Escape Plan: Pushed for Time (London)

New favourite London game? Perhaps…

Pushed for Time is an Escape Room Adventure that starts at the offices of Riditure & Co. – the world’s first and only Time Travel Agency. You have been recruited by Riditure & Co. to trace the disappearance of their engineers. Stuffed in the walls of an Art Deco elevator, you find some blueprints not seen since 1926. As you investigate the plans, you realise that the only way forwards is back!

Whenever someone asks for a recommendation for an escape room in London, one of our first thoughts is Escape Plan. The company has a well deserved reputation for engaging and exciting games filled with lovely sets, and beautifully made tactile puzzles. In fact, even though it’s been over six years since we played it, Battle for Britain remains firmly planted in our minds as one of the best finales to a game, ever.

Our last visit to Escape Plan was in January 2020, when we managed to play The Adventure Begins and Roll Out the Barrel and since then, we have been (im)patiently awaiting something new from the company. We were absolutely delighted when the announcement for Pushed for Time appeared on social media last year, but sadly, it was almost a year, to date, after that announcement before we would find ourselves in London with plenty of notice to get ourselves booked in to experience it. After a mad weekend involving escape rooms in both Brighton and Nottingham, we took advantage of a stopover in London to do just that.

After a leisurely walk from King’s Cross, we found ourselves outside Rich Mix, which, in addition to being a cinema/art gallery/live performance venue, is also now home to all of the games on offer from Escape Plan. Once we had checked in with reception, it wasn’t long before our GM, along with the rest of the team working at Escape Plan that day, arrived to escort us upstairs, and we had a brief chat with the team before being led away to begin our actual briefing, which was a blend of well produced video, and an entertaining chat with our GM – alongside the usual advice to not lick any wires, and a few other room specific guidelines.

Finally, once we were as fully prepared as we could be for an adventure through time, we stepped through the entrance to Pushed for Time, and found ourselves in a tidy, albeit, unassuming, and pleasant office space. But it was once we uncovered the time machine that things really started to take off. The present faded away, and we found ourselves effortlessly moving through time and space, so to speak.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Pushed for Time is the company’s first game that isn’t set during World War 2, but it’s also not totally set in the present – not surprising given the time travel theme – so we were interested to see just what they would do with it. And they did not disappoint. Instead of the 1940’s we found ourselves just a few decades earlier, in the ‘20’s, with a variety of sets that fully embraced the Art Deco style of the time period. Escape Plan games always have a more handmade, bespoke, and lovingly crafted feel to them, and I love that about them. Each space we uncovered throughout the game was beautifully designed, and just lovely to spend time in. Pushed for Time also wasn’t without its surprises or show-stopping moments, and while they’ve employed a mechanic here that we’ve seen once or twice before, that doesn’t make it any less impressive, or any less fun.

And of course, Pushed for Time was just plain fun. The atmosphere of the game was entirely different to that of the other Escape Plan games, with their war-time settings, and at times, it felt almost playful. While this isn’t a game I would describe as narrative-driven, the story was present, and our objectives clear, allowing the game to flow effortlessly from puzzle to puzzle, and setting a fast, but never frantic pace, as we made our way through time, and finally, back to the present.

PUZZLES

Pushed for Time felt like a game built for the puzzles. And thankfully, the game was full of puzzles that just made sense. They were well-telegraphed, and incredibly fair, even if at times we required a gentle nudge to get back on track (and by that I mean, we didn’t think to pick something up to look at it and missed a key piece of one puzzle). While the puzzles were logical and fair, they were also on occasion surprisingly complex, with many different aspects and components required to reach just one solution. Despite that, however, the puzzles never felt tedious, with each aspect seeming to just fit into place, allowing for an excellent flow and pacing.

Perhaps one of my favourite parts of any and all of the games at Escape Plan are their ingenious puzzle boxes and clever handmade mechanisms of varying sizes and styles, and there was no shortage of those throughout Pushed for Time. There were plenty of tactile puzzles and physical props, interspersed with some clever tech in the perfect places as well, keeping the game varied, and delivering a wonderful mix of puzzle types, and therefore, puzzle-solving skills.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

It felt like everyone working at Escape Plan on the day of our visit popped down to greet us in the Rich Mix lobby, and we were warmly welcomed by the entire team before following our GM, Eleanor up to Pushed for Time. While part of the briefing was a video, the part that wasn’t was delivered by Eleanor with panache, and a bit of humour.

Whilst clues appeared on a screen, the screen was perfectly integrated within the narrative, and worked perfectly with the theming. And Eleanor was on the ball with the nudges. We didn’t need many, but the ones we did need, were most definitely needed, and those came through at the perfect times to avoid any frustration, or slump in pacing, providing just enough of a push to get us back where we needed to be.

ANYTHING ELSE

Escape Plan have outdone themselves once again, with another fantastic game that is full of unique puzzles, a captivating storyline, not to mention, some really fun mechanics. Choosing my favourite game at Escape Plan feels a bit like if you were to ask a parent to choose their favourite child – they say they love them all equally, but we all know parents still secretly have one. (And Pushed for Time might just be mine, but it’s a close call.)

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in …. (we can’t remember)

Address: 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, Shoreditch, London E1 6LA

Website: https://escapeplanltd.com/

*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for these tickets, but this has not influenced our review*