Escapologic: Heistakes (Nottingham)

Get in, get out – simple?

After a daring bank heist goes incredibly wrong, can you finish the job?

Five very different criminals were brought together to accomplish the impossible, break into the high security vault underneath Scelus Bank and steal whatever is inside. The operation did not go according to plan and the five have found themselves in police custody, on the run or even worse, dead!

Were they set up by the mysterious leader known as Xander and if so, to what end?

Now is your chance to assemble a crack team of your fellow criminals and take on the most heart stopping heist in history. Will you crack under the intense pressure or will you escape before the police turn up?

After escaping from the Butcher‘s grasp we really needed a change of pace (and lighting) so it was fortunate that our next room was Heistakes, a nice light-hearted bank robbery to bring our heart rates back down.

Our GM for Heistakes was Will, a GM we had on an earlier room and had spent time chatting with so we knew we were in good hands. Will gave the health and safety briefing in the room, and when I say room it is more like a garage, complete with a full-sized van. We were there to complete a previously botched bank robbery and get out before the Police arrived.

The bank heist must be one of the most popular escape room themes that there is, and it’s not surprising really as it is easy to fit a back story around it. Despite us having already done a few rooms with this theme, this room felt different probably due to the story that Escapologic build into all their rooms.

Anyway, after a briefing by Will our time began and we were on our own to work out how to get into the vault.

PUZZLES

When we were in this room we were lost in the story and moved along at a good pace, however after the room when we’ve looked back and have had time to reflect we’ve realised that there wasn’t actually that many puzzles in it. As a team of two this was ok as we both were able to work on things and neither of us ran out of things to do, much if we had a bigger team then this probably would have been more problematical. This is a very linear room and if you were part of a larger team then I would imagine there would be a fair amount of thumb twiddling for some people on your team.

The puzzles that were in the room were good and fitted into the theme well. For the most part they are straight forward and you can tackle them solo but one puzzle needs at least two people to complete. The focal point of the room is a nice touch and working on it was strangely satisfying.

There was one puzzle that we did struggle on but we’re not sure if that falls into the puzzle category or room design. This puzzle involved seeing something which in normal lighting probably wouldn’t have been a problem, but when the room was being lit by a bright blue safe we found it a struggle to see what we needed. We only actually solved that puzzle by a bit of fluke.

We thought we had completed the room only to find out that there was still one more puzzle ahead of us – one we really didn’t see coming. With no time to think we just jumped straight in and solved it, it was like the room wasn’t quite done with us and wanted to offer an encore. We felt like a number of rooms at Escapologic felt a bit anticlimactic, but Heistakes got it right.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Despite the puzzle aspect feeling a bit lacking, they made up for it in room design. The garage where you start was probably legitimately a garage, and the vault where you end up really did look genuine. For most of the game you can see what you are working towards and you can’t help but admire the beauty of what they have created here, especially when it ‘comes alive’.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

As previously alluded to, Will did a good job and offered timely clues and nudges when they were needed. Of course when I say Will, I mean our hacker accomplice who was off-site… If we needed clues they were delivered via a computer terminal in the main vault room which was a nice touch. Walkie-talkies would have been easy to justify for this theme but Escapologic took it one step further and made it that little bit better.

There was no clock in the room which I usually dislike but it worked. Why would you break into a vault and have a countdown clock telling how long until the police arrived?

ANYTHING ELSE

This is a fun room, but due to how linear it is and the lack of puzzles we probably wouldn’t advise it for large teams, especially if those teams are experienced. It’s definitely a room to give a go though as it is certainly visually impressive.

If the lighting was improved for the puzzle we struggled with then I thought we would have found it a bit less frustrating overall, but that was really just a minor blip in an otherwise decent room.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 35:13 with one clue (and a nudge)

Address: 21-23 Castle Gate, Nottingham NG1 7AQ

Website: https://www.escapologic.com