be to frost the exterior windows so that you don’t have the outside distractions of Peterborough ruining the immersion.
Another way to improve all the rooms at this place would be to invest in sound insulation between rooms. At one point we could hear the team in Espionage working on their puzzles and calling out combinations!
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
Unfortunately as we found with the other rooms we did at Escape Peterborough, this room was let down by the GM again. When we decided we needed a clue we had to ask at least five times and wait a number of minutes for a response.
When the clue did eventually come through it was delivered via a message on the TV screen.
ANYTHING ELSE
If you get a good GM then this is a solid room and one we would happily recommend to enthusiasts. Until the issues with running the game are fixed, we won’t be recommending it to anyone.
*Since writing this review Escape Peterborough has reached out to apologise for our experiences on this day. They stated the problems were due to staff shortages and not the levels they usually aspire to. They have invited us back to see their usual standards and try their other rooms. Watch this space…
Success/Failure
Final Rating:
| Operation | |
| Puzzles | |
| Room Design | |
| GM/Clues | |
| Excitement |
Team: 2 players (escaped in 47:09)
Address: 23 Church Walk, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, PE1 1SB
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