Author Archives: escapethereview

Lost: Khmer Empire

Hong Kong, Nov 2024

Of all the ‘archaeology’ themed rooms I’ve placed, I’d never before seen one based on ancient Cambodia, so that alone was a reason to book into this game. And while there was plenty of choice of room, there was much less choice of company – Lost seem… (more)

Headlock Escape Rooms: Rise of the Fungi

Online, Dec 2024

The pandemic spurred a wave of innovation in games that could be played from home, and while some approaches were more successful than others, Headlock’s Zoom-based mashup of puzzles, puppets and songs was absolutely one of the finest creations to em… (more)

New UK escape rooms March 2025

A sprinkling of treats in the run up to Easter – it’s the list of new UK escape rooms. Got anything booked for that long weekend yet?

Escape Games Fukuoka: Hangover

Fukuoka, Oct 2024

Hangover was the game I initially tried to book at this venue, despite the three person minimum, but the owner told me in fairly clear terms that it could not reasonably be completely by a team of two within the time limit. We then proceeded to beat … (more)

Escape Games Fukuoka: Wherehouse

Fukuoka, Oct 2024

West Japan does not offer a wide selection of escape experiences available to English-speaking visitors; in the entire island of Kyushu the only one I could find was Escape Games Fukuoka. With such a lack of competition I arrived with low expectation… (more)

Game of Minds: Da Vinci

Busan, Oct 2024

There are a quite a few escape companies in downtown Busan, but finding a game that doesn’t need any Korean language knowledge seemed more tricky; Game of Minds was one of the few options that had clear English support. Of their rooms, we excluded th… (more)

The Puzzle Box: Der magische Rätseltisch

Munich, Feb 2025

All three of the Puzzle Box games we tried were distinctive and impressive, but for me there was a clear standout, and it was this one. For a start it’s a beautiful object. The others were appealing and well-themed, but this looks like a hand-crafted… (more)

The Puzzle Box: Der Hutmacher

Munich, Feb 2025

The second Puzzle Box we tried was Wonderland themed, and unlike the first was intended to be tackled by a small group. The premise is that you’re helping the Mad Hatter, and delightfully the box is presented in the form of an exceptionally large hat… (more)

The Puzzle Box: Der Biosphären – Decoder

Munich, Feb 2025

Visiting Munich, we had the chance to sample some of the games available from Puzzle Box, a.k.a. escape room legend (and friend) Heiner. These games are what’s sometimes called ‘crate’ games, available for hire to play in a location of your choosing,… (more)

Seoul Escape Room: The Lost City of Amazon

Seoul, Sep 2024

My experience of this game was that it was simultaneously spectacular, and spectacularly bad. It combines very cool set design on a pretty large scale, with puzzles that varied between tedious and flawed.

Like the other Seoul room we played, hints w… (more)