Beverley Breakout: Operation Hideout

This is a game with two names – you may see it referred to as either Room 118 or Operation Hideout. I believe the former name is used when you’re playing the 60 minute version, and the latter when you’re playing the 100 minute version. It’s broadly the same game either way; the shorter version just has some of the content left out. We played the longer version of course, and barring unusual circumstances I’d expect pretty much anyone who likes escape rooms enough to be reading this site to want to do the same – why book in for a partial experience?

There are also two objectives. One is to identify a jewel thief, using a set of profiles. You need to find the right one by a process of elimination, murder mystery style, ruling out each of the others based on the clues you find only there’s only one left.

At the same time you’re trying to recover the stolen gems, and this aspect of the game makes it a collect-em-all style room. With four experienced escapers we managed to get everything and still had time to spare, though I imagine it would be significantly tougher with a team of two.

If I had to recommend just one room at Beverley Breakout I’d pick Toadsmead ahead of this. However, that depends on what you look for in an escape room. If you want a puzzle-fest that’ll keep you on your toes for well over an hour, this should be top of your list – though the best option is of course to just play through everything here.