Category Archives: UK

EO Escape Rooms: Castaway

Sudbury, Jul 2024

Some themes are easier to create than others; an outdoor setting is much more of a challenge to build convincingly than, say, an office. A desert island is particularly difficult – but Castaway absolutely smashes it. This room delighted me from the m… (more)

Escape Hunt: Eye of the Sun God

Manchester, Mar 2024

Escape Hunt doesn’t always have a great reputation; the games of theirs that I’ve played have been a mixed bag. That shouldn’t put you off trying Eye of the Sun God. It’s probably the best of theirs I’ve played at any of the chain’s branches, and is … (more)

Breakout Manchester: Crimson Lake Motel

Manchester, Mar 2024

The problem with doing 24 escape rooms in the space of a long weekend is that it tends to blur many of the details of the games in memory, such as individual puzzles. But if my recollection of Crimson Lake Motel is hazier than normal, that’s not beca… (more)

Breakout Manchester: Frankenstein

Manchester, Mar 2024

Honestly, my favourite part of Frankenstein is a section of the decor, which is exceedingly pretty but not actually part of the game. Which isn’t to say that Frankenstein is a bad room, but there’s not a great deal that reaches a higher standard than… (more)

Adrenaline Escape Rooms Atherton: Espionage

Atherton, Mar 2024

The name is arguably misleading: Espionage is much more a prison game than a spy theme: one of your group has been arrested and you need to break them out, and also they’re a spy.

Our third room at Adrenaline’s Atherton branch was, like the others, … (more)

Adrenaline Escape Rooms Atherton: Masterpiece

Atherton, Mar 2024

Our second room at Atherton was Masterpiece, in which you’re trying to find the stolen Mona Lisa.

What’s true of their other rooms is largely true of this one too, with light theming and plenty of padlocks. My impression was that the puzzles were a … (more)

Adrenaline Escape Rooms Atherton: Missing

Atherton, Mar 2024

The venue at Atherton, previously independent and now part of Adrenaline Escape, is in a building that also offers a shooting range and dance school, though everything was dead on a Monday morning; our host had come in specially for us.

Two of the f… (more)

Lucardo: Space Evader

Manchester, Mar 2024

The other game we’d come to Lucardo to play on this occasion was Space Evader. This spaceship game is not about saving the space craft but rather scavenging all the fuel rods you can from it, in another variable score room with a highly parallel stru… (more)

Lucardo: Derailed

Manchester, Mar 2024

Lucardo Manchester’s newest game is of course a train game, but more than that it’s a game of two halves, to the point where it could almost be two separate 30 minute games that share a common theme.

The story is that you’re trying to solve a murder… (more)

Compendium Escape Rooms: Bad Elf and the Key to the Sleigh

Bury, Mar 2024

While some Christmas games are quickly put together and evidently intended for only a short run, Compendium’s creation is a more lushly decorated affair, and still going strong well out of season. The plot involves finding the key to Santa’s sleigh, … (more)