Trapp’d: 46 Below (Billing Aquadrome)

Lots to explore

When you awake, your limbs are almost frozen numb. Your eyelids flitter and the pain hits you all at once. You slowly move to sit up and look around you. Your eyes meet a devastating sight. The plane is but a crumpled wreck in the snow and bodies surround you… no signs of life anywhere. The blizzard is thick and the cold is bitter to the bone. Survival is the only thing on your mind right.

Now… figure out a way to establish communication and signal for help, but first you must find out where exactly you have landed… Hurry, before hypothermia begins to set in and your very life escapes you!

Our final room for the day at Billing Aquadrome, having just completed Exordium and Dead on Arrival, was 46 Below a room we actually knew nothing about (but we assumed it would be cold).

Our GM, Riley gave us the health and safety briefing in the reception area then gave us our blindfolds and led us to the entrance to the room. Once there, he gave us the back story and explained what we were there to do, essentially survive; our plane has crashed over the Arctic and we had one hour to establish communications so we could be rescued and not freeze to death. With our blindfolds on, we were led into the room…

PUZZLES

Arguably, the first puzzle is to work out where to start. As soon as you enter you are confronted with items everywhere and you need to work out what is needed and what is just set dressing.

As you’d expect from a plane crash, you need to do some searching to find items and clues to help you complete your mission, but it wasn’t a massively search heavy room.

There were the typical escape room puzzles that enthusiasts will have likely seen before, but for the most part they fitted with the theme which was nice to see. Most of the puzzles resulted in entering combinations in padlocks but there was also a good use of tech and we particularly liked that there were some multi-step (puzzle-within-a-puzzle) puzzles.

With decent sign posting, we found that none of the puzzles were overly challenging although there were some red herrings/decoys in something that was there to aid us, although this could have been from where previous puzzles had been removed.

Unfortunately due to wear-and-tear we actually solved one puzzle earlier than we should have and if we wanted to we could have just ended the room there, but being completionists (if that’s a word?) we made sure to solve everything. Fixing that puzzle would be a very quick and easy fix so hopefully they repair it.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Before going in to the room we were given little bootie covers to stop us getting ‘snow’ everywhere. Even before getting in I was looking forward to seeing what they meant by ‘snow’. *spoiler alert* it’s not the type of snow you can make snowballs with (although I’m sure many will try).

As soon as we took off the blindfolds I was impressed with this room’s design. The space is massive and it has the usual things you’d expect to see from a plane crash, plane seats, personal effects, and of course the fuselage of a plane!

Once we got over the initial surprise of the size of the room we suddenly realised we were quite overwhelmed at everything and it took a few moments to work out how to get started, but once you get a few items discounted you soon work out where to go.

There were some steps in the room that would be a problem for those with limited accessibility but as long as one team member is ok with stairs then there should be nothing stopping you completing the room.

Trapp’d have again given an obvious ending to the room, although it didn’t fully fit with the story it was still a clear ending and there was no doubt that we have succeeded.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

We didn’t need any clues so we’re not fully sure how clues would have been delivered, but going on their other rooms we’d assume that they’d come over a speaker system and would likely be perfectly timed.

ANYTHING ELSE

This would be another good room for families to do. With plenty of space to move around you shouldn’t get in others’ way and although perhaps lacking in number of puzzles, it should keep you busy. It was nice to see a new theme that we hadn’t come across before. .

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 31:47

Address: Crow Lane, Great Billing, Northampton, NN3 9DA

Website: https://trappd.com