Hour Escape – The Abandoned Cabin

Hour Escape – The Abandoned Cabin
Location: Loughborough
Game Date: 23/05/2019
Team: Amy & Ian

Theme:
“During a heavy storm in the Claw Forest, you and your backpacker friends
have stumbled across what you think is an abandoned cabin.

Taking shelter you soon realise that you are locked in and all is not as it seems…”

abandonded cabin had a lot of detail in its set, and was decorated well, ultimately this was lost in the game as it was PITCH black. I.E. You could not see your hand in front of your face dark. Too dark, we were provided with torches but coupled with the fairly small space and cluttered, crowded set this made for a fairly confusing if not immersive space. Some theatrical and atmospheric lighting would have worked wonders, helped with the heavy searching aspect (searching by torchlight isn’t the most fun of things to do!) and would have lifted an already good too to a great room!
The space was constricted, and luckily the maximum number of players is 5, any more would have been a very tight squeeze.
There are some great props and set decoration in the room, but similar to Enchanted at Breakout Manchester, there was TOO much stuff and it was sometimes hard to decipher what was set dressing and what was needed in the game.
A good soundtrack kept us on our toes, and whilst not being the most scary hour, there were a few good jumpscares and a couple of screams from myself!

Game Play:
A liner game that was very search heavy with some observation and logic puzzles thrown in for good measure.
At times the heavy search element was rather frustrating (but I feel that this is more to do with us being awful searchers, and coupled with the amount of stuff in the room it became a fruitless task at times) there were a couple of searches we would NEVER have found without a clue.
The more complex puzzles in the room were good, with good logic and nice ah-ha moments. They were nicely on theme and we thoroughly enjoyed this element of the game.
The flow was good, with good pacing through the room which wasn’t thrown off by the scary element of the game.
Signposting was minimal, with a lot of clues being left to us to make big connections.
A decent game that tackled with more search power would be an enjoyable hour.

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a voice over, and the host shouting through the walls

Game Host:
Our game host was good, and provided and very thorough brief and some scary moments coupled with in character hints throughout the game.

Did we escape?
Yes, in about 45 minutes

Website:
Price:
2 Players £30
3 Players £45
4 Players £60
5 Players £75

(There are 2 copies of this game, so if you want to race the game can be booked for up to 10 players)