The Escapement: Egyptian Exodus (Margate)

Even the sands of time couldn’t help us

You are archaeologists, excavating the lost tomb of Ramses III, so far, all of those who have entered the tomb have not returned. The tomb is guarded heavily by Anubis, God of the underworld.

Gravediggers and previous archaeologist have been rampageous in their efforts to discover the lost tomb, the whole crypt is in diss array.

Do everything you can to help Anubis and please the gods. But be careful, we know that Anubis is easily angered.

Your mission is to find and restore the missing canopic jars and allow the pharaoh to pass safely into the afterlife in order to make your escape.

As we were led around the corner by Mica, following our successful navigation of the Polaris, we came upon the entrance to the tomb of Pharaoh Ramses III. After a brief chat outside the imposing stone doors, we stepped through into Ancient Egypt and began our adventure.

First thoughts upon entering the space were, quite simply, “WOW.” Stepping over the threshold, you leave Margate and enter a pyramid ravaged by time. Game play was slow to begin with, but perhaps this was because I spent a fair amount of time just observing the details and debating if I should take off my shoes to fully appreciate the sand.

As with other games at The Escapement, everything serves a purpose, you just have to figure out what to do with it. You will need all of your senses to solve the puzzles (apart from taste, please don’t lick anything.) We were told there were two places to start, but one was well hidden, and our adventure began. Full disclosure, we struggled a bit, but that didn’t make the experience any less enjoyable, and the climax of the game was delightfully thrilling.

PUZZLES

Egyptian Exodus has two different modes: Hard and Extreme. I dread to think what Extreme mode is like, considering we crashed and burned in Hard. Despite the difficulty of the puzzles, they were logical, and made perfect sense, once we were nudged in the right direction. Full disclosure, we required frequent nudging, and there were a few outright pleas for help. Difficulty is subjective however, (I once struggled with a puzzle for ten minutes, that apparently eight-year olds are able to see immediately), and on reflection, we definitely made certain elements more complex than they needed to be. The only place I could think of where there could be room for improvement might be to provide an instrument to write with, because archaeologists would take notes, and there were points where being able to write something would have made my head hurt a bit less. That being said, in a team larger than two, or a twosome that perhaps thinks outside the box a bit more swiftly than we did, this would be unnecessary.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

The Escapement’s goal in set design is to make you feel as though you have stepped onto a movie set, and they have certainly succeeded. (In fact, their rooms are even more realistic than some of the actual movie sets I’ve worked on.) Egyptian Exodus was as perfectly designed as each of their other rooms. Even the corridors outside the games themselves are thought out, and decorated in such a way that your experience begins long before you step inside the space and begin your adventure.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

As escape rooms gravitate more toward the narrative, story-led, fully immersive experience, I find that clue delivery plays a bigger and bigger role in the overall experience, with clues and narration being given by a character that is part of your team, but perhaps never seen, becoming the norm. Egyptian Exodus employs this mechanism; once you’re inside the tomb of Ramses III, while you may be down there alone, you do have another archaeologist above you, who is able to shout down to you any help you may need. If you’re being particularly dim, like we were, you may even get a custom clue shouted through by another member of your archaeological dig team…

ANYTHING ELSE

As you may have gathered, we did not manage to restore the jars and escape the tomb in the allocated 60 minutes (we did it in 64ish). However, Escapement use the hour as more of a guideline; they want you to finish your game, and enjoy the entire experience. You can see why though – Lewis, Mica, and the rest of the team have clearly put a lot of thought into the experience, and the ending of Exodus is one not to be missed.

Success / Failure (in Overtime)

Final Rating: 

Team: 2 people

Address: 65 Northdown Road, Margate, Kent, CT9 2RJ

Website: https://escapementmargate.co.uk