Mythologic: Hypnos (Gillingham)

We passed the test…

A night out drinking when there’s a homicidal masked maniac loose in your area. Good idea!

Awaking from a drunken stupor, you find yourself the latest victim in a sadistic game – find your way out within an hour or BOOM!

We’d just completed the very much family-friendly room ‘The Game’ at Mythologic and after a short water break in their comfortable waiting area, it was time for the next room, Hypnos.

The premise for Hypnos was much darker so after the room briefing that took place outside the room, we weren’t overly surprised to be given bags to put over our heads before being lead into the room. Don’t worry though, the bags didn’t feel claustrophobic at all and are obviously washed regularly as they smelled quite fresh.

The story of the room was one we were familiar with as it was along the same theme as The Damned at Tricky Escape – basically a serial killer who is testing you to see if you deserve to live or not. I quite like games like this as it means that pretty much everything in the room feels like it belongs, it’s a test after all so why wouldn’t things be padlocked?

Anyway, with the bags over our heads, we were walked into the room and handcuffed to a railing (there was a safety key within easy reach), before we could remove the bags the killer had a short video for us to listen to. When the video ended, our time began.

PUZZLES

The puzzles were mostly observational but with some logic in there too. The majority of the puzzles resulted in combinations for padlocks but there was a decent amount of tech involved which was enough to keep you guessing as to what would happen next. If you’re an escape room enthusiast you probably won’t see any puzzles that you haven’t seen before, but they put a good spin on them which keeps them interesting. I particularly enjoyed the change of puzzle type that came later in the game and how this forces you to change your thought process.

Once free of our handcuffs (the first puzzle) the room played out in a multi-linear fashion and we were able to work on different things simultaneously. Later the room does well to bring everyone back together for the climax and you need to work as a team to finish successfully.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Having just come from The Game the set design in Hypnos felt more basic but given the theme, it worked. We expected Hypnos to be dark due to the theming, but actually, it wasn’t, although torches were provided just in case we needed them (we didn’t).

The start of the room set the tone well and there was a good use of tech early on which I particularly enjoyed. I’ve used this tech in other rooms and normally companies seem to go cheap and cheerful but the guys at Mythologic seemed to decide that if they’re going to do something then they’re going to do it right. The piece of equipment used, to my untrained eye, seemed to be military grade! My only regret was that I didn’t get to play with it more.

To add to the feeling of pressure there was a ticking clock noise constantly playing over the speakers, just reminding you that time was running out. At first, this noise was annoying but eventually, we managed to forget about it.

When we thought we knew everything this room had in store for us, it threw a curveball and everything changed, with different puzzles and a generally different feel. This curveball led to a satisfactory ending which ended the room on a high.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Our time was always visible thanks to a rather large projection of it on a wall. This projector was also used for displaying clues as and when they were needed.

Our GM, Chris was obviously watching us closely as when we did need a clue we didn’t have to wait for long at all. We actually needed two clues in Hypnos due to search fails, basic stuff but we somehow just overlooked it.

ANYTHING ELSE

There is a lovely team in place at Mythologic and talking to them it’s easy to feel their passion for escape rooms. I could be mistaken but they strike me as the type of people who want to do things right, regardless of the cost, and that’s what they’ve done here. With choices in the room and some nice little touches outside too – phone chargers in the lockers? Of course!

Hypnos is a darker (theme) than their other room but has interesting and challenging puzzles. A numbered padlocks around the place but a good use of tech breaks them up nicely. I can’t wait to see what Mythologic have in store for their next room, Penn13wise.

Success/Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 41:04

Address: 63 Green St, Gillingham ME7 1AE

Website: https://mythologicescaperooms.co.uk