Co-Decode

Objective based rather than time so that always makes a good change

Team of 4, needed a couple of small nudges and a very kind one extra minute, to complete all objectives  

Good mix of puzzles and a few things not seen before

Nice use of a relatively small space  

Lived up to its reputation and well worth playing

Very enjoyable and great hosting 

Easy parking and smart building (lovely toilets!). 

Played as a four. Great concept and some very clever tech and programming underpinning it all. Found it quite challenging! Relies on all the team being with it and involved. Great smart building. Easy parking. Good value for money. 

This isn't an escape room as such but an "experience" which I guess fits into the escape room category. The tech is fantastic but after 75 mins it's a little repetitive and not that exciting.

The buttons knobs switches and screens are great but I feel it's let down by the stapled foiled wall. The quality of the entire venue and other rooms sets my expectation very high and this just feels very out of place. On the outside of the room they have a really cool spaceship looking panelled wall - I'm not sure why this isn't carried on into the room - it would look way better!!

Honestly though, I'd still recommend going to give it a go because clearly a lot of effort has been put into all the games here!

This is a fantastic venue with a beautiful game - very well thought out and high immersion set design. The quality of this game really is 10/10.

Came in with a lot of expectation on this game as co-decode have made some of my favourite games of all timr.  The set was fantastic, the whole setup of working as diffrent members of a spaceship crew is very original not like a normal escaperoom. Loved you could choose your roles. However I did feel a little stuck to my desk and found it a bit difficult to describe to team what we needed to do on some puzzles. The puzzle have a lot of depth and are challenging. Liked the scoring concept too we came out intermediate amazed at some of the high scorer on there website .

7.5/10 

There was nothing especially special about this room. 

But for us it was pretty much the perfect escape room experience.  And what more can you ask for? 

First off we had a warm welcome and the  reception area and the themed toilets were impressive.

 I think it's a fairly new location. 

Even though it was a reasonably hi-tech room everything worked perfectly.

There were good signposts we were never short of things to do, never standing around agait "what do we do now?"

It was very immersive and engaging with a good range of puzzles, that all fit the theme. 

Including some low-level robotics which I feel could potentially be a growth area in escape rooms generally. 

I will say it was a surprisingly small space. 

I would recommend 3-4 people, any more it could  be tight but some of the puzzles seemed to need more than 2, although I'm sure they have a work-around. 

There was a kind of electronic video map which was the way we tracked our progress. 

One of the members of our group was worried about getting dirty because it was a mine, but there was no need to worry on that score, it was very clean, and thankfully it was well lit. 

So this particular group of 4 had recently done a room at Pier Pressure (Brighton) and Mindworks (Worthing) this escape room was a full £20 cheaper, for the same standard of room, which I think is noteworthy. 

I can totally understand why this room has been around the top of the Southwest list for as long as it has. There is not a great deal to get excited about around (or to the Southwest) of this area. 

Nothing that I can think of, certainly nothing in or around  Bristol. 

Which I always find surprising and disappointing in equal measure. 

It's in the city centre there's a car park right outside the venue. 

Overall I would definitely recommend this room. 

And I look longingly to companies such as this, to lead the way to a brighter future, for the UK Escape room scene. 

A "mission" room, instead of a strict escape, with completion and bonus criteria.

The ingenuity of the puzzles is what stands out here; in a single game I can think of (but not name, to avoid spoilers) three gameplay elements which I've not seen in any other rooms.

It's probably best suited to 4 players, and is nicely parallel without being confusing, once past the initial stages.

Something different and a lot of fun to complete. Such variety of puzzles and all so satisfying to solve

Amazing flow and some really challenging puzzles that were satisfying to solve

Great room, probably the best in the city. The puzzles are satisfying and perfect difficulty. Good parallel paths and scalable objectives. 

However the best thing about it is a gorgeous and meticulous set. Brilliantly made and very immersive. 

Also, visit the loos they're awesome!

Having enjoyed Sub Terra so much we soon booked back on to play this room too. This was also really well staged with a good variety of puzzles but didn't quite hit the same heights as Sub Terra. Overall a great game though.

This was our first escape room and it set a very high standard! A really good variety of puzzles, which were logical and flowed well, with excellent staging and an interesting and unique story.

We are usually quite critical of games and vary the ratings accordingly as we're reasonably seasoned players of escape games - but we can't fault this one. It was logical, fair, most of the puzzles were unique, the hosting was good, the hint system was fair and sensible with them being typed by the attentive host (Alex) on a remote keyboard but only when necessary.

There are two main objectives that need to be completed for the objective to be met and their are 3 extra objectives that CAN be completed if you want to continue subsequent to the objectives completing, so if you're lucky (as we were) and hit a day that's not too busy you might be able to get a few extra minutes to complete the remaining objectives to see how long it would have taken you (+6 in our case).

As we've completed all of the tasks we can say that they're all fair and would allow a larger team to work on independent puzzles without getting in each other's way.

It's an independent company and designs and builds its puzzles specifically for their company so most of the puzzles are unique and have less of a flavour of the "mass produced" chain style puzzles that we see quite a lot of.

A nice range from simple standalone to complex which would allow the focus of many brains but I wouldn't say it's ideal for a full team of novices to approach - fine for a team with one slightly more experienced person to guide a little more - that said I'm sure the host would be prepared to hint a little more to a novice group.

Excellently hosted, excellently built, no broken tech, everything logical. 5 stars. 

PS - Forgot to say - worth admiring both toilets - they both really are quite special! Seriously!!!

Our second escape room based on a recommendation and boy what a great game, as soon as you walk in the door the building is very clean and looks amazing, the actual escape room is also well maintained and looks fantastic.

Alex greeted us and led us to Sub Terra where the three of us had to escape from, the puzzles are very good and non linear which is perfect for larger groups as the three of us were always doing different parts, time absolutely flies in this game but the puzzles keep coming and they are all very well done. We completed the main task within the hour and also managed one more bonus objective just about in time.  

All in all I can honestly say that this room is the standard to which all rooms should be held to, if you've never done it, book now! My only negative comment would be the small video clip at the start of the room didn't seem very convincing but in no way did it spoil the experience.

First off, this isn't an escape room in the traditional sense, nor is it a walkthrough experience (like Acid Bath Murderer at Hounds).  It's billed as a starship simulator, so is it like Bridge Command, and not quite.  It certainly has similar elements as Bridge Command but isn't the same thing at all.  

There are 4 stations on the "bridge" (Captain, Pilot, Tactical and Engineering) and the game is divided into challenges and depending on the challenge depends which stations are involved (but all players can help).  These challenges can be variations on themes we've seen before in ER's (such as an implementation of the game Mastermind).  In between these sections when the ship is in "Hyperspace" each station then has its own series of mini challenges.

At the end of the 75 minutes you then have a score which shows you how well you have done.

The implementation is very good, the puzzles work well and the instructions are mostly clear as to what you have to do, its not quite the learning curve of Bridge Command but it feels like it at times.

This is a fascinating look into a venue doing something different, and whilst not totally successful I can recommend you try this experience.

This is a fabulous game that looks great, the puzzles are very well designed and include elements I've never seen before.  I've always regretted never playing Professor Dunstan but this really should be on your playlist.

We did this room as a two, which worked very nicely (but three or four would also probably have been awesome). Great change on the usual room format. Really high production values, nice challenges. Definitely worth travelling to

First class, very original room.

Very happy with whole experience, also did the other room available.

Highly recommended!

Loved this! Such creative puzzles that all made sense to the theming - some were refreshing takes on known styles and the use of the game environment was brilliant. Thoroughly enjoyed!

The game has only recently become possible for 2 players and we were among the last of the test groups (no issues faced at all hence reviewing) - really creative game that massively relies on good communication and attention to detail. Puzzles were unique and varied and I enjoyed the transitional element between them. Decor isn't 100% believable but the gameplay massively outweighs this. We got to the professional level at end of time and it's definitely possible to go the whole way.

Not quite an 'escape room' as you spend the full 60 mins in the room completing as many puzzles as possible to increase your score. Designed for 4 but we helped test it out as a team of 2 and it was still a lot of fun and what I thought was really good about it was the replay-ability. The same team could play 4 times in different roles and have a totally different experience. Alex made us very welcome, we really enjoyed it.

Excellent room. Host was great, puzzles had variation and challenged us. Would definitely recommend playing this room!

We played a lot of at home escape games during the pandemic and this series was by far our favourite. We loved the QR code mechanism to the game and the mix of interactive paper and online clues.

A different take on an escape room. Everyone picked a different role with guidance on what particular skills were best matched to each role. Once picked we took our relative stations on the bridge and spent a jam packed hour flying a spaceship. With a scoring system based on number of puzzles solved rather than time taken it was a very different experience and with four different roles the opportunity is there for replay value. The tech behind the puzzles was also great

I preferred the other two rooms offered by Co-Decode but this room was still beautiful and fill of strong, interesting puzzles.

The best escape room in Swindon hands down. Can't wait for Co-Decode to re-open with a new room. The room was beautiful, the theme was great and the puzzles were a wonderful mixture of high and low tech. There was enough to do that we split up into two smaller teams of two. We could probably play the whole room again without repeating anything

Code-decode are one of the best escape room companies I've been too.

Firstly they let us reschedule short notice (3 days before) as I tore 2 ligaments and ended up on crutches. They were very understanding and rescheduled for 6 weeks time. 

Secondly the amount of love and thought that has gone into their games is profound. 

Sub terra is in my top 5 games the puzzles were original and flowed well, due to having to find 4 hard drives as well as complete the game simultaneously. You alway have direction and can break up and complete different elements. 

Cant wait for code decode to reopen at there new location, going to do crew for my birthday

Loved this escape room. It was very challenging for two people. We played the game on difficult. The room was very puzzle dense with some very well thought out puzzles. 

A room not to miss, super clever use of tech, amazing design, flows really well. 

Another amazing game from Alex at Co-Decode! Really different, focus not on escaping but on puzzle solving/point scoring. Plus replayable!

Brilliant escape room, highly recommended!

I can't say strongly enough how much I appreciate the sheer craft and attention to detail in this room, with some very memorable puzzles, great "ah ha" moments, unique elements and use of technology. You can see the passion Alex has for escape games in every element. The room is immersive and beautifully decorated/furnished.

Being newer to escape games at the time (with two newbies on the team) we played on the regular difficulty which was just right for us.

We really enjoyed this game, and split off into two pairs at points where there was plenty to keep us occupied. Loads of content, and it was brilliantly accessible for one of our group who has mobility issues. I think we ended up completing everything and as with all the games at this venue they're so thoughtfully, cleverly and beautifully put together despite the deceptive nature of their location!

A good solid room. Some clever puzzles but quite a lot of padlocks. 

This one really split the team in terms of opinion. We loved it but I know the other half of the team felt lukewarm.

It is beautifully made and looks in mint condition (even though it's been open 3+ years) and has some very clever tricks and original puzzles. There are definitely moments where 4 people seem to be too many - a team of 2 would probably enjoy this more but might find it hard to finish in the time. It's very tech driven and all of that worked faultlessly. Clever, fun, a great room.

Had some cool puzzles and was a fun time. QR system worked well, and liked that there weren't too many pieces of paper or fiddly puzzles

Very good value for £9 (incl dontaion to charity) and some really ingenious puzzles in here. As others have noted, the QR code mechanism is brilliant, but a bit fiddly. I understand that the next chapters have addressed this, so we look forward to playing those as well.

We took 3hrs but that was mostly down to the wine and conversation. A very social way of doing an escape room. Would recommend.

Quite traditional but a very solid game. We were a bit rubbish on some of the puzzles but all of them were very logical. Theming was good and Alex a great host who spends time to explain anything with the room. We played on hard difficulty (one up from medium but one down from extra hard). We needed a few clues and was also offered extra time (10 mins) to complete.

Very enjoyable room. Aim is to not escape but rather to complete main mission aims. As a team of 2 we managed 3/4 of the aims which counts as success. Lots of tech and all worked seamlessly. Very immersive and logical puzzles.

One expects great rooms from Co-decode and this latest room is no exception.  Different from a typical escape room - it's more like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes meets Captain Sonar.  Wonderfully done and a lot of fun.

Possibly the best escape room I'm played.

The set dressing is beautiful, and the game brightly lit (no need to dim lighting to make the game harder to pad the length out here, there's plenty of content).

The theme runs through the entire game, even down to the countdown timer (which I won't spoil for you). It has a wonderfully wide variety of puzzles, zero padlocks, and only a small number of keypads. There are lots of things to unlock, but they all take more interesting approaches than the simple and traditional.

It parallelises beautifully — our team of four mostly ended up with two people working on any given puzzle (swapping people around when a fresh mind needed to approach a problem). The design of the game means you have a good idea of the progress you are making so can judge how well you are doing.

I could gush about all the wonderful features for quite some time, but risk drifting into spoiler territory. If you like escape rooms, you should play this game.

Lots of great, unique puzzles that were all in-keeping with the theme. Loved that they can change the difficulty to suit the team without anyone noticing. This means it’s great for beginners who need a bit more help and for enthusiasts looking for a bigger challenge. We played as 1 enthusiast and 1 beginner on level 2/3 and needed a tiny bit extra time. Lots of fun

CREW is a fantastic experience which I highly recommend. It's incredibly unique, being more of an immersive puzzle experience than an escape room. It relies heavily on teamwork and incorporates a lot of variety when it comes to puzzles. There's a lot of tech involved, but it feels very befitting of the theme and makes the game highly engaging. What can I say, Co-Decode have done it again. Great venue with three stellar games. 

Excellent game, beautiful set and a great set up with variable add on challenges that you can work on in addition to the original goal - thanks to Sophie for the great hosting. 

Fantastic game! Played on the hardest difficulty as a 2 and got out in 65 minutes so slightly over the hour. Excellent number and variety of puzzles, Alex was a great GM too. 

Sub-Terra is an absolute delight to play! It's one of the most interesting games i've experienced with a lot of tech involved in the puzzles. However none of it feels gimmicky. It's all very well implemented and feels befitting of the theme. There's a great balance of physical and logic based puzzles and the room flows beautifully. I loved the addition of optional side missions to add difficulty to a wonderfully balanced room. This really is up there with the best of the best in my opinion. To think Co-Decode have built such a stunning room in a small space is mind-boggling. 

Value for money is a difficult concept when you're talking about escape games. Particularly when you're talking about the even more niche mobile/at home escape game. Particularly when you're talking about a potentially unique "deluxe private hire (escape) game". Putting all that aside, despite the sizeable (£100) price tag, I was still very impressed by just how much stuff there was, and all of a high quality and appearance. The puzzles stand up as well as most you'd find in a physical room, and the whole thing was just fun. Parking adequate.

Brilliant latest episode of this epic journey through trains, seas, archeological sites ams QR codes. Can’t wait for the epic ending!!!

Brilliant Part 3, can't wait for more!

We have greatly enjoyed the previous two "Oldervik" play-at-home games, and this third entry in the series continues to impress. As before, the game combines a handful of print-at-home paper elements (around 6 A4 sheets) with digital online elements accessed via QR code or weblinks. We played in a team of 4 over Zoom, with each of us having printed our own copies of the paper sheets, and also screen-sharing as appropriate.
On Course for Kantawe is the most ambitious of the series yet, and extends the existing mechanics from the previous games in almost every way  - in terms of the sheer scale (yes, it really does take nearly 6 hours to complete!), the gameplay mechanics (including the concept of "keyphrases" which you'll have to discover in order to tease information out of conversations with various NPCs), the clever puzzles making use of novel elements of the print and digital media, including papercraft activities and clever web interactions, and just the overall polish and finishing touches (e.g. the sound effects and voiceovers of key characters). The story is engaging and there's enough background of the characters to be interesting, while not so much to bore you.
One puzzle was a bit tedious, but the hint system is elegant and effective - and you always have the option to jump straight to the answer if you want to skip any puzzles. If I had to criticise it, I'd say that it could perhaps have been thinned out a little, or perhaps split into two chapters - we were mentally exhausted at the end of it! (There are natural stopping points where you're prompted if you'd like to take a break) But, otherwise, in terms of a quality game at very good value for money, this is pretty hard to fault.

Very well put together escape room and mystery where the story is immersive, puzzles are tough and lies are plenty. Well recommended as an online game for 3-4 people, works wel via Zoom too and some profit is going towards charities. Make sure to budget a good 3 hours 🙂

"Operative Onboard" - the second game in Co-Decode's Oldervik series - takes all the elements that made Ch.1 an already enjoyable game, and improves on them in every way. 

The narrative in this chapter takes on a classic "whodunnit" style, with story and puzzles themed around a selection of suspects on a train. Players are given just enough information about the characters to feel interesting, but not so much to be overwhelmed by text and unnecessary backstory - in fact, the entire game is a beautiful example of elegant design - absolutely every detail is there for a reason, and they fit together beautifully, nothing extra and nothing missing.

Players use two sheets of A4 printed paper as a "game board" containing QR codes representing the locations that can be visited, passengers to be interviewed, and objects to be examined, all of which lead to corresponding puzzles on a website. This makes the entire games feel like an Escape room/Cluedo/Poirot crossover, and it works brilliantly.

Mechanically, the designers have taken feedback from the first game - QR codes are larger and easier to cut out and scan, and we had no tech issues at all - the entire experience felt very high-quality. Which, considering it only cost £12 (of which £2 goes to an NHS hospice) and provided over 3hrs entertainment for 4 people makes this a "must-buy" game.

Another great room from co-decode. A really good mix of puzzles which was great for our group of varying experience players. Another room which has a sliding win condition so that beginners and enthusiasts can both enjoy the room to the max.

A great game with interesting and clever puzzles.  The ability to vary the difficulty level of the game according to the experience of the team is also a nice touch.  Alex is a super GM.  I'd not hesitate to recommend Co Decode.

Well thought out design to lead you to more detailed puzzles and a good level of difficulty - I would say we found this hard, although in part our time reflects technical issues with having eyes too old to read small things, QR codes on mobile phones and fiddly paperwork required, and from needing to reprint some sheets later in the game after going wrong, which was a little frustrating at the time. However, developers have been very responsive to feedback and have made some changes to the game which I think will iron out most of these issues and I would have no hesitation in recommending it as a fun game to play if at home. 

Very clever and creative compact puzzle with QR-code mechanics. Really enjoyed it with a team of 4 in two households. Not a 5 star due to fiddly nature of QR codes on phones and one puzzle that really required a leap of logic (in my opinion). Already bought Chapter 2 - can't wait!

Great, just a little too linear for my liking. 

Extra two puzzles. 

To rebook in 2020