Author Archives: escapethereview

The Padlock: Safe – The Secret of Jack Daniel

Prague, Aug 2023

This game unquestionably should be getting a higher rating than I’m giving it. Safe, or The Secret of Jack Daniel, is an impressive game even by Prague’s high standards, and I can easily understand why many visiting enthusiasts consider it the best i… (more)

LostExit: Kino Úsvit

Prague, Aug 2023

The escape room industry is always advancing and becoming more sophisticated, so there’s little place for nostalgia, no golden age to look back to, when the cutting edge just keeps improving. Even so, Úsvit Cinema struck me as showcasing several virt… (more)

Mystiqueroom: Cube

Budapest, Aug 2023

I picked Cube for our second game at Mystiqueroom because it was their highest rated, without really knowing what the theme was. As it turned out, the stronger half of the room design clearly takes inspiration from the sci-fi movie of the same name, … (more)

Mystiqueroom: Pirate Bay

Budapest, Aug 2023

There are at least three pirate-themed rooms in Budapest, giving you a choice of Ship, Bay or Cave; Mystiqueroom’s version is the Bay, and we found it visually impressive but a bit temperamental on the puzzle mechanisms.

Our mission was to get the W… (more)

Aroom: Sky Heist

Budapest, Aug 2023

Aroom and Locked Room are different venues that are part of the same company and a single website, but Aroom is the one that tends to get the more favourable reviews. I’ve only previously played their zombie theme Deadland, but enjoyed it enough to m… (more)

ExitGames Timisoara: The Mission 3

Timisoara, Aug 2023

While there were quite a few escape room companies operating in Timisoara at one time, most seem to have not made it through the pandemic; with the exception of a horror house experience, ExitGames is the only one I could find that’s still operating…. (more)

Cryptology Swindon: The Tortured Soul

Swindon, Jul 2023

The Tortured Soul is the newest room at Incarcerated (which is currently partway through turning into Cryptology Swindon). It’s a supernatural horror game involving the ghost of a child; for calibrating whether it’s a scare level you’re comfortable w… (more)

Cryptology Swindon: Conspiracy – Agenda 21

Swindon, Jul 2023

Six years ago (how time flies) we played the rooms at Incarcerated, and wrote some fairly critical reviews of them, which the owner at the time was good enough to not hold against us. So I was very pleased to find that the current two games were a bi… (more)

New UK escape rooms November 2023

The UK might just be the world leader in Christmas escape rooms – they’ve become a tradition here in a way that I’m not sure exists anywhere else. Here are some stats for you:

Co-Decode: Sub Terra

Swindon, Jul 2023

We may have been the very last team to play Sub Terra in its original location; Co-Decode will be relocating to a more central spot in Swindon, and it’s not yet certain whether Sub Terra will be rebuilt there in quite the same form, or at all. But if… (more)