Escape Room Centre – Secret Agent

Escape Room Centre – Secret Agent.
Blackpool
Game Date 14/02/2017.
Team: Amy & Ian

Ahhhhh, Valentine’s Day… romance…. flowers… chocolates… being locked up…

Wait… Being LOCKED UP. That’s a bit unusual for a Valentine’s Day date isn’t it, not in the world of an enthusiast. No excuse is needed for an escape trip but Valentine’s gave us one! (Well, it was more that V-day fell on “escape Tuesday” So we decided to book 2 rooms, to make the trip up to Blackpool/Preston a little bit more worthwhile!

Theme:
“It’s 1984, the height of the Cold War.

You and your team of Secret Agents are about to break into the apartment of MI6’s most senior agent – Jason Sinclair.

MI6 believes Sinclair could be be a ‘double agent’, an agent pretending to be on our side but actually working for Russia’s KGB. This is because he recently submitted reports on 4 Russian suspects declaring them all to be innocent, but MI6 thinks differently.

Can you find evidence of the Russians secret missions and therefore prove Sinclair is a ‘double agent’ or is this all one big misunderstanding?

You have an hour to find out one way or the other before Sinclair gets back and ‘All hell lets loose…'”

The theming was good, giving a 1980s feel (from what I remember, I was a mere baba when this game is set!) without feeling run-down or tatty, which can happen in rooms set in the past. The decor was simple and classy, with some authentic paraphernalia about, which really aided in the immersion of the room. There was not much in the way of deliberate red herrings, but enough to give you a fair bit to “look at” and wonder if they needed to be used at some point of the game.

Game Play:
Another great game from TRAP in Hungary, these games are tried and tested, so the flow is always exceptional. There were some lovely puzzles in this room, each having its own “ah-ha” moment. The only time we got slowed down was due to our not knowing how a simple piece of tech as a clue worked! There was a great mix of puzzles, mostly logical but with a couple of really fun physical elements too, which lead to a fair bit of “out of the box” thinking, which I am enjoying more and more in games!
The game was almost entirely linear, it felt there were not many points where we could work on more than one element at once, this is great for us as a 2 player team. More numbers could be left crowding or with nothing to do for a while.
Saying that, I feel this would be a great room for a larger group of new players as the flow is fantastic and the puzzles so logical!
Enthusiasts will enjoy the flow and how slick this room is.

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a microphone in the room, with occasional pictures to point in the right direction!

Game Host:
Christina was our game host, and was absolutely fabulous, looking after us so well from the moment we entered the building. It really felt like she was on our side the entire game, willing us on and watching us intently. We could have chatted forever about games, games and more games! A fantastic host.

Did we escape?
Yes, in 48 minutes!

Website:http://www.escaperoomcentre.com
Price:
2 Players £44
3 Players £63
4 Players £76
5 Players £85
6 Players £90