Escapologic: Contraption

21 Castle Gate, NG1 7AQ

2-5 players

Languages: EN

60 minutes

Strange machinery breathes in the stillness of the laboratory. Bubbles rise in a mysterious green liquid. Cogs click. Gears clank. And in the air, the unmistakable sound of fear...

As your breathing stills and your pulse slows to normal, you take a look around. What happened here? Somebody left the room in a hurry. But why? Your eyes grow accustomed to the dim, dusty light, and you begin to make out the discarded pieces of arcane mechanisms. There has to be a pattern, a code, something to show you the way out.

Contraption was the first of our Nottingham escape rooms, and its fiendish ingenuity has given it legendary status. Can you put the clues together before the clock hits zero?

Employ a combination of wits, nerve and inspiration to beat the machine and find your way out. With false steps at every corner, willing you to fail, the only way to outwit Contraption is to work together. Use your team's individual skills to solve physical and mental puzzles, crack cryptic codes, and unravel the secret escape route left by the mysterious inventor.

Solve the riddle, or the last sound you’ll hear will be the cogs of the lock, as they turn and seal you in forever.

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Overall rating

based on ratings from 36 users
combined with 12 pro reviews

how is this calculated?

Your review

Player reviews

spbc expert rated this:

Played: 27 Jul 2019 Team size: 3 Outcome: Successful escape!

beautifulgreat hosting

d.green26 expert rated this:

Played: 19 May 2024 Team size: 2 Time taken: 32 Outcome: Successful escape!

immersivegreat hostingfamily friendlyquite easy

liam and rosie experienced rated this:

Team size: 2 Time taken: 46

Team Jophie experienced rated this:

Played: 7 Aug 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 39:50 Outcome: Successful escape!

beautifuloriginalquite easy

Wesley Mead expert rated this:

Played: 12 Feb 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 51m Outcome: Successful escape!

Anonymous expert rated this:

Team size: 4 Outcome: Successful escape!

originalimmersive

jakea256 expert rated this:

Played: 17 Sep 2022 Team size: 3 Time taken: 25:49 Outcome: Successful escape!

cleverpoor hostingquite easy

This game was let down by a very uninterested GM for me - Otherwise, the puzzles were easy but interesting and the uses of some items were fun to interact with.

Schteeeve experienced rated this:

Team size: 5 Outcome: Successful escape!

immersivegreat hosting

BenMill experienced rated this:

Team size: 5 Outcome: Successful escape!

PurpleB expert rated this:

Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!

A bit dark and dingy for my taste but a solid room.

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Reviews by escape room review sites

Contraption is Escapologic's original game, the first of what is now eight different escape rooms at their Nottingham location, and it's clear why the venue made a splash from the outset. The game is a steampunk-y fest of cogs and pipes and machines that dispenses with padlocks in favour of an array of imaginatively different mechanisms.

Your first task on entering the room is to turn on the lights. It's not pitch black, fortunately (there are enough metal doodads around that the room might be ...

A game that turns the usual escape room setup on its head by having a smaller number of larger puzzles. As with most Escapologic rooms, don't expect a plethora of padlocks but instead a mass of mechanisms - in fact, as the name suggests, expect even more than usual!

Like most of the rooms at Escapologic this was a linear room with very strong set design. Don't get distracted by all the funky items and you should be fine

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We’d heard such good things about Escapologic, hence a Nottingham trip to play five of their games, starting with their very first: Contraption. Or Con-trap-tion as it’s styled in the logo. And it was good. It was fine. It was al-righ-t.

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On the 6th of March, we headed back to Escapologic in Nottingham to take on another of their escape games, We had already tackled the likes of Butcher, Howitz, Robin, EPICentre, Cryptic and Curio which are all stellar games with mostly success but this time around we were there to face the first game this amazing company ever created, that being the dark and intricate Contraption.

My first escape room – a well themed room with lots of flowing puzzles.

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8.6 / 10.0

Escapologic in Nottingham, UK is one of those must-play venues and has been nominated in the TERPECA’s every year, so when I heard that they were opening a remote avatar room, I was rather curious to see which one it would be. I guessed it would be one of two, and one of my guesses, “Contraption”, was correct.

reviewed as a remote livestream game

While I did enjoy Contraption more when we played in person, the online-avatar adaptation was still great fun, and well worth considering for your next remote escape.

reviewed as a remote livestream game