Locked In Edinburgh: The Cutting Room (Edinburgh)

Feels creepily authentic

In 1987 a series of bizarre murders plagued the city of Edinburgh. Over a span of a few months, 6 victims were found in various closes in the city.

The victims were all male, in good physical condition and in their twenties. When dissected it was clear they were all missing an organ but a primitive replacement was found in its place.

Just as swiftly as they had started the murders stopped. The police never found out who was behind it all and eventually gave up the case after years of searching.

But last night there was an unexpected development in the case, 5 new victims. We don’t know why he’s back, why he’s taking organs but let’s be clear. If we don’t find the missing organs in the next hour 5 men will die. We’re counting on you.

Thanks to my family history, I’ve always had an affinity to Scotland, but we were yet to make it up there for an escape room trip – it was time that changed. We booked a long weekend to Scotland and planned to hit up some of the best rated games in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. First up was Locked In Edinburgh where we were to play The Secret Lab, Space Academy, The Cutting Room, and then in a few days time, The Distillery. We’d just finished with the first two games, so next up was The Cutting Room, a game that Locked In Edinburgh listed as their most challenging room (and usually with a minimum of three players) – gulp!

Locked In Edinburgh are located in a rather imposing building called ‘Summerhall’. Summerhall is a historic building in Edinburgh’s Southside, previously known as The Royal School of Veterinary Studies – so it lends itself well to creepy escape room themes! If I’m not mistaken, their other game, The Secret Lab, actually takes place in what used to be the kennels!

I can’t comment on the accessibility of this venue, but I’m pretty sure there is a lift that can be used, although we took the stairs. Other than a bit of bending down, I think The Cutting Room was actually pretty accessible for those with limited mobility. But if this is a concern, it’s always worth checking with the venue.

Our host for The Cutting Room was Nickolai, who was wonderfully enthusiastic when giving us our briefings, and then he left us to it, or did he….?

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Like I mentioned above, thanks to the history of the building, The Cutting Room felt remarkably genuine in this space (which is kinda worrying). There were a lot of props in the game that we weren’t sure if they were original to the building, or added for the game. I would guess you could technically say this is a horror room, but really it’s just a dark theme and some light jump scares here and there – nothing to be worried about.

The starting space was large, very large, so even if you play at capacity, which I believe is eight players, then you’ll still have lots of room to move around. We played as a team of two and had plenty to keep us busy!

With this game, I do wonder what came first, was it the space, or was it the theme? It’s great when a game slots into authentic surroundings so well like this one did – like playing a bank heist game in an old bank. It just adds an extra je ne sais quoi to the space. There was no extra noises or music added to this game, which once again added to the creepy feeling. Although we did find a way later in the game to add music ourselves (by mistake).

PUZZLES

There’s no getting around it, if you play this game as a team of two, you will be kept very busy! Due to the macabre theme of this game you’d be unsurprised to hear that the puzzles themselves were a tad dark, or at least revolved around props that felt authentic to the space.

Locked In Edinburgh class this as their most challenging game, and I think that’s probably a fair estimation, although The Secret Lab was also challenging (as a team of two). The nice thing is that this was a good type of challenging, where the puzzles were fair and true, not the annoying type of challenging where things just didn’t make sense.

This game is perfectly suited to larger teams, firstly thanks to the size of the space, but also because the puzzles, at least early on, played out in a non-linear fashion. This meant that Liz and I could save time by splitting up and working on different things. Searching, observation, maths, logic, directions, and teamwork are fundamental to be successful in The Cutting Room.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

As I mentioned earlier, Nicholai was a lovely host who made us feel very welcome. We did need a little help here and there, mostly due to our own stupidity, and when we did, help came in a timely manner. The help was received in two different ways, one was via an EKG machine (cool), and there was a secondary system for written clues – always good to have a plan B!

When the EKG machine wasn’t being used to fix our stupidity, it also displayed a countdown timer so we knew how long we had left.

A little bit of added theatrics at the end added to a nice little adrenaline boost as we made our escape from the room.

ANYTHING ELSE

The Cutting Room was a challenging, but fair game for a team of two. This was probably one of the most authentic feeling games we played in Edinburgh, mostly thanks to the building it was set in. Was it my favourite game at Locked In Edinburgh? No, I don’t think it was. Was it still a fun time? Yes, yes it was.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: Team of 2 – 49:43

Address: 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL

Website: https://www.lockedinedinburgh.com