Escape Rooms Cheltenham: Cheese Robbers (Cheltenham)

It ain’t easy being cheesy

​​Every year the mice have to watch as the ungrateful humans throw their precious cheese down a muddy hill just to chase after it again!

Well this year they’ve had enough! Don your mouse ears and break into the kitchen to steal the wheel of cheese before the humans return. But watch out for their traps!

Inspired by the Brockworth Cheese rolling and the classic game ‘mouse trap’

Since relocating back to Somerset in 2021, we’ve been making our way around the local escape rooms. And while Cheltenham can’t really be classed as “local,” it’s not exactly far either. Especially not when we found ourselves even closer than usual  to Cheltenham for a weekend away and at a bit of a loose end. We’ve been hearing good things about Escape Rooms Cheltenham, and most particularly, Cheese Robbers, from fellow enthusiasts, and it seemed silly to pass up the opportunity to pay a visit when we were in the area.

So, bright and early on a Saturday morning, we made the journey into Cheltenham, and after a brief stroll around the town, we found ourselves standing outside Escape Rooms Cheltenham. We were the first game of the day, and we didn’t have to wait more than a moment before the door opened and we were ushered through to the private briefing room for Cheese Robbers by our host for the morning, Ben. After a bit of a chat, a brief overview of the room specific game rules, and confirming which version of the game we would be playing – Standard or Challenging, we felt pretty well prepared for what was to come. So we donned our mouse ears, and made our way into the kitchen to save the cheese from those crazy humans that were dead set on rolling it down the hill in just an hour’s time.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

First impressions of the set were good. We found ourselves in a kitchen, but things were a bit larger than life, given we were looking at it from the perspective of a mouse. The room was relatively spacious, with plenty of things to explore. The space was brightly lit, and decorated in a riot of colour, almost as though we had become not just mice, but cartoon mice. The cheese was right there for the taking, but heavily guarded, so we quickly set about disarming those sneaky traps set by the humans.

As we became accustomed to our surroundings, it was clear that there were aspects of the game that could be completed at any time, while others could only be completed in a certain order. This mesh of linear and non-linear is a great compromise for teams that are larger, but perhaps not particularly experienced. It also works well for smaller teams of experienced escape artists, as it allows members to split up but also forces them back together.

Despite being mice, there was a surprising lack of crawling, in fact, none at all, and Cheese Robbers would make an excellent choice for those with limited mobility (though there is a slight step into the building itself). Pacing of the game started out strong, with lots of things to take in, and figure out, but due to a few things, we often found ourselves losing momentum, and unsure where to go next, sometimes even needing a nudge from Ben. But as we neared the end of the game, and the release of the cheese grew ever closer, the pace picked up, culminating in a very satisfying finale, and cementing our status as the greatest cheese robbers.

PUZZLES

Cheese Robbers is a game of scalable difficulty, and players can choose to play either in “Standard” mode or “Challenging.” I mentioned briefly that we opted for Challenging, and the puzzles we found were typical variations on the sorts we have come to expect from escape rooms, utilising plenty of combination and keyed padlocks, alongside some fun tech and a few more tactile challenges. Observation and logic were key to a successful cheese theft, with most puzzles relying on one or the other, and sometimes both of these things. There was a bit of variety though, and there were a few tasks that required decent spatial relation skills, but thankfully, very little in the way of maths.

However, signposting for the puzzles was hit and miss. Some puzzles were perfectly signposted, with subtle but clear guidance on how to reach a solution. Others, well, not so much, and we found ourselves sometimes hung up on entirely the wrong thing. Now, this might possibly be due to the fact that we were in Challenging Mode, but I’m not 100% convinced of that. My guess in the difference between the two options is that there is simply a removal of the more blatant sign posting that might guide players with a little less subtlety, but there were a couple of puzzles that we just didn’t “get” without a clue.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Ben was a lovely and enthusiastic host. He was happy to have a conversation, and gave both an entertaining and informative briefing in the little waiting area. He was also spot on with clues.

I’ll be honest, Cheese Robbers was not our game, and we needed (what felt like) a fair amount of help as we encountered a number of things that just didn’t click, causing us to focus on the wrong things. Thankfully, Ben was on the ball with listening out for our sad little mouse squeaks of frustration, popping through clues on the screen when needed. These were enough to point us back in the right direction, while still allowing us to solve the puzzles on our own. Although we generally had to request help, there were a few instances where Ben could see that we were definitely about to head off on a tangent, and took the initiative to gently guide us away from any frustration we would have encountered by creating our own puzzles instead of solving the ones in front of us.

ANYTHING ELSE

Cheese Robbers has a lovely premise and is very family friendly, with bright colours, some entertaining moments, and of course, scalable difficulty. We didn’t click particularly well with the game, but that was possibly more to do with us than the game. Either way, we still had fun stealing the cheese.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players (escaped in 44:16)

Address: 52 Winchcombe St, Cheltenham GL52 2ND

Website: https://escaperoomscheltenham.co.uk/