Escapism – Espionage

Escapism – Espionage.
Location: Chester
Game Date 25/04/2017.
Team: Amy & Ian

 

Theme:
“You’ve been trusted to retrieve some sensitive data but this everyday apartment isn’t what it seems. You’ve found the safe, now you need the key: this is no ordinary game of ‘finders keepers’.”

Theming was fitting, if not a little simple, but for a living room in an apartment it did the trick, the storyline was fleshed out a little at the time of our briefing to say we were on the hunt for some files, and that we’d set off a silent alarm and the police were on their way, which would take them an hour because of the traffic around Chester! (A nice, fun little touch)
The room was clean, spacious and decorated well within the parameters of the theme, immersion… well I was very aware I was in an escape room, it was more immersive in a “live action version of a video game way rather than an immersive set of an apartment.

Game Play:
This game was strictly linear, with a good range of puzzles that required logic, math, observation and codebreaking, there was next to no searching in this room, and even though we’re not the greatest searchers, we still enjoy searching as it gives an immediate sense of achievement when something is found, I felt that this was missing in this room. There was, however a LOT of padlocks to unlock which made me very happy (and at some points a bit stressed)
There was one physical puzzle that was very, very fun! Something I have seen done before in an escape room, but I’ve only watched on, not done it myself, so that was a novel experience!
A couple of the puzzles required small logic leaps, but they were perfectly explainable and logical once the pieces had come together (so to speak) – one confusing moment happened (for us at least) in that one part of a puzzle was found early on, and almost co-ordinated to another puzzle, that left us a bit perplexed. This was only our mis-givings though as we got tied up in over-thinking and 1 route of logic AGAIN in this room.
There are absolutely no red-herrings in this room, which is wonderful, everything fits into the theme, or the puzzles of the room.
Because of the logic leaps, and difficulty I would recommend for experienced players to take a team of 3 (I think we could have benefited from an extra brain!) and I would say for newer players to try one of Escapism’s easier offerings before taking on the more difficult Espionage, unless you like a challenge!

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a screen, which was also used in the game play of the room (not sure I liked this as it was very different from the norm!)

Game Host:
Ally was our Game Host and read our game incredibly well, so well that we thought he could hear us and it turned out he couldn’t, very skilfully done! He left us to try our best to think things through and only nudged us when were were on the brink of frustration!

Did we escape?
Yes, in 51 minutes not a bad time for 2 I think!

Website: http://www.escapismchester.co.uk
Price:

Off Peak:
2 Players £36
3 Players £45
4 Players £56
5 Players £60

Peak:
2 Players £40
3 Players £48
4 Players £60
5 Players £70