Author Archives: escapethereview

Cyber Q: Alice In Wonderland

Worcester, Jun 2019

Alice in Wonderland provides ample inspiration for escape rooms; the whimsical setting lends itself well to puzzles as well as to an attractive, flamboyant or surreal style of decoration. Cyber Q’s take on the theme draws on the source material with … (more)

Xscape Now: Red Planet Panic

Telford, Jun 2019

When picking a game at random at a venue I often default to the sci-fi option, and it was on that basis that I booked into Xscape Now’s Red Planet Panic. This one puts you on a base on Mars after a meteor strike has knocked out most of the systems, w… (more)

Xscape Now: Houdini’s Mystereum

Telford, Jun 2019

Few names are as closely associated with escaping as Houdini’s, and Mystereum is set in a museum dedicated to the performer. A mysterious stranger has invited you in and left you trapped – a thin but adequate excuse for a room of escapology-inspired … (more)

Clockwork Escapes: Sanctum

Wolverhampton, Jun 2019

The premise for Sanctum sounded quite a lot like a horror theme, and an original idea for one at that: an empty room in Clockwork Escapes’s building has watched its neighbouring rooms hosting teams of escape room players, growing jealous over the yea… (more)

Clockwork Escapes: Starpoint Alpha

Wolverhampton, May 2019

I’d heard intriguing though slightly contradictory things about Starpoint Alpha, and it was very high on my list of games to try on a West Midlands trip. Set on a space station, you naturally have an hour to get the station back under control before … (more)

Clockwork Escapes: Where There’s A Will

Wolverhampton, Jun 2019

There aren’t a lot of escape rooms that go to the trouble of portraying an outside. The ones that do always seem to find a way to have fun with it.

Where There’s a Will is set in twilight. The game has some fun props, and some fun spaces both inside… (more)

Chase The Escape: Raid The S.T.A.G.G.

Wolverhampton, Jun 2019

Chase The Escape are an independent company operating out of the same physical location as Clockwork Escapes, filling a space previously occupied by another company, Room Release. This sort of venue sharing seems such a sensible arrangement I’m amaze… (more)

Clockwork Escapes: Alleyway

Wolverhampton, Jun 2019

Alleyway had so many elements that I’d have expected to put me off it. A dirty, dusty environment, a fairly narrow space in which we squeezed past each other in the darkness with not enough torches to go round, with a design that was happy to use got… (more)

Adventure Vault: The Scandal

Shrewsbury, Jun 2019

After playing the medieval-style The Beginning at Adventure Vault, we went straight on to their other game, The Scandal. This has no connection to the other in plot, theme or style: the noir setting seemed set somewhere in the 20th Century, and you a… (more)

Adventure Vault: The Beginning

Shrewsbury, Jun 2019

You wouldn’t guess it from the gnomic title, but The Beginning is set in a medieval/fantasy world which is threatened by cultists who aim to use a dark ritual to unleash a plague. Your task is to stop th- no, actually you are the cultists and … (more)