Get Lost: Director’s Cut (Dover)

A wonderfully originally set!

Who is the Director?
What will you find inside the cinema?”

It feels like a lifetime since we played Krevokar, World Fair Hotel, and Abandoned Cottage at Get Lost Dover and we’ve been waiting impatiently for their long-promised Director’s Cut room to open. When we saw it was finally open, and getting rave reviews, we knew we had to go down to check it out.

Unlike last time when we visited, this room is located at a secondary location in an odd shopping centre type building closer to the centre of town, but still easy enough to find.

When we arrived we were greeted by our GM, Matt. Matt did the health and safety briefing in the waiting area and that was swiftly followed by the room specific briefing. With the formalities out of the way, Matt opened the door to the room and once inside, our time began.

PUZZLES

As a team of two, we were able to split up and work on different things simultaneously, although there were elements, particularly early on, where the room was linear.

There was a good mix of puzzles, which were mostly observation-based although there was a heavily logic-based puzzle, and a fair amount of communication needed throughout the room.

There was a puzzle of the style we’re not a fan of and this caused us a bit of a problem but we got there eventually. With verbally good signposting around the room there was never really any uncertainty as to what we needed to do next.

This room has many distinct parts and with each part you encounter, you will find different types of puzzles. At one point you come across a smorgasbord of puzzles that feel very ‘traditional’, but even those are well put together.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

There is no way we could find to rate this room down on room design. The premise is that you’re in a cinema and it 100% felt like we were. This was even more evident by the fact that I gather Get Lost do sometimes use it as their own personal cinema as it is fully functioning!

The way the room opens up as you go on your journey is impressive and the obvious shortcuts they could have taken with the design were vetoed in favour of authenticity. This wasn’t a shiny new multiplex type cinema but more of a quaint art-deco small-town cinema – and I love quaint art-deco small town cinemas!

Entering this room you have a rough idea of what is to come yet they still find ways to keep you guessing, even when we thought we had everything sussed there was more to come that we didn’t expect. It was nice to see that they didn’t feel the need to cram in lots of puzzles just because they had space to; quality over quantity it the mantra here.

Arguably there were one or two things later on that felt a little out of place and like they were thrown in just to bulk the room up and to give it a more traditional escape room flavour, but almost everything in the room felt like it belonged and was on theme.

A good use of tech will keep you guessing about what will happen when you solve a puzzle, and even the few padlocks you will find shouldn’t dampen the fun.

With a clear and strong ending to the room, we had no doubt that we had completed our mission and it was (sadly) time to exit the room.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Matt was friendly and welcoming when we arrived and was equally as friendly and chatty after our game. We needed at least one clue, thanks to a rather tricky version of Liz’s least favourite puzzle-type, but the hint was delivered quickly and had just enough information to get us back on track.

Later in the room, your remaining time and occasional clues are displayed on a screen that you really can’t miss, but early on you’re left guessing on time and clues are delivered over a speaker system, which are in character (as you would expect from Get Lost).

There’s a little thing that Get Lost does in all their rooms (that we have played) and it was nice to see it returning in Director’s Cut. It’s so simple, but simply seeing your name in a room in one way-or-another is a nice touch that makes your experience a little more personalised.

ANYTHING ELSE

The mission is to collect five stars for the director’s film, Get Lost Dover certainly get five stars from us! There aren’t many rooms that I’d happily go back and spend a few hours in but this is certainly one of them – when’s the next screening?

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 32:41

Address: Co-Innovation Centre, Stembrook, Dover CT16 1PF

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

*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for these tickets, but this has not influenced our review*