TimeQuest: Reset (Paddock Wood)

Tech Galore!

Listen up agents, Intel believe the Sniglets have managed to develop a series of robots capable of hacking our central Computer. An essential component to our world-wide tracking network. We fear that we may end up being the ones watched, if this is not rectified ASAP! The only course of action we have available at this time is to shut down the central tracking hub and replace the infected equipment. The Innovations team have come up with a series of fail-safe protocols that need to be reset. As always you have only a 60-minute window in which to complete the task and RESET our tracking network. We hope your team is ready, as this is without doubt our most challenging mission yet.

TimeQuest seems to be a bit of a secret in the escape room world, despite being in Kent it’s a bit more remote so perhaps it doesn’t get the attention it should?

Normally we turn up to escape rooms feeling relaxed and ready for the challenge, unfortunately due to hitting a pothole on the way to the venue and getting a flat tyre our focus was elsewhere.

Still, arriving at the venue even at night you can’t help but be impressed by the building as it is a massive oast house. It’s a bit of a rabbit warren to find your way into the entrance but once you do the space opens up into a comfortable waiting area.

We were greeted when we arrived and directed to a table containing free drinks and snacks while we waited. A tablet containing the waiver was brought to us and then we spent a long time speaking with the owner, Michael, before heading to the room.

The health and safety and room specific briefing both take place outside of the room where we were also given a walkie-talkie for communicating with HQ. The premise of all the rooms at TimeQuest is that you’re time travellers and they’ve found a way to make walkie-talkies work through time – so just roll with it.

With the briefings out of the way, the door opened and our time began. 60 minutes to try and reset the tracking network…

PUZZLES

We didn’t really click with the puzzles in Reset, that doesn’t mean they were bad puzzles, in fact they were actually pretty good. I think our mind wasn’t quite right due to the ‘eventful’ journey to get to TimeQuest.

There was a small amount of searching, really small, so if searching isn’t your thing then you should be fine here. Other than that the other puzzles were mostly observational culminating in interacting with tech in one way or another.

There were a few padlocks in this room but this room is by no means padlock heavy and we gather some of the padlocks are a stop-gap until replacement parts arrive (overzealous time travellers).

The room played out in a linear fashion early on but then soon opened up so that we could work on different things simultaneously. Throw in a bit of logic and some communication and that covers all the puzzles in Reset.

Although we struggled with this room, once we were given a clue it was clear to see what needed to be done so I think the puzzles were fine, just our heads weren’t. It’s worth noting that this room can be colour heavy in place with some of the puzzles, just in case you have issues with colour.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

If you’ve done any of the other rooms at TimeQuest then you will find this room very different to them. They decided they wanted to do something different and push themselves with technology and they really have.

Reset has very distinct parts and the first room you encounter is very different to the main room. I guess you could probably describe the room as being like something like a James Bond villains evil lair.

The room is rather barren in places but that actually worked well with the theme. The ending to the room ramped up the pressure by a notch and there was a clear ending to our mission.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Like the other TimeQuest rooms, clues were delivered via walkie-talkie which worked well with the theme and didn’t feel out of place.

There was a timer in the room on a tv screen which showed you how long you had been in the room for.

I honestly lost count of how many clues we needed in this room but there was a good few of them. Every time we requested a clue our GM, Michael, delivered it almost instantly and it was just enough to give our brains a prod in the right direction. Even when we didn’t ask for clues, Michael could see we were stumped and chimed in to ask if we needed any assistance – perfect game mastering.

I’m not really sure where this fits so I’ll put it in this section. You will struggle to find a nicer company anywhere in the escape room industry, the team running it are truly lovely people. We spent hours talking with them about escape rooms and Michael even helped us change our wheel at 10:30 at night in the freezing cold.

ANYTHING ELSE

This is a very different offering to the others at TimeQuest and those looking for a tech heavy room that mostly steers away from padlocks should be in their element.

We did this room as a team of two but you could comfortably do it with four people, possibly more. Just watch out for the infamous Kent potholes on the way there!

It’s worth noting that this room is still developing so things are likely to change as more people play it. TimeQuest are responsive to feedback so I wouldn’t be surprised if certain things that niggled us will soon be a thing of the past.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – succeeded in 55:22

Address: Bell 4, The Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Tonbridge TN12 6PY

Website: https://www.timequest.net