Category Archives: Manchester

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)

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)

Lucardo: The Orphanage

Manchester, Apr 2022

Someday I’ll play a game set in an orphanage that’s about toys and laughter and children playing happily, but not this one: Lucardo’s latest is of course a horror game, set in a derelict orphanage with a dark past.

The design gets a lot out of a re… (more)

Lucardo: The Prison

Manchester, Jun 2019

Prison is one of the timeless escape room themes. It’s been done so many times in many different styles that it’s very difficult to build a prison game that feels original, doubly so because there’s a very limited range of items you can plausibly put… (more)

Lucardo: Espionage

Manchester, Jul 2017

Having rattled through the two Lucardo games that we’d booked and finished them well ahead of schedule, the staff kindly managed to squeeze us into a third room despite it being a busy Saturday daytime. Espionage is set in 1938 and has you stealing c… (more)

Lucardo: The Dream

Manchester, Jul 2017

Our second room at Lucardo was set in the subconscious, in a dream that in sixty minutes will turn into a nightmare. Exactly why we were there or why time was limited I’m not sure, but it’s a great theme for a surreal set and unusual ideas, both of w… (more)

Lucardo: Contamination

Manchester, Jul 2017

The first game we played at Lucardo was, of course, the one they describe as their hardest room. The gamemaster told us in the briefing that it’s hard not because the puzzles are unusually difficult but because of their sheer quantity, and that was e… (more)