Telford, Mar 2024
Of the three rooms at Clockwork, Professor Clockwork’s Mind Palace is the one that’s least likely to wow you on entry. First impressions may be of a relatively basic style of set design. This is misleading, in that it’s actually quite a striking and cool design – but in ways that may take a little while to discover.
In a similar way, some of the puzzles can give a slightly old fashioned impression, but there’s a cleverness to the design that may become more apparent as you proceed. The premise here is that you’re inside the mind of the venue’s proprietor, searching for the lost plans to the perfect escape room. And that’s the basis for what I’d describe as a very ‘conceptual’ style of room design.
While there’s a lot that I liked and found clever about the game, for me it flowed less smoothly than the other two I played here. I think the main reason for that is that it relies to a certain extent on hints and clues written within the room, as cryptic nudges to encourage you in the right direction. The problem with that is that there’s usually a dozen ways to interpret a cryptic clue of that sort, so it’s an invitation to overthinking; with many such nudges, we only understood what they were referring to after we’d solved the thing in question by other means. Often the ‘other means’ involved help from our host, who could also be cryptic and sarcastic in varying measures; while he was unceasingly witty and amusing, I suspect his caustic tone could be a bit much for some groups, and is more likely to grate if you’re struggling.
Either way, the result was a game that I thought was clever but which I found less fun to play than their others. I’d absolutely say it’s worth playing if you’re in the area – but if you’re choosing, pick one of their other two ahead of it. 