Trapp’d: The Lost Temple of Yumiko (Northampton)

Some tactile puzzles

Legend has it that within an ancient temple, nestled deep within the Shei-Ling Jungle lays the body of Yumiko, an Empress of mysterious power who ruled thousands of years ago. Urban myths whisper of a powerful relic that was buried alongside her well-preserved corpse that grants eternal life to all those who behold this ancient secret. Many brave explorers have sought the relic, but none have lived to tell the tale. You have made it your life’s work to unlock the enigma of the tomb and look upon the empress with your own eyes and are confident that you and your team will succeed where so many have failed.

Are you willing to risk your own life for a chance at eternal life?

Trapp’d is a company we’re very familiar with at this point, having played games at their locations in Peterborough, Corby, Kettering, Billing, Wellingborough, and even their previous games at the Northampton branch, but lately our attempts to visit Trapp’d have been thwarted. We had actually intended to include The Lost Temple of Yumiko and End of the Line in our 2021 roadtrip across the midlands, but due to an unforeseen issue at the venue, our bookings were cancelled and we were issued with a credit to rebook. Since then, finding a time to make the trek back to Northampton has been tricky. But the opportunity finally presented itself, and Trapp’d were kind enough to honour the vouchers, despite the fact that it had been over two years since they were issued.

Our last visit to Northampton took place in December 2019, when we played Monosphere and Molton Creek Mine. Those two games have long since been replaced, but it did mean that we were familiar with the venue. We arrived in Northampton bright and early, and parked in town so that we could track down some breakfast, before making the walk out to Trapp’d. We found ourselves waiting outside for a bit, as it seemed the doorbell wasn’t working, and we don’t like to be pushy, but a few minutes before our booking, the door opened and we were warmly welcomed and shown to reception by our GM for The Temple of Yumiko, Jamie.

The reception area for every Trapp’d looks almost identical: Long benches that open and lock to store belongings, and black paint, covered with brightly coloured graffiti from previous teams. With our belongings, including my amazing looking cake for second breakfast from Butterwick Bakery safely stored away, we got down to business with the all important safety briefing. With that out of the way, we were blindfolded and escorted through to the lost Temple of Yumiko.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Removing our blindfolds revealed an impressive set: ruins emerging from a jungle. The ambient sounds helped add some immersion as we set about investigating our surroundings. The Lost Temple of Yumiko followed a very linear path, and it took us much longer than it should have to find the start of that path. But eventually we connected a few dots and we were off, following the adventure through the jungle and into the tomb.

The space was actually quite large, and with a fair amount of back and forth, we certainly got our steps up, as we went about our mission. The Lost Temple of Yumiko had a much stronger narrative pushing the game forward than I was expecting, perhaps in part due to the more physical nature of some of the puzzles, which made it feel more like an adventure than an escape room.

Once we found our starting point, the game seemed to flow, and the pace picked up…at least until we hit the final puzzle. This was a mammoth task and dragged the entire thing to a crawl. Of course, it didn’t help that we mucked something up along the way, and only got half the answer. But eventually, with a bit of guidance, we were back on track, and out into the hallway with our relic in tow.

PUZZLES

The Lost Temple of Yumiko was home to a number of chunky, and very tactile puzzles. Yes, there were one or two padlocks, but the majority of the tasks had us interacting with the set in some way. This gave the game a great variety in its puzzles, with many relying on more physical manipulation of key elements and not just solving for a code. Logic, observation, a little searching, and wordplay were all key elements in the puzzle design, and decent pattern recognition skills would be a bonus to players, as is the ability to communicate well with your teammates

There were a number of satisfying puzzles, once they clicked, but it felt as though there were a few that took much longer to click than it should have. In hindsight, everything was there that we needed, but the signposting guiding you to it was less overt than in other games, making the solution not necessarily the first thing you think to try.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Jamie was lovely and welcoming, but most importantly, on the ball with clues. These arrived over the loudspeaker system whenever she needed to give us a shove in the right direction. Some of these nudges came through in a deep male voice, making it feel as though we were receiving help from the voice of some god. But, there were also times when we were speaking directly to Jamie. It’s possible that there were a few moments where we were just so dim they didn’t have anything pre-recorded so they weren’t able to keep it in character and had to give us a bespoke clue.

Whichever voice in the sky was delivering the clues, they were just what we needed to get us out of our slump and headed back in the right direction. In truth, the only reason we really needed help was due to losing our place in a mammoth puzzle and getting something totally nonsensical for the second half of it.

ANYTHING ELSE

Trapp’d can generally be relied upon to deliver consistently decent games (with one or two exceptions), and The Lost Temple of Yumiko fits that bill. Fans of games with a more physical/tactile element will certainly enjoy this one more than others though.

Success/Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 41:30

Address: 24 Connaught Street, Northampton, NN1 3BP

Website: https://trappd.com