Mission Breakout: Codebreakers (London)

Close, but no cigar

A mind-blowing script based on the extraordinary true story of the very confidential Codebreakers! Will you be able to decode the secret messages of the Nazis, escape the room and save the World?

Our second room of the evening after completing The Lost Passenger was Codebreakers, a much more common theme with escape rooms.

Between the rooms we were taken to a separate waiting area which fortunately had free water and a very large fan. We were given the same health and safety briefing and then led down the corridor to the room.

First impressions were decent, lots of gadgets and gizmos around the place that would need toying with. Before we could get started, our GM gave us a rather unenthusiastic room briefing (he didn’t even introduce himself) and then after a short video our time began.

PUZZLES

When you get into the room you can’t help but notice lots of wires and devices on the wall, unfortunately for the most part you are told to not touch them. There was an element of searching required to find some items you required, but really this wasn’t a search heavy room.

Actually, this wasn’t really an ‘anything heavy’ room. It all just felt very lacking. One puzzle was purely guess work, another was very ambiguous due to how it was designed, and only one could be classed as impressive.

Like the other room at Mission Breakout this was a very linear room and there was a set route you had to take and you couldn’t progress unless you had completed that puzzle. This was odd because at one point we were working on a puzzle and it actually just opened up before we were finished.

It’s worth noting that one puzzle required at least three people so if you like doing rooms as a two you may struggle (or it may be impossible).

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

The room design wasn’t too bad, it wasn’t amazing and it wasn’t as impressive as The Lost Passenger. They had obviously thought about the journey as it made sense for the codebreaking machine to be hidden away like it was, although I consider that the best bit of theming was actually in the spot where you spend the least time (some crawling/crouching involved).

One or two bits arguably felt out of place with the theme and I feel like this room had a few too many red herrings in it which were possibly there to just slow you down and distract you.

For me, the worst part of this room was the ending. Throughout the room there’s a big build up to this great ‘machine’ and then you exit through a door with a modern number lock on it. We exited into an empty corridor and were halfway down the hallway before our GM appeared.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

The clue system was decent enough, they were delivered when requested over a 1940s style screen. Our under-enthusiastic GM delivered clues promptly but we couldn’t help but feel that at times he just pushed a button somewhere to move us on.

ANYTHING ELSE

I’m not sure what category to fit this under but this seems the most fitting, like in The Lost Passenger you move between sections and once through it closes behind you never to be seen again. What we really disliked was that they were resetting the first part of the room while we were still in the second part, normally this would be fine but when you can hear them doing it it very much ruins the immersion. We could only assume it was because they run a tight ship and want to get people in and out as quickly as possible.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 5 players

Address: 141-145 Kentish Town Road, NW1 8PB, London

Website: https://www.missionbreakout.london