Category Archives: International

Can You Escape Malta: The Forbidden Castle

Malta, Sep 2023

UK enthusiasts may have played a room at Can You Escape Malta remotely, since they were one of the more active and well-regarded providers of avatar games during the pandemic. There are only three escape companies currently open in Malta to my knowle… (more)

Quest Factory: Cannibal Island

Paris, Sep 2023

The word ‘Cannibal’ is one I associate more with grim serial killer rooms, but this game is about as cheerful and upbeat as any game I remember that involves severed body parts. The cannibals here are tribesmen on an obscure island; don’t expect nuan… (more)

Quest Factory: Le Fléau du Druide

Paris, Sep 2023

A wise piece of advice for escape room designers is that technology for its own sake adds little to a game, but it expands the range of possibilities for what you can create. Quest Factory illustrate that principle by using technology to do several t… (more)

Deep Inside: The Magician of Paris

Paris, Sep 2023

If you follow the TERPECA rankings (and you should), then you’re more likely to have come across Magician of Paris as one half of ‘The Full Experience’; Deep Inside offer it in combination with their second game as a double-bill. We chose to play jus… (more)

Pandore & Associés: Règlement de Contes

Paris, Sep 2023

A warning up front: even more than most escape rooms, this game may benefit from playing it with zero foreknowledge – so if you haven’t played it already, consider whether you want to read on at this point.

As escape room premises go, this one is ha… (more)

The Game: The Far West

Paris, Sep 2023

I try hard to rate games in an objective way, to the limited extent that’s possible with something as inherently subjective as enjoyment of escape rooms. By which I mean, I attempt to put less weight on considerations that are specific to me or that … (more)

Lock Academy: The Examination

Paris, Sep 2023

The premise of The Examination is unusual for Lock Academy – because this is your graduation exam. The test is overseen by an AI assistant, and assesses a variety of skills that have a suspicious degree of overlap with the skills needed to beat an es… (more)

Lock Academy: Revolt At Lock Academy

Paris, Sep 2023

Each room at Lock Academy is different and distinctive, but after playing a few of them you start to recognise a house style to the puzzles and the game structure. I’m not going to give away the plot, but Revolt starts off with the (fictional) founde… (more)

Masterio: La Pierre de Lumière

Paris, Sep 2023

As part of the briefing (which, as normal in Paris, was not at all brief), we were asked to assign ourselves to roles: ranger, mage, dwarf, bard. Each role had a special characteristic. (Hot tip: mage is the best one.) Which should make clear the the… (more)

One Hour: L’Expédition Maudite

Paris, Sep 2023

I wasn’t sure exactly what type of expedition this was, other than “a cursed one”; the answer is that it’s an archaeological expedition, where the previous team of explorers have failed to return from a trip down a mineshaft. Our host explained, in a… (more)