Author Archives: escapethereview

clueQuest: Stolen IQ

Online, Apr 2020

An upfront warning for this game: clueQuest’s title ‘Print + Cut + Escape’ is accurate in all its parts. Before the Escape and after the Print, there is a great deal of Cut – you need to go through the game’s pages and cut out a great many components… (more)

Co-Decode: A Jewel In Jeopardy

Online, Apr 2020

There’s an elegance in economic design. And where the other print and play games I’ve tried consist of a fat wad of pages, Co-Decode’s game consists of a mere 3-5 sheets (their game description avoids specifying the exact number, so I’ll follow suit)… (more)

Bewilder Box & Eltham Escapes: Sector X: The B.R.U.C.E. Project Part 1

Online, Apr 2020

A collaboration from the escape room companies Bewilder Box and Eltham Escapes, Sector X is an online escape game where you must guide the robot B.R.U.C.E. through a series of puzzles. The new breed of online escapes is very diverse in style, and thi… (more)

Time Run Presents: Sherlock: The Game Is Now

London, Feb 2020

In the early years, as escape rooms spread throughout the U.K., one London venue quickly gained an international reputation for production values that were streets ahead of anywhere else, as well as a variety of then unheard of innovations such as a … (more)

Escape Tales: Low Memory

Room-in-a-box, Feb 2020

Low Memory is the follow-up to The Awakening, one of the most interesting and successful home escape games released yet. Like its predecessor, it uses a fairly complex system of action tokens in place of a time limit to restrict how thoroughly you ca… (more)

Unlock!: Lost in the Time Warp!

Room-in-a-box, Jan 2020

Last in the Timeless Adventures box, Time Warp is marked as the top difficulty level – although in my experience the difference in ‘official’ difficulty between Unlock! games is relatively small, and outweighed by how well or otherwise you click with… (more)

Belgrade Escape Rooms: The Witch

Belgrade, Mar 2020

The Witch is of course the original game at what used to be known as The Witch Escape Room. I enjoyed both this and their newer Aladdin game; if you’re going to play only one then I’d suggest Aladdin, but if you’re going to play both, then you should… (more)

Belgrade Escape Rooms: Aladdin

Belgrade, Mar 2020

Having started out as a single game venue, The Witch Escape Room renamed to Belgrade Escape Rooms when they added their Aladdin game. While it is of course a less creepy theme than their other, this room is not entirely cuddly – it seems inspired by … (more)

PIN Escape Rooms: Dracula’s Chambers

Belgrade, Mar 2020

Dry ice smoke effects don’t normally bother me; even so, after ten minutes in this game I was starting to seriously consider asking to prop open the door to the lobby to let in some fresh area. Fortunately the gamemaster noticed my increasingly vocal… (more)

PIN Escape Rooms: Murder at the Masonic Lodge

Belgrade, Mar 2020

Of PIN’s five games, Masonic Lodge was the one I’d noticed recommendations for, and having played it I believe that’s because it’s the one that strays most from the traditional escape room format – though in most respects it’s a normal game of findin… (more)