Get Lost: Elfy Strikes Again (Dover)

Festive Family Fun!

Last Christmas Santa made the mistake of entrusting Elfy with the final Christmas delivery… this year he thought he’d play it safe and leave Elfy to help out with loading the sleigh.

But Elfy has mixed up the naughty and nice lists! Unless they can be sorted out it’s looking like Christmas is going to be a disaster this year! Can you help Elfy to make sure Christmas isn’t ruined?

Our first visit to Get Lost took place in June 2019, to play The Krevokar Programme, Abandoned Cottage, and World Fair Hotel, so sadly we missed out on an Elfy Adventure, although the game hadn’t been totally dismantled yet and the team were kind enough to give us a peek at what might have been. Since we were in town again to play Director’s Cut, it made sense to check out Elfy Strikes Again.

Bright and early on a Monday morning, we arrived at the venue and were greeted by our enthusiastic GM for the day, Matt. Elfy is housed next door to Get Lost’s original venue containing Krevokar, Abandoned Cottage, and World Fair Hotel. The reception area isn’t as cosy as their main venue, but it was comfortable enough as we sat down for the usual health and safety talk. It was then that we dressed the part of elves, received our game brief, and made our way to the North Pole.

PUZZLES

The temporary nature of holiday-themed rooms means that you won’t be running into much, if any, impressive tech. After all, why would anyone spend tons of money on a game that will only be around for three to four months, maximum? Elfy Strikes Again was, therefore, by necessity, quite padlock heavy, with an emphasis on observational and logic puzzles. The puzzles themselves were on theme, and while there were a great number of padlocks, there was a variety of types, so it’s not all three or four-digit codes. In fact, many of the solutions were actually word-based, reinforcing the holiday theme even more. That’s not to say that players won’t have a few surprises in store for them – they’re just likely to be triggered by the GM recognising you’ve done something, rather than sensors in objects, with one notable exception.

You don’t need to have played Get Lost’s 2018 holiday game, An Elfy Adventure, to enjoy Elfy Strikes Again, but those that have played both will certainly recognise the centrepiece of the game, as a particularly cool custom set piece/puzzle makes a reappearance (If I were Get Lost, I would have done the same thing, it’s a pretty impressive piece of kit for a pop-up room, and deserves to come back again and again.)

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

As I’ve come to expect from holiday-themed rooms, there wasn’t a massive amount of story or narrative; we’re there to find the naughty and nice lists and fix Elfy’s mistake. But each of the puzzles revolved around the holiday theme, reinforcing the reason why we were there. The game started in a space that I’m not quite sure how to describe, but perhaps the closest would be Santa’s Office. Either way, the room was cosy and festive, complete with a background track of holiday favourites.

Although there isn’t a massive, overriding story arc here, the set still managed to be surprising, and the entire feel of the game changed about midway.  Elfy Strikes Again had a clear and completely unexpected, but delightful, finale, and I’m ever so grateful that we were wearing our oh so attractive Elf garb.

Get Lost always try to personalise their rooms in some way (Gordon’s name in blood on the walls of the Krevokar Programme sticks in my mind) and Elfy is no exception. I love that the team takes the time to do something to make the rooms special to the players in some way, as it never fails to bring a smile to my face.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Elfy was on hand to offer help should we need it. And it felt like we needed it a lot. Mostly it was necessary for Matt to chime in over the audio system as Elfy to offer some assistance because we just weren’t thorough enough in our searching, and made a few false assumptions.

Without a timer in the room, it was hard for us to judge just how long we should struggle with a puzzle (as I said, we didn’t search thoroughly, and were often only working with half the information) so we asked for a number of clues, but Matt was also adept at reading the room and knowing when to give us a nudge to avoid a holiday rampage.

ANYTHING ELSE

Gord and I seem to have a bit of a hangup in Christmas themed escape rooms. Prior to Elfy Strikes Again, we had only played three, but all three have seemed to give us some sort of an issue; I once had to be given the solution to a puzzle in The Night Before Christmas – a puzzle that 8-year-olds see instantly. So we were hopeful that Elfy Strikes Again would break the Christmas Room Curse. Sadly, that didn’t come to pass, but it was in no way due to an issue with Elfy. I think we should just be placed on the naughty list for over-complication and incompetence in holiday-themed rooms.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 46:08

Address: 143 Snargate Street, Dover, CT17 9BZ

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

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