Category Archives: UK

Breakout Liverpool: Classified

Liverpool, Sep 2018

Billed as the prequel to Breakout’s Sabotage game, Classified has you attempting to pass a set of tests to prove that you have what it takes to become a secret agent. Many game stories struggle to explain why you have a room full of puzzles to solve … (more)

Breakout Liverpool: Wanted: Indians

Liverpool, Sep 2018

Breakout’s Wanted game is highly unusual in that it’s actually two entirely different games set in the same physical space. There is some separation, and our gamemaster instructed us that everything beyond a particular barrier was irrelevant. To avoi… (more)

mostly harmless…: Phobos 17

Central London, Oct 2018

Previously seen at the Vault festival at the start of the year with their team vs. team pop up Lifeboat, mostly harmless… returns with a new full-length game. I say ‘new’, but the commonality with their previous production is easy to spot – a simil… (more)

Xscream Escapes: The Corpsewood Killer

Staines, Sep 2018

Xscream’s second game has you locked in the house of a serial killer, a straightforward premise that different companies interpret in a huge variety of ways. This one has created the feel of a rural house, and mostly avoids cheesy gore and Halloween … (more)

Xscream Escapes: Bedlam: Escape The Asylum

Staines, Sep 2018

With a name like Xscream Escapes, this venue’s games were never going to be about bunnies and rainbows, and their first two rooms are set in an old asylum and a serial killer’s den. Even so, these are not the intense horror experiences you might expe… (more)

Bust Out 360: Taken

Slough, Sep 2018

One of several companies that have opened in the last year between London and Reading, Bust Out 360 have launched with a classic serial killer scenario: blindfolded and handcuffed with an ominous voice promising you an unpleasant fate, just as soon a… (more)

Time Race: Vault 17

Bury, Sep 2018

Vault 17 is a game with a reputation. A couple of months after it opened, word spread that it had a zero percent success rate – not a single team had beaten it. Of course, that’s not a good thing in an escape room. It’s easy to make an escape room un… (more)

Trapped In Bury: The Ruby Factory

Bury, Sep 2018

Ruby Factory was high on my list of games to play in Bury mainly because it sounded interestingly different: a game with an almost totally open, non-linear structure, where instead of any single goal, your aim is to collect as many rubies as you can…. (more)

Trapped In Bury: Interstellar

Bury, Sep 2018

Interstellar was the second game we played at Trapped In with a sci-fi theme, and the difference was remarkable. Where Time Machine used silver foil and spare electronics as decoration, Interstellar is in a different league. Though not up to Hollywoo… (more)

Trapped In Bury: Time Machine

Bury, Sep 2018

Having time to play only three of the six games on offer at Trapped In Bury, Time Machine was the one I picked more or less at random to complete our schedule, based mainly on it sounding like a theme with potential to be interesting. In fact, it tur… (more)