We got a record, we finally got a legit record!
It’s Chicago, 1893 and you’ve mysteriously received tickets to stay at the infamous Dr H. H. Holmes’ World Fair Hotel. There’s just one problem, he’s America’s first serial killer. Will you Get Lost in the game??
Based on a true story in 1890’s Chicago your stay at the charmingly nicknamed ‘Murder Hotel’ isn’t all it seems. Who booked you in to the World Fair Hotel? Why do people who check in rarely check out? And more importantly, what is H.H. Holmes hiding?
Have you ever done a room where every puzzle just clicked for you? Like you were in the mind of the room’s designer? That is exactly what happened for us (well me, not so much Liz) in this room.
This was our second room of the day at Get Lost Escape Rooms in Dover after completing The Krevokar Programme, their latest and hardest room; for some reason when booking we chose a completely random order to do their rooms.
We had a little time to kill between rooms and spent that time talking to our GM, Danny, and the owners Ross and Kym which was nice and certainly better than just sitting in reception by ourselves eating sweets (there were lots of sweets!).
Once our room was ready Danny explained our mission and then took us to the room, with suitcase in hand. A small thing like being given a suitcase helped towards the immersion of us ‘checking-in’ to the hotel, although strangely there was no external door for this room and a piece of fabric was all that closed it off from the outside world.
There is no getting away from it, this is a traditional escape room and contains a number of padlocks. As I’ve said many times I love padlocks so I didn’t care, and they fitted well in the theme, as bags or items are often locked by padlocks when people travel.
It’s rooms like this, logical, flowing, and fun where I can see people getting hooked on escape rooms. This room isn’t trying to be something it’s not. It won’t blow you away with set design or tech, but it will immerse you in the story and have you wanting to see what’s next.
PUZZLES
The puzzles were all very traditional and there was nothing we hadn’t really seen before in one way or another, but that could be why we did so well.
There was a mixture of finding items (a lot of that), some logic, and one puzzle that relied heavily on team work. Although the team work puzzle was perhaps put in there to slow teams down as it felt a bit out of keeping with the story.
I enjoy a room where you may find something early on that you don’t know what to do with, and then later on it comes full circle and ties it all together. Fortunately Liz is wonderful at carrying things (or she thought we were going on a real holiday) so she carried a suitcase full of ‘useful’ items throughout the game and this saved us time towards the end.
If you’re not a fan of having to find things, which are often hidden in plain sight, then you may not like this room and I could see how it could frustrate you. Perhaps as we had already done Krevokar we knew how their minds worked so knew how sneaky they could be, and this helped us find everything easily.
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
If you’re familiar with the story of H H Holmes and his murder hotel then you can’t help but get lost in the story and feel immersed as you travel from room to room, just like his victims may have done in the real hotel.
There were no real wow factors in the room, although one bit was pretty cool, but in a way the wow factor was how they intertwined the true story with the room design.
One thing that Get Lost Escape Rooms does which is a small but nice touch is to add an element of personalisation to your experience, one could argue that it is gimmicky but we loved it and it added a bit more fun to our experiences.
The final ‘escape’ was a good way to end the room and you could read into this in two different ways as to how you truly ‘escaped’ The World Fair Hotel, was it this life, or the next?
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
We didn’t actually get any clues as this room just worked for us, but if we did they would have come over a speaker system, in character, as and when we needed them. Our GM, Danny gave us a post-room demo of his ‘creepy voice’ that he uses for the clues – it’s pretty good.
I have a feeling they were trying to slow us down in places, lights turning off and on and rattling of doors did enough to break our concentration, and elicit a few rude words from me, but even this felt in keeping with the story. *the lights were never off for more than a second or two*
ANYTHING ELSE
Arguably Dover doesn’t have much going for it, other than a castle and ferries, but Get Lost have given another reason for a visit. Easy to get to from London by train (like we did), and with more rooms opening soon, Dover just became a fun day trip!
Success / Failure
Final Rating:
Operation | |
Puzzles | |
Room Design | |
GM/Clues | |
Excitement |
Team: 2 players (escaped in 24:15 – a record time)
Address: 143 Snargate Street, Dover, CT17 9BZ
Website: https://www.getlostescaperooms.co.uk
Leave a Reply