Escape Quest: Mr Copplestone’s Curiosity Shoppe (Macclesfield)

A Special Room (for us)

Mr Copplestone aka “The Professor” is an inventor. His greatest invention is the world’s first time machine, built so he could travel through space and time to find interesting objects and life saving potions to sell in his curiosity shoppe.

The time machine is powered by Time Echo Crystals, these crystals are rare and only a small quantity exist in the world.  Without them the time machine won’t work.

Such a precious commodity must be stored & guarded carefully to ensure the future of time travel can continue. There’s just one problem with that – Mr Copplestone!

He may be a genius, but he’s the most forgetful man you could ever meet.  This morning when he opened his box of Time Echo Crystals he found only one left inside, where could he have put them?

Mr Copplestone and his wife Margaret live on Chapel Street in the year 1873.  We can’t rely on Mr Copplestone finding the missing crystals alone so if you’re brave enough to jump into his time machine and use the last remaining crystal we have to head to 1873 you could save the future of time travel.

However the time entry vortex is weak and can only stay open for one hour, get back inside before it closes and bring any crystals you find with you so we can keep them safe back in the future ready for our next time travelling adventure.

We were on a mini northern road trip weekend with our friends Amy and Ian (from Brit of an escape habit) and had already played a number of top quality games. But the game we really revolved the trip around was Mr Copplestone’s Curiosity Shop, the highest ranked game in the UK 2023 TERPECA’s (Ranked at #45, and coincidentally our 500th escape room.

Ian managed to find parking just around the corner from Escape Quest and then we walked over to the lovely building that housed these apparent masterpieces of escapes rooms. The venue had a feel that just oozed class and it was a very comfortable space to sit and wait for our game. With comfortable seating, toilets, and funky lockers, it had all we needed.

When we arrived we were greeted by one of the owners, Elaine. We could have been welcomed more so than we were and we felt instantly at ease. Of course everyone knows Amy and Ian so it was like travelling with escape room royalty.

We had a lovely chat and as much as we could have chatted for hours, it was time to get down to business and we were itching to get started. Elaine, took us through to a secondary waiting/briefing area that strangely doubled as a Time Machine. Sitting comfortably in this Time Machine l, we recieved our health and safety briefing and then our mission briefing over the speakers from the professor.

If you’re familiar with Escape Quest, or perhaps the TERPECAs, then you may have noticed that they have more than one game that is highly ranked. However, unlike many venues, Escape Quest only run one game at a time and alternate them every few months. It sounds odd, but when you play you will understand why.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

This is one of those games that could be reviewed in just one word, beautiful. As soon as we left the time machine it was like we truly had stepped back in time, into a beautiful northern street of old. Not only did this game look and sound right, but it also had the right smell – full on immersion.

Escape Quest have been very clever in their room design here and their ‘one game only at a time’ model makes perfect sense to us now. Although we would have loved to have been able to play their other games right after we played Copplestone.

The premise of the game was quite simple, we needed to collect eight crystals. This would enable us to be able to get home again. However there were many many more crystals than that, and to get all of the crystals there we’re many more puzzles to solve. How many crystals you ask? Well that’s confidential. We managed to get them all, but if we told you, we’d have to kill you..

Most of this game felt like it was pretty accessible, and if I remember correctly there was maybe 3 steps in the whole game. I couldn’t see a work around for this but if you struggle with steps, it could be worth asking. It looked like wheelchair users would also be able to enjoy a good chunk of this game without really missing out.

Oh oh in writing this, I just remembered another cool thing about this room. Getting a key has never been so fun!

PUZZLES

Firstly, there was no ‘difficulty by darkness’ in Copplestones as the lighting was always adequate for what we needed. Another nice thing was that we were each given our own notepad and pen for taking notes – top marks.

Everything in Copplestones felt like it was made with love and passion, and I think it was. Each item we explored or touched had been meticulously crafted to blend into the settings and everything looked bespoke.

Signposting was once again exceptional, and we were always quickly able to identity what puzzle went with with padlock. Yes there were padlocks, but who cares. We loved it.

So what types of puzzle were there? Pretty much everything: wordplay, maths, decoding, observation, pattern recognition, colours, audio, and searching. Lots.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

There was a lot to do Copplestones, especially if you wanted to get all the crystals but fortunately you’re not on your own. If assistance was needed, audio clues came in from I.R.I.S which was like a backwards SIRI. She was there to not only assist when needed but also kept us updated on how many crystals we needed to find, let us know how much time we had left, and indicated if we could access a new area.

I can’t recall if we needed any help in Copplestone as all the puzzles were beautifully logical and wodnerfullg signposted. If we did, I have no doubt it would have come in quickly and got us back on track. Actually, I think we did have one clue for a puzzle that we were second guessing ourselves on..

ANYTHING ELSE

Now we understand what the fuss is about, and we need to plan many more trips to Macclesfield to play their other games as and when they’re open.

If you’ve played, and loved Loot the Lanes at Pier Pressure in Brighton, then you must play Copplestone. They have a similar feel and game style, although Copplestone is more impressive and on a grander scale.

Be warned though. If you play this game you will have to be prepared to make many more trips back to Macclesfield to play their other games as/when they’re available – I know we’re already trying to plan another trip/trips.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players – competed with all time crystals in 52 minutes

Address: 84b Mill St, Macclesfield SK11 6NR

Website: https://www.escapequest.co.uk/