Escape Reading: Mary’s Curse (Reading)

Another great addition to the Reading scene

The Golden Heart of Quietmere has been lost for many years.

Ever since its disappearance, villagers have vanished without explanation, and a dark curse has settled over the town. Locals whisper that Quiet Mary, once the village’s guardian, is searching for what was taken from her.

Uncover the truth, find the Golden Heart and lift Mary’s Curse. But beware: many have tried before you, and none have returned.

Reading is an interesting place, for years it was a Mecca for escape room enthusiasts, with companies like Deadlocked, Time Trap and Escape Reading. But then things perhaps got a little stale, with no new games opening and Time Trap sadly closing.

The last few years though has seen the Reading escape room scene having a bit of a resurgence with some quality new games opening; The Reading Witch at Deadlocked, and The Locktopus at Knockout to name a couple. So you can imagine our excitement when we started hearing some great things about another new game in Reading, this time at Escape Reading – the same team that brought the wonderful Age of Magic and Ram Raid to the masses.

We were told that this new game, Mary’s Curse, was unlike anything else in Reading, and was going to instantly be a fan favourite. So naturally, we booked a slot and hopped on a train to Reading.

Mary’s Curse is at yet another Escape Reading venue. I believe this is their third (currently open) venue and feels more central than the others – it’s literally over the road from Siren Craft Beer if you’re looking for a pre or post game beer. Despite being at a different location, as soon as you enter the building, you know you’re in the right place thanks to the cool entrance ‘portal’.

We were buzzed into the building at our allotted time, and ascended the stairs (always a challenge after leg day).  At the top of the stairs we entered… a village? Already different from almost every other venue we’ve played in the UK, our intrigue intensified.

A voice came over the speaker system and instructed us on what to do next. We then had time to use the toilets before returning to a certain spot for our journey to begin.

Top tip: even if you don’t need the toilet, use them. We spent far too long in the bathrooms before the game because somehow, they made them fun.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

As soon as you get to the top of the stairs it’s clear to see that immersion is what they’ve gone for here. It had the feel of some European venues that we’ve played. Venues where each individual game is part of something bigger. Escape Reading have some big plans for this venue, and if they pull it off, it will be something really quite special.

After our game we got to have a lovely chat with the owner (and our host), Tamas, and he pointed out a number of little details that we’d somehow missed. Little things that could easily be missed, probably weren’t needed, yet somehow just added to the experience.

The set is really clever and they have used the space well. By European standards, this isn’t a huge room, but by UK standards, it’s really quite sizable and because of how the space is used it feels even bigger.

This game felt more theatrical than we were expecting, with audio and lighting used to great effect. Throw in some great interactions with our host, and this game had everything we love in an escape room. Even the introduction video was well done and gave a number of rules without breaking anything.

If one had to be critical, I think it’s safe to say that the earlier set build didn’t fully make it through to the whole game. Things later in the game felt a little rougher around the edges. Did it affect the game? Not really. Will some people moan about it? Probably, but always better to manage expectations.

PUZZLES

Of course no game is complete without puzzles, and this 90 minute game had enough puzzles to keep us going for a little over an hour. We weren’t particularly on form when we played, but we found the puzzles to be the right level of challenging and there was a solid variety: searching, observation, basic maths, logic, teamwork, communication, and maybe a little role playing.

Signposting was good, and despite there being padlocks dotted around the room(s), it was always pretty clear what went where. That signposting carried on throughout the room, sometimes things were perhaps too well signposted as we managed to solve a puzzle without doing a major chunk of it (we realised that after we then found something and solved it needlessly).

I’d say that this game relied on the ‘KISS method’. Keep It Simple, Stupid. Basically making a lower tech game to avoid things going massively wrong. It was certainly lower tech than their other game, Age of Magic. That’s not a negative though, everything worked, was still seamless and all rather clever.

We played as a team of two, which felt like a good size, but you could probably play with a couple more people and still keep active. A good chunk of the game was linear, but there were times where we could split up and work on things independently.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

One of the stand out points of Mary’s Curse for us was the hosting. Tamas played his character well and it was a pleasant surprise every time we saw him.

I’m personally not a huge fan of having to role-play with actors, but Tamas got the level just right so that it was always fun, and never awkward.

If we needed help, there were a few systems in place so we could get it without breaking immersion. Each clue system felt natural to the story or space we were in. At times it was also tricky to work out if we were given help, or the narrative was just unfolding.

Clearly though, as we were being quite dim, we did get some help but it was perfectly timed to avoid frustration and equally as cryptic so as to get our attention to something without activity giving us the solution.

ANYTHING ELSE

I’m loving Reading’s resurgence as an escape room destination, and Mary’s Curse is another great addition to it. I’m intrigued to see how this venue develops, but it’s started strong and the potential for something really quite special is huge!

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 2 Players

Address: 106A Friar St, Reading RG1 1EP

Website: https://escapereading.co.uk/