Agent November

Played the Edinburgh Fringe version so rating may not be accurate for its regular version.

Great hosting but very simple puzzles, probably because it’s a travel-light version for easy set up at the fringe. We were the only two playing, which made it a bit trickier to solve, but I also don’t know how I would’ve felt about working with strangers, especially when it looked like it could’ve taken up to 15ish. 

We solved every individual puzzle, but didn’t get enough time to solve the mystery so ended up poisoned. Quite a fun format to mix the puzzles and actual story-based mystery solving, but I would’ve enjoyed it in a more fleshed out format without the tiny 30 minute limit. 

We played this in Edinburgh as it appeared as part of the Fringe Festival. We expected very little, given that it is a temporary attraction, but were really pleasantly surprised, and ended up having a great almost-hour of frantic fun! When we did this, it was set outdoors and was basically a game in a big box, with other elements being added in by “Agent Nathan” (who was a brilliant host!), or found in and around the area using clues discovered as we went along. Had I been told beforehand how low-tech it would be I might have given it a miss but I’m so glad I didn’t as we were thoroughly immersed and engaged for a almost the full hour! There were puzzles of all types and although most of them ended in a code to help towards disarming the EMP, everything still felt very varied. Obviously there was none of the beautiful set-dressing and theming of a static indoor escape room, but the way the outdoor space was used was pretty neat and it was great to be solving clues outside in the sunshine and amongst the curious public! It was also nice to be teamed up with another member of the public too, who proved to be a really strong puzzler and really helped us pull off this tough set of tasks with just enough time to spare! I appreciate this might not be to everyone’s taste though, but I feel like this might’ve been done this way only for the Fringe? Anyway, if you’re in Edinburgh before 28th August, I do recommend giving this a try! Very entertaining.

just to pass on what would've been helpful for me when I was organizing this:  you have to pay for 5 players minimum, but you can play it with fewer than 5.  Just pop in a fake name or two.  Fair enough that they've got to cover costs.  It's certainly not that expensive to pay for 5, and It's a very good game.  Also, it's on BST.  And you don't HAVE to read the documents or watch the video provided ahead of the game, but it's great to get you in the mood, so why wouldn't you, right?