Make Your Escape: Dystopia

Great concept and good game! Unfortunately for us there was just 1 puzzle we just couldn’t work our heads around we knew exactly what we had to do just one of those things you can either see or you can’t! Apart from that good game

Some very fun puzzles in this one, I preferred it to Utopia but some props and puzzles were a little worn.

Another good room, original puzzles which were fun and in-keeping with the theme! 🙂

We played Dystopia immediately before Utopia - I highly recommend players do this as it's so cleverly written! 

Dystopia is the original escape room - locks, keys, and  the theming is fab! 

The puzzles in this room were very fun! Nothing so difficult it needed lots of prompting but not so easy you felt like you just swanned through, couple of unique bits we'd not seen before and it was super fun and very immersive, set design is fabulous, hosting very good - they are practically invisible and it  works super well and the link between the two games is just brilliant! 

A super game that links beautifully to Utopia, its smart, shiny cousin. A lovely lot of padlocks, some great physicality and a whole host of clever puzzles make this a great experience that definitely needs to be played directly before playing Utopia. 

Dystopia is my favourite room from Make Your Escape. Some very interesting puzzles and great theming. No ambient music which was slightly jarring and spoiled immersion slightly but definitely worth a play.

A decent game that works well if played with utopia (although wish the 2 were linked without GM involvement). Puzzles are generally good, but could do with some better signposting at times. Theme and GM were good

Having already played Utopia separately, I would recommend playing them together.

We enjoyed the room, it is a standard escape room and probably good for beginners.

This is technically a review for both Dystopia and Utopia as we feel they are best played together as the storyline follows on. We are glad we did it this way. Both rooms had a great story and were engaging. There was a good variety of puzzles and not just finding keys and padlocks. 

Good theming and production value.

Good flow with Utopia. 

Some big leaps of logic. 

#44

After completing The Signal and Spellbound in the morning, we headed back after lunch to tackle Dystopia and Utopia.  Having two rooms blend together like these two do with their stories is something I’ve never seen before and felt very original.

- The decor of Dystopia may seem a little lacking at first, but there is a story-based reason for it. This was a very fun room, but with a slightly frustrating final puzzle that even our host had admitted a lot of people (himself included)  had found difficult to see/comprehend. However it didn’t spoil our experience of the room.

- After completing Dystopia we headed straight into Utopia. The way you start the game was surprising and unique, although could have been tightened up a bit so that no GM interaction was required (players of the game with understand what I mean by this). This would also have added to the immersiveness of the game. 

After getting through to the main hub of the game, I can say the decoration of the room was fantastic, with a couple of things I’ve never seen before. The puzzles in this room are all very electronic-based, compared to Dystopia where it is mainly padlocks.

Unfortunately,  due to this reliance on technology, one of our puzzles didn’t operate at all, causing the GM to have to come in  and pause our time while he fixed it quickly.

The final part of the room was again very tech-dependant, with a couple of frustrating and lacklustre puzzles, with a poor way to interact with them. When we finally had the means to exit the game, our host came in to tell us while we had escaped, we couldn’t fully complete the experience because another team was in the area we escape to! (previous players will understand what I mean)

This was very frustrating as it would have been down to the GM’s poor time/team management, and it meant we couldn’t fully complete the experience. After a brilliant morning, this obviously left a very sour taste in our mouths, given that we had spent so much time and money at a venue and couldn’t complete the experience.

All in all, I would still recommend both rooms, and that you should definitely do them back to back, starting with Dystopia. 

Personal ranking of the rooms at Make Your Escape would be:

1. Spellbound

2. The Signal

3. Dystopia

4. Utopia

If you are visiting this venue playing Utopia and Dystopia back to back is a must.

Play this back to back with Utopia for the full experience.

My rating is based on playing Dystopia followed by Utopia back to back. Individually, these rooms are very good - played together, amazing because this really allows you to fully immerse yourself into this world for a couple of hours. I played this a few months ago and it still sticks in my mind. 

We did Dystopia followed by Utopia, such an unique idea to go from one to the next, we thoroughly recommend you doing it like this. We found this a bit better than Utopia, but both are excellent!

Not quite as good as Utopia in my opinion.  One or two of the puzzles required a bit of an unreasonable stretch.  But still an excellent room.

If you are playing this game, make sure you also book for Utopia. I’ve never seen a game where the two intertwine their stories so cleverly. These are both absolute must dos. 

The story is fantastic and totally fits the theme very well. The story continues throughout the game and there was a fair bit of physicality involved, a real nice mix of challenges. 

I was a bit disappointed with this room, tbh.

Part of the problem with my experience was that it was very hot, and the start of the game is in a very small room, and there were five of us, including some larger individuals, so it got unbearably hot and stuffy. I know escape venues can’t control the weather but they could make more effort to adapt when it’s very hot.

The main part of the room is bigger and better ventilated, but there was an over-reliance on padlocks throughout. 

Overall a solid enough room, but not really outstanding in any way.