By the skin of our teeth…
Step back in time to 1942…
Alastair Dennington the renowned cryptologist needs your help!
Working for a secret government department on a small project to crack the ENIGMA machine, he needs you to collect the blueprints from his private residence in Devon.
The documents are hidden in the flat somewhere behind a series of cryptic puzzles for you to solve. They must be found before they fall into the hands of the enemy.
Get the plans and key, get out as soon as you can
After struggling, but succeeding, to complete the Templars room we had a short break before going into our next adventure, The Bletchley Blueprints. Once again our GM met us in era-appropriate clothing and gave us the low down on our mission.
The main downside to this venue is that there is no waiting area so nowhere to relax and no water on offer to revive you between games, so bear that in mind if you go on a hot day.
We entered the room in what he called ‘the waiting room’ and were instantly impressed once again. It’s clear to see that the rooms at Trapped have had a lot of time and attention spent making them look like they belong in the era they are supposed to be set.
This room started a bit strangely as we weren’t exactly sure when our time began. The GM said to wait in this room so we did exactly that until we started to think that perhaps we should just get started, in all honesty even now I’m still not sure when our time did start.
PUZZLES
I think I would go so far as to say that the rooms we did at this venue were around the hardest rooms we’ve ever done, which is reflected in the 7% success rate and how we only escaped with 1 second to spare.
Personally, I don’t think I was a fan of the puzzles in this room That isn’t to say they weren’t good puzzles, I just wasn’t a fan. There wasn’t a massive amount of puzzles to complete but there were two puzzles which in my eyes went on far too long. I’m pretty sure one of those puzzles alone took around 15/20 minutes to complete and if you messed it up you’d have to start again.
The last puzzle of finding the blueprints is what really left us scratching our heads as we are not sure if we missed something or if it was never there to start with. If you’ve successfully completed this room, shoot us a message as it would be interesting to compare notes.
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
For me, this room really stood out in the design. I could take or leave the puzzles but the room was beautifully themed and everything felt like it belonged. Like the Templar’s room this one didn’t contain a single padlock, something that you don’t really realise or appreciate at the time.
Near the beginning of the room there is a fun little ‘experience’ that was well put together and enjoyable. I don’t think it really gave anything to the room but it was a good way to set the tone for what was to come.
The only negative that I have for this room, and it’s something we also picked up on in Templars was the brochures and flyers for other escape room companies in the room. There is no real waiting room at this venue so I guess they don’t have anywhere to put them, but I’d question if in the room is the best place for them.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
Our wonderfully in-character GM remained in character for the entire experience even when giving clues. The clues were delivered when requested via a vintage telephone in the room.
Like the other room here there is no timer in the room so you are left guessing a bit, but the GM does a good job of giving you an indication of how far along you are.
ANYTHING ELSE
This is one of those rooms that is difficult to review. It’s a good room, but I didn’t overly enjoy it and I’m not sure why. But we have rated this room how we think it should be rated, and not let it be biased but an unknown dissatisfaction. It’s a hard room, but a good one to really challenge you.
The owner is obviously very passionate about his creations, and rightly so, they are visually wonderful rooms, but I prefer more quick fire puzzles than the long ones this has.
A nice treat for completing (the world’s hardest) rooms is that we got little badges to add to our collection, and these certainly feel well earned!
Success / Failed
Final Rating:
Operation Puzzles Room Design GM/Clues Excitement
Team: 4 players – escaped in 59:59 with a few clues
Address: Unit 51, Fatherford Farm Industrial Estate, Okehampton EX20 1QQ
Website: http://www.devonescaperooms.co.uk
We are a team of enthusiasts and have just completed all 3 rooms at Trapped. Completely agree that the 3 rooms were easily the hardest we have done. We escaped one and missed the other 2 by 30 seconds or less. The blueprints rooms, we found to be infuriating and the GM did not help at all.
When we got the code and managed to ‘escape’ the final room with all the papers hanging up everywhere was completely pointless. It offered nothing apart from us searching everywhere for the blueprints that were in fact never in the room to begin with. We got out of the final room after unlocking the door and then the GM was stood in the first waiting room staring at the stop watch saying find the blueprints. Utterly infuriating and left us ripping apart the whole set without finding it