A decent room which can keep all ages entertained
Agents; Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate Durham Bio Laboratories and steal as many ‘data discs’ as you can. Unfortunately you have triggered the security system which is slowly filling the laboratory with toxic fumes. Can you Escape with the data and the life of your team?
We visited Durham and did the usual tourist sites like the Cathedral and still had time to kill so thought an escape room was the perfect time-killer. There isn’t a massive amount of choice for escape rooms in Durham but we thought we’d try Lab Heist at Escape Rooms Durham. This game is at their city centre location just down the road from the Cathedral so very convenient.
Located just above high street stores there is a decent sized waiting room with some little games that kept us occupied while we waited for our GM to take us to our game. We had the usual briefing about how padlocks worked, and he explained why we were there and the added bit of the game where we had to collect ‘data discs’ (small metal discs).
There isn’t much to this room and it’s very much what-you-see-is-what-you-get but we found there was enough in there to keep us occupied. The room is designed so that mixed age/experience groups can feel like everyone is contributing as the simplest thing to do is just to find the data discs.
This was a fun room and although nothing fancy we still came away feeling like we hadn’t wasted our time. A couple of our group members were relatively inexperienced so you never know what they may think of rooms, but on this occasion they seemed happy with it. It’s a game that isn’t going to change your life, but it certainly won’t make it any worse.
PUZZLES
This room had a good mixture of puzzles which all were relevant to the setting of the game. There wasn’t any puzzles that felt to us like they were just added to slow people down which so many rooms will do.
A couple of the puzzles were a little bit trickier than others and one we actually spent a fair amount of time on as it required many data points. We did have a secret weapon in that one of our team members is an ICT Teacher so one puzzle she blitzed through in no-time at all without even needing the cheatsheet of how to do it.
We wasted more time on one puzzle because I accidentally bypassed it because it wasn’t reset correctly so I could simply pull it down and thus solve it (I honestly didn’t realise this wasn’t part of the game). As is so often with escape rooms, if you cheat/bypass something it will come back to bite you in the arse as you may still have to solve the puzzle and then you don’t realise what it is telling you.
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
This wasn’t the most advanced room we’ve seen but it was still on theme and they made sure that the decoration and puzzles were related to the theme. I learnt one thing from doing this room that I didn’t realise I didn’t do previously, I now know to always look up! Areas of the room were a little bit worn down and the ability to completely bypass a puzzle did sour it a bit, but these are all fixable.
The data-discs are a bit of a love-hate thing, one member of our group really enjoyed it but for me it detracted from the actual escape room and felt like a distraction. The data-discs do come in to the equation later as they use an overly complicated system based on how many discs you collect and how quickly you complete the room to then give you a final score.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
The GM was attentive, although he did miss a couple of things, but generally he was good and provided nudges when we looked a bit stuck, and clues if we requested them.
ANYTHING ELSE
Nope.
Success / Failure
Final Rating:
Operation | |
Puzzles | |
Room Design | |
GM/Clues | |
Excitement |
Team: 4 people – escaped in 49:51
Address: 41-42 Saddler St, Durham DH1 3NU
Website: https://www.escapedurham.co.uk
Hi Folks!
Thanks so much for this review, I’m really glad you enjoyed your time in Durham. Lab Heist is our smallest game, but what it lacks in size we (hope) we make up for it Puzzles! Sorry to hear about a reset error, as you know playing so many games occasionally mistakes happen, I can assure you it’s not a regular occurrence. The data disks can be really fun for younger players whilst some older team members are doing some of the more complicated stuff, that’s their main purpose in this game, but you’d be surprised how many PHD students can get rather hung up on collecting every single one!
If you’re ever in the Durham area do stop off at Lumley Castle in Chester-Le-Street where we have just launched our new game, Lily of Lumley, in the dungeons of Lumley Castle. Very different to our City Centre games, with a 600 year old castle to play with we’ve gone full out! Our original game “Mr Borrowdales Study” is still running in the city centre.
Hopefully we’ll see you again soon,
Thank you
Sam (Owner at ERD)