The Art of Escape: Lilipout (Athens)

A little bit of fun

The test you wrote a few days ago did not go well for you! You have to find a way to fix the problem… You know the ‘eccentric’ physics professor keeps it locked in the drawer in his office! All you have to do is…go into the drawer and fix it! How are you going to achieve this?! You will shrink using the professor’s secret formula! But does the professor hide more in the drawer than you can imagine?

Lilipout was recommended to us as we were looking for a game that was new and not horror themed. We love the horror games we played in Athens, but there comes a time where you just need a little break from darkness and being chased by monsters, and that’s where Lilipout by The Art of Escape came in.

We had just played Woman in Black at Coven Escapes, which is a short walk away from The Art of Escape, and turned up earlier than planned but kindly they let us in the building early. When we arrived we were greeted by our GM, whose name escapes me, and were led upstairs from the main foyer into a large secondary reception/party area complete with seating, water, and toilet facilities.

After a nice chat with our GM it was time to play the game. She took us back downstairs to the first reception room and then proceeded to read us the health and safety and mission briefing. One thing we were told was that although this game had been translated into English, there was one puzzle that couldn’t be translated so this was already marked as ‘completed’, although when we found it we weren’t 100% sure if it had been or not (it had). Before we knew it, our mission began and we were ready to shrink down in size to enter the professor’s desk.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Ignoring the puzzles (more on them later), this was a fun space to be in. It had the right level of whimsy thanks to the stupidly large items around the room and although being rather dimly lit, the lighting was just bright enough to see what we needed, although it would have been nice to have it brighter in a few areas.

With ambient music being played at all times, except when we needed to listen for something, this really did feel like a bit of a party – although that could have been that we had just come from Woman in Black so anything would have felt more upbeat compared to that.

From memory, I think this is perhaps the third game we’ve played where we’ve been shrunk down, but this was the first where we were in a desk drawer. It had many of the usual items you’d expect to find, although to us, they were now supersized. This game had a lot of potential to be really fun, but it just didn’t quite get there for us.

I believe this game hasn’t long been translated into English but I would guess that it has been open for a while in Greek as it was showing quite a few signs of wear and tear in many areas. It could certainly do with a little TLC to bring it back up to what it should be.

PUZZLES

This game appears to have been designed to be completely linear, unfortunately for us as a team of four we found it made it tricky for everyone to feel involved at all times. The puzzles themselves were somewhat thematic but didn’t really feel like they massively fit into the context of the game, admittedly we really didn’t click with this game so that has maybe tainted our view of it.

The puzzles generally revolved around; wordplay, observation, colour, audio, perhaps some spatial awareness/logic, and even a few more tactile tasks. Unfortunately for us, we found that we were able to solve the final puzzle after perhaps only 20 minutes and this would have ended the game and bypassed most of it. There was a golden opportunity for a GM masterclass here but we were simply told over the speaker system “put it back, you shouldn’t have solved it yet” – as it was me who had solved it, I mentally clocked out of the game at that point.

One bonus, or negative depending on your viewpoint was that there was a lack of traditional padlocks in this game. Most of the props were large and tactile and there was a good use of tech in the build.

I can see what they were trying to do with the puzzles in Lilipout, but due to a distinct lack of signposting it felt more frustrating rather than the fun we were hoping for. It felt like we needed a number of clues just to get us through the game, and by time it was over we were very glad of it.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Our GM was very enthusiastic and made us feel very welcome when we arrived. In the game itself she provided clues when requested and we didn’t have to wait too long, sometimes they helped get us back on track, sometimes not so much. I think this is where the language barrier perhaps became an issue. The clue delivery system was cool though as they appeared in text on a screen in the room that was designed to look like a wristwatch.

As I previously mentioned, I think the fact that we were able to solve the final puzzle early in the game really tainted our experience. As a team we discussed it after the game and came up with many ways that this could have been dealt with better and without breaking the immersion. I really can’t imagine we are the only team to have done this as that final puzzle was arguably really poorly designed.

ANYTHING ELSE

We really wanted to like this game, but instead it was our least favourite game of all the ones we played in Athens. It had potential thanks to the fun set design, but due to poor puzzles and a lack of signposting it is not a game we’ll be recommending anytime soon.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players – escaped in 64mins

Address: Irakleous 88, Athina 176 72

Website: https://artofescape.gr/