The Escapement Margate

Gorgeous pirate-themed set which was really immersive. There’s a moment where I thought for a second that we’d genuinely stepped outdoors! Great attention to detail and really nice puzzles. 

Ive tagged this as ‘overpriced’ for two reasons. Firstly, the website boasts a ‘limited time offer’ that all rooms cost a flat fee of £90 regardless of team size. Having checked my records, as a team of 2 I’m pretty sure this actually makes it the most expensive room we’ve ever done by a decent margin. Secondly, the advertised 90-minute duration is misleading. This is a standard length escape room but they allow up to 90 minutes to make sure all teams get to escape and experience the whole room. As a team of 2, we escaped in less than half that - teams of 3 or 4 could do it even more quickly. The room was excellent but we’ve done other excellent rooms elsewhere that were genuinely 90 minute experiences for a lot less money. 

The look and feel of this room is perfect, I can scarcely believe it’s 10 years old. Our host took the time to point out the various bits of maintenance he had done over the past few days. You can tell it’s a real priority to keep everything looking pristine, which is really appreciated. It’s very immersive. Some decent puzzles though the story takes priority for this room in particular. Some of the tech broke but I guess these things happen from time to time.

Ive tagged this as ‘overpriced’ for two reasons. Firstly, the website boasts a ‘limited time offer’ that all rooms cost a flat fee of £90 regardless of team size. Having checked my records, as a team of 2 I’m pretty sure this actually makes it the most expensive room we’ve ever done by a decent margin. Secondly, the advertised 90-minute duration is misleading. This is a standard length escape room but they allow up to 90 minutes to make sure all teams get to escape and experience the whole room. If you’re a team who usually comfortably escapes within 60 minutes, you will do so here too. 

Although apparently 10 years old, this is a very well constructed, and beautifully set escape room, starting even from the intro briefing room, where we felt the earth move beneath our feet (similar to London residents feeling the effect of the Underground). Barry (our man on the inside who bore a striking resemblance to Games-Master Matt), promoted us to the top team after the unfortunate demise of a previous team, owing to the dangerous, even treacherous hazards of descending to the centre of the earth. 

The Pit allowed us to rank our team members (most important=Boss, most dispensable and cutest), which itself was hilarious. The rule set: no red herrings,  single use clues  etc shows mature game design experience that was very appreciated. 

The team and in particular Matt’s passion for Escapement shone through : congrats and well done! Muchos Gracias!

Very atmospheric and some fun features. 

The set is awesome, some of the puzzles are very hard but overall a very fun game 

Tricky puzzles but very inventive with the theme 

One of the best games for visuals

We've played this a couple of times as a family.  There are some tricky parts but overall a good game.  We enjoyed the time we spent in the pyramid. 

There are a few tricky bits in the cave, trying to work out colours and TNT.  Overall good fun and a really immersive set.

This one can be tricky.  It's story is well thought out and the set makes it really immersive, even above deck!

Some satisfyingly tricky puzzles and excellent Egyptian tomb theming - we came away satisfied and with sandy shoes! 

Wow! This room is incredibly authentic and immersive - great puzzles too!

Fantastic set and some great puzzles that we really enjoyed working through! 🙂

A fun, but largely not too challenging room. Perhaps a few more puzzles would've been nice, but the immersion and hosting makes up for it.

This is a good solid room.  Its nicely themed and very playable.  Everything fits in and makes sense how its done.  Its quite linear so sometimes there is a little wait if your group is any bigger than 3 or 4, I definitely would'nt advise it for bigger groups.  Gary was a great GM. 

My major gripe was that its just too easy/short, you don't expect to leave a 90min game in 31 mins, even a 60min game would annoy me if I left half way through it.  I expect to be entertained or the full slot not to be all done really early, especially as we had driven for 2hrs for it!

Some Clever puzzle design, space was a little small, but was never boring!

Great adventure! Really enjoyed the theming and clever well thought out puzzles

Great room, with some puzzles and ideas id never seen. 

A very nicely designed room. There's a satisfying flow from one puzzle to another, some nice attention to detail (such as a communication device being provided for you at just the point you'll need it), and tasks that engage you both physically and mentally. And our host got involved to ramp up the intensity towards the end too! Great fun, highly recommended. 

This room is a real disappointment, which is suprising given the usual quality of Escapement. The room itself is tiny (and feels weirdly claustrophobic), the puzzles are quite odd and feel a bit obtuse at times - there’s no satisfaction when solving them. I was just sort of thinking ‘but why?’ the whole way through. The finale is rubbish as well and there’s not really enough to do. A very forgettable experience which is a shame! Also not sure what the name of this room is??? Project Exodus or Egyptian Tomb? Pick one I guess!

This experience was made all the better by our fantastic GM, Tom! The game stands on its own as an excellent room, however, the hosting really put the cherry on top of the cake! We loved it!

YES, YES, YES!!! This was our favourite room at this site! Such great puzzles and immersion! Often escape rooms forget that a good puzzle is worth more than a fantastic set, and luckily, this room had an abundance of both! Thank you to our GM, Tom, for making this experience unforgettable from start to finish!  

Had such great fun in this room - amazing that they used legitimate ship parts for this! Really great hosting adds to the experience, and music/sound effects are on point. Puzzles can be a little easy, but I was pleased to see that there's little hand-holding or telling you which order you need to do things in. 

Possibly one of the most immersive sets we’ve seen, with a great atmosphere and great hosting. There’s also a brilliantly thematic surprise inside which is really clever! 

Unfortunately it’s let down a bit by it’s puzzles. There’s not a lot of them and they are a little basic. They fit the room and it’s theme well, but they just don’t really grab you like some other puzzles do in other rooms.

A great experience though and worth going for the theming and set alone. 

Strong atmospheric start to an impressive set off puzzles well themed to the story. Some great mechanics and good team challenges.

Hilarious moment of dancing in the dark

The Pit was my favourite of the two games we played at The Escapement. The set is incredible, the experience was very immersive and it was also refreshing to have more physical tasks to complete than combination locks/padlocks. A lot of puzzles I've never seen before and very on-theme. I had so much fun playing this game!

Bethany was a brilliant GM, extremely funny and great in character. 

Same as with Pirates of Polaris, my only critique would be the 75 minute label on the game when there is not 75 minutes worth of tasks to complete. We got off to an extremely slow start (didn't solve anything for the first 10 minutes or so) and still managed to complete the game in less than an hour as a team of two. The lack of timer also detracts from it for me, as I like to know how much time has elapsed. 

I would still highly recommend this game though. It's extremely unique, immersive and fun, and leagues above other games I've played. 

We had a lot of fun in Pirates of Polaris! The set is absolutely outstanding, with parts of a real pirate ship built into the game. That was the absolute highlight of the game for us, you really do feel immersed in the game due to the authentic, epic set and well-themed puzzles, some of which I've never seen before. 

A few minor issues with one prop not working and there being no timer which I never personally like. This room is also extremely key heavy, which detracted from the experience slightly for me. We still had tons of fun though, it's a great room and I would recommend playing!

Adam was a brilliant GM, huge props to him as he was really fun, friendly and great in character. Even when the prop wasn't working and he had to intervene, he did so in character which I liked. 

I do feel however, that the games at The Escapement don't need to be 75 minutes. We were told that they have a 75 minute timer to allow everyone more than enough time to complete everything (so everyone escapes), which takes the fun out of it a little as it was essentially a guaranteed win. 

Our experience in the mine was a lot of fun and the added theatrics of the game really enhanced our experience and elevated it from an escape game to an escape experience.

The puzzles were great and required good communication skills, which we always enjoy. A fabulous set that felt incredibly immersive and a hilarious host - Tom - who we really enjoyed.

Lighting and physicality can be a challenge in here, so something to bear in mind.

Overall, a fantastic game. This was my personal favourite at the venue, although my partner preferred Pirates of Polaris. Either way, you can't really go wrong!

This one really divided opinion between the two of us, as it really wasn't my favourite but the other half of our team really liked it.

Decor-wise, this is superb. There are some delightful puzzles in here but a couple I just didn't quite get on with, so that probably skewed my opinion of a very decent game!

Hosting here is excellent and we felt very well looked after.

An excellent game that may be our favourite pirate game to date. The puzzles were very logical with some really unique ones and a fantastic premise and atmosphere.

This is the 4th Escapement game we have played and I'm afraid we really did'nt gel with it at all.  I rated the other Escapement games all between 4 and 5 but this one was very small in comparison, the puzzles seemed very illogical and there were not that many at all to do.  We struggled so much to get off the starting blocks taking 35mins to do the first puzzle but then we did the whole of the rest of it in 24mins.  The final puzzle to get out is'nt really even a puzzle its so easy which was a big anti climax?  Usually a room with some sand on the floor and temple/tomb themes and we love it but we did'nt really enjoy this one at all I am afraid, sorry.

This was the 3rd game we played with Escapement and again as per the first 2 the set is truly fantastic.  Its a really interesting use of the space and has a wide variety of puzzles which flowed well with our style/brains.  I think the set is better than the gameplay with a slight sense of let down at starting the core again but its a really good fun game.

Excellent room! High tech and very immersive. Wonderful experience! 

Last puzzle was anticlimactic. Good fun though! 

Had high hope's for this game after completing the pit. The puzzle are on theme but sometimes feel illogical. The room was quite dark which made things tricky to find things -not in a fun way. Our host was less experienced and gave us answer when we didnt ask for them. 

Loved the puzzles and immursian of this room. A couple of unique puzzles that we havent seen else where. One of my partners favourite games, for its uniqueness. But also the room could do with a few more puzzles as we completed it quickly for a 75 minute room.

I think I just didn't connect with the puzzles and theme of The Pit as much as the other Escapement games, but the set was as epic as expected and there were some really unique puzzles. Great GMing too!

Absolutely loved the storm timer, such an atmospheric and beautiful set all the way through, and really great hosting!

A truly great game with some things I have never seen before. We really loved this, very immersive and creative. I don't want to say more!

The only downside is the way that Escapement do a detailed run through of ALL of the puzzles after the game. Sure, I want to talk through things I didn't see or understand but a step by step analysis of a room that we successfully completed? No thanks. This is the only reason the game is listed as 90 minutes. 

A really fun game. Lots of cool puzzles, really great immersive hosting and truly beautifully made. 

The full run through of the puzzles after the game is complete is really not needed - this is not a 90 minute game, it is just a 90 minute experience.

A very impressive set. Immersive from start to finish. The hosts here really do get into character which makes the experience come to life as soon as you enter. 

We found the puzzles on the easier side but enjoyed solving our way through the pirate ship. 

A very immersive game with great use of natural features to fully submerge you in the theme. 

The game itself was on the easy side with some quite repetitive puzzles. As a larger team, we did spend a bit of time watching each other solve things. 

However, we also spent a lot of time admiring the use of the space and features. 

The host was great and really threw himself into the role. 

The set was amazing but I felt the puzzles in this room were not good.  A couple were very tedious and repetitive and some were just badly formed.  The host said that it was the "most difficult room in Margate" but I don't think the puzzles were hard per se, people just struggle because they aren't good, logical puzzles.

A great room with a fantastic set and some interesting puzzles.  We really enjoyed it.

I really loved this room.  The puzzles fitted in really well with the theme and the set was amazing.  The only thing which let it down was a couple of the techy puzzles didn't work for us at first and we had instructions of the radio to "wiggle it around a bit".

Just felt some of the puzzles were a leap, and some were tedious (reading / translating). 

Set is amazing, but for us the weakest of the 3. 

One if those rooms that really clicked for us. Final puzzle is a little finickity else would probably be 5 stars. 

Such a great set. So immersive. Great fun!

I was blown away at the scale of this room and the way it has been constructed to immerse you in this 'escape'. It's incredibly atmospheric the moment you start the game, and exciting and epic all the way until the end. 

The host was so in character and the Escapement team here are honestly one of the passionate hosts I've ever met. Super engaging and you can tell they love doing this.

The game stands out, the puzzles are wonderfully crafted, some things in this room I've never seen before in other escape games.

This was one of my favourite games I've played in Kent during our trip and a must-try if you've not played before

Another brilliant room by The Escapement. Great hosting, great theming, really good quantity and range of puzzles. We struggled with one part but it didn't detract from the overall experience. Highly recommend 🙂  

Brilliant room. Highly recommend. Brilliant hosting, and you get a little token gift after escaping. Loved it. 

Immersion and theming is great here, and puzzles all feel like a lot of thought has gone into them to make them less standard. Our host James was great. Only criticisms are that the finale puzzle felt a bit lazy and easy compared to the others and some of the props are a bit worn and difficult to see. Otherwise, a really good game and just wish there was more of it!

Amazing design of the room which leaves you fully immersed. Our host was excellent and only gave help when specifically requested, as well as a great run-down of the game after finishing (the obligatory Escapement experience). Puzzles were excellent and well themed, although I wish a couple had slightly better signposting to avoid us needing a hint (might've been us being morons however). Overall, a fantastic game and I think slightly tops Mutiny (Tulleys) as my favourite pirate escape room. 

Our favourite game at the Escapement and one of the best games around. Theming is fantastic and host Adam was great! Puzzles flow really well and the tension ramps up as you near the end. 

After playing the dark Polaris this was a breath of fresh air as Egypt is bright! Great theming of the puzzles and the absence of padlocks was refreshing. I personally loved the puzzles in this game as they play to my strengths, but I can imagine that this is an infuriating room for some players.
Great story and great host who kept wonderfully in character throughout. I has a great time. 

A beautiful room with some great props, but this room just did not do it for me as it seems to have done for so many others. The main issue for me was light level, yes its thematic, and yes most other teams don't have a problem, but my 50 year old eyes could see b*gg*r all... the flickering of the lamps is very atmospheric but my eyes had problems adjusting to the varying light levels, so frustration set in from the start as I couldn't find anything.

The puzzles were good and logical, but we had a couple of reset issues that confused us a points as we had the items before we should have, and as other reviewers have said something to write on would have helped too. But our big problem was seeing the detail we needed, especially on the last puzzle.
 

Such a strong room! Just one request for the last puzzle that would put it over the edge - pen and paper! Memory is key in the last puzzle and mine is very poor! Other than that, a really well-themed and well thought out room!

Definitely a must-play. Still at the top of my best games of all time list. Very immersive, really intuitive and nothing felt out of place.

This is definitely the best pirate themed room I've experienced, the themeing and set design are brilliant, immersive and creative. Puzzle wise there is everything for every type of player and all fit with the story and theme. The last puzzle was a great ending for achievement and wrapped everything up nicely.

I know there is a lot of love for this room, but I came away a little deflated as we managed to solve the last puzzles simply by inserting a few things and not needing any logical deductions. So sadly the ending was abrupt. The set design and immersion are great and the Escapement are a lovely company and team who make great rooms. The room started great and there are clever puzzles and a nice transition from rooms. Had we earned the ending with logical solutions I feel we would have enjoyed this room more. 

Great set loved this room! 

Didn't think there was much to solve in this room, feel its slightly overrated just because of the trolley. 

Very luxurious product with some great puzzles. However most were partially based on luck as even if you knew what you were doing it was sometimes a bit trial and errory to get their intended solution. Also the videos between chapters were far too long and we got a bit bored. Good game still!

Upon arrival we were greeted by Adam who from the start showed enthusiasm which got us excited for the game. We were offered drinks which was a nice touch and were given a quick safety briefing. Adam then left and returned in character and took us through to get our hard hats and briefed us on the story of the game all in character. The room itself was completely unique and showed great attention to detail using props and sounds which made the room the most immersive we have experienced. The puzzles were in keeping with the plot of the story and although acting as a clue giver, Adam remained in character throughout, constantly checking up on us. The room made great use of space including one particular feature which made the experience stand out for the rest. After we completed the room Adam debriefed us on each step which again showed his enthusiasm which we loved. We will definitely be back to try the other rooms. 

Such a fun room!  We've played a lot of games and this consistently stays in my top 3 of all time.  Staff were extremely friendly and actually made us feel welcome.  It had some puzzles and tech that I've never seen before (and probably never will).  Very original concept.  Cannot recommend enough!

As an inclusive, acccessible family Christmas puzzle experience, The Charm of Christmas Past has a lot to commend it:

• It is beautifully presented, printed on thick linen card, and contains a variety of interesting trinkets and possessions.
  
• It tells a gentle sentimental story which would appeal equally to playing with young children as with your nan.
  
• The flow of the game is well-designed, being subdivided into several chapters that provide convenient stopping points and, within each chapter, there are multiple puzzles that can be solved simultaneously.

This was a really fun and interesting escape room run by real enthusiasts that clearly love the industry. We were offered a drink upon entry as well as a small token prize at the end which really added to the experience. 

The room itself focuses on an engaging narrative where you are miners trying to restart the Earths core, the miners hats were a lovely touch. The game master was in character throughout, guiding us through using walkie talkie; however there were times that this was a bit annoying as it stilted our flow. 

The props and setting were well thought through with some really nice surprises...I’m not going to spoil them. There was a nice moment near the end where the host created tension with the group through the narrative and we all liked this. 

We would have liked a few more puzzles , however, there were a good balance of logic and physical. 

We visited during the pandemic, we felt safe and the staff wore masks/visors the whole time. 

Really enjoyable game and experience

Had fun. More signposting needed for certain sections but a good fun family game.

Middle of the road game. Was hyped up a lot before playing so may have influenced enjoyment. Much better and more challenging games out there.

I'm slightly surprised this is getting such good reviews as we felt let down by such an expensive boxed game.

Starting with the good stuff - the production value is excellent.  I haven't experience a play-at-home game that matches this one although that is reflected in the price.  The story was good although the videos were a little long and we lost interest during them a bit. There were a couple of really nice puzzles too, although overall the puzzles were a tad mediocre and a couple were poor.  In my book a good puzzle should be challenging but once you figure it out you should be sure you have the right answer. For several of these puzzles we had the right answer but weren't confident we did or we found their wording ambigous leading to multiple possible solutions.

The real flaw in this game was the answer system.  You have to enter a combination which involves the answers to multiple puzzles at once and if it's wrong you don't have any idea which bit is wrong. When that is coupled with poor puzzles with ambiguous wording you end up in a very frustrating position where you have too many combinations to feasibly try.  This problem is compounded by the hint system which we found basically useless.  When we couldn't find the right combination of answers we looked to the hints to help narrow things down but they only told us things we already knew and didn't remove any of the ambiguity we were seeing.

I'm afraid we found the middle video unpleasant to watch (do not play this with children) to such an extent that we basically skipped that puzzle.

The other frustrating thing is that you can only play it once.  As the game was so expensive we tried very hard to play it in such a way that we might be able to give it to friends to play afterwards. But that was basically impossible. £40 is a lot for a single-play box game.

The production quality is definitely 5/5 for this game - no faults from me there. 

The puzzles themselves left something to be desired in places. Nothing was too complex, but occasionally ambiguous. The hint system and answer submission is not brilliant for a play at home experience. 

The price is appropriate given the production (comparable to playing an escape room with 2 people). But for a play at home experience I would hope for stronger puzzles - for me they are weaker than your average exit game. 

The Network is a premium at-home escape game-in-a-box, which combines printed and physical artefacts together with video delivered via an online portal. You'll also have to discover content placed on a variety of well-known external internet sites.

The game is separated into 3 sections, and we played through the whole thing as a couple in around 2 hours. It is not the cheapest experience out there but, for the original content and moments of delight you get while playing, I'd say it's absolutely still good value for money.

Update:- I recently offered to help someone who was stuck at a particular point in the game. Even though I had not kept my notes, I was pretty confident I would be able to provide a nudge since we had breezed through that section. It turns out that this might have been partly by luck rather than by good judgment as, on playing through the second time, I became stuck as to understanding why a particular answer wasn't being accepted. This led me to discover that both the input verification and hinting systems could be improved (which hadn't become apparent on our first playthrough since we'd not made use of either). It's nothing that the designers can't fix, but could definitely lead to player frustration, so I'm knocking off half a star from my previous rating.

I think as an example of this genre, this was fantastically done, and I'm not surprised after our experience at the venue a few months ago. It felt carefully put together and so well presented. We didn't time ourselves although know we wasted a fair amount of time down a rabbit hole (entirely our own fault for not paying enough attention). Good variety of puzzles with excellent immersion given we were playing out of a box at home, ramped up to a fun finish. Website well executed and delighted to see the return of Jacob (a trainee GM who hosted one of the games when we hit The Escapement).  I can only imagine The Network will be setting the bar for this kind of game, and we felt the price represented fair value for what we got.  

A quality game with high production value. We had great fun with some head scratching moments (there is an in-built help system to keep you going.) Would highly recommend. Looking forward to the next instalment! 

Really enjoyable and well-themed room. I'm a sucker for pirate themed rooms, but it does feel like the team at Escapement have gone the extra mile with the decor and real and replica items in the room to make it feel incredibly authentic. In terms of difficulty, we were a team of one experienced three newbie players, and got out in around 45 minutes.

This game was absolutely outstanding, the most I have enjoyed a room for ages. Puzzles completely on theme and varied, great set dressing, hilarious GM (Adam) who played his role to perfection, so many clever touches in place. Intense theatrical ending. One puzzle looked slightly frustrating for a pair but there was an element of choice with what was needed for completion and we ended up bypassing it in the end. Totally deserving of its nomination in the TERPECAs. 

Excellent room. Amazing set design, great puzzles with some nice physical elements. We had a new GM under supervision who did a great job giving us the occasional nudge when we had made some search fails. Very immersive with how the puzzles truly fit the experience. Found it a little hard to see some areas although I understand the GM can control the brightness if needed and it is not a dark room in a frustrating sense at all. Absolutely worth a visit. 

A solid and fun game although my least favourite of the 3 at The Escapement (mainly because the other two are SO GOOD rather than as a detriment to this game).  Theme wise the egyptian tomb is familiar, but the puzzles are well designed in terms of fit and the game does feel immersive despite its small space. We had a slightly over keen GM (absolutely lovely, but we'd asked for no hints and in his over-enthusiasm he kept forgetting and telling us things). Probably would shift a couple of things around to change the end order for the game if I could - was slightly surprised by the end - but we had a good time.  

I've been looking forward to doing The Pit since i've begun on my Escape Escapades and i was not disappointed. Exhilarating Adventure that manages to get your Adrenaline rushing by the End. A must do for anyone!

Very fun adventure in a room designed with real parts from a vessel. A joy to play through and would recommend to others. Ask the owners about the Original Polaris!

WOW some of the most amazing theming I have ever seen! The puzzle was great but the final puzzle is extremely challenging for a team of 2. But still highly recommend 

This was the first room I've done and now I have been addicted to escape room since

Story - the earth stopped spinning in 2012 and your goal is to go in the mine and make the earth spin again otherwise the world will ran out of oxygen.

Theming - one of the best theming I've ever seen in an escape room. The prop look so realistic, you felt like you're in a mine I was so impressed!

Puzzle - some of the puzzle was very creative and logical which I did enjoyed. A few padlock was in the room which was bonus. There was 2 puzzles that I found quite frustrating but it didn't ruin the experience. 

Clue system - via walkie talkie

Positive - the staff were really nice and very supportive throughout our experience. The theming was amazing, I wore a mining hats to make our experience alot better and some creative puzzles. There was mixture of non linear and linear puzzles. 

Negative - there was 2 stressful puzzle that made me a tiny bit frustrating and the room got quite hot but we did this in August so that might not be their fault. 

Overall experience - I absolutely enjoyed my time in the pit I was smiling throughout my time at escapement I recommend to anyone in Kent to do this room you won't be dissapointed.

Some very exciting puzzles.  Really liked the idea of the storm timer!

Great theming throughout, with everything you need to do feeling like something you’d actually do in a mine, not a puzzle. Very dramatic finale.

Not suitable for claustrophobic people, but highly recommended for everyone else!

We got out of this really quickly but by pure fluke- we wiggled some things when we were trying to work them out and somehow got out within 40 minutes. This made it a bit underwhelming for us as we felt that there weren't enough tasks. I'd definitely like to go back and try the other rooms though.