This bonkers escape room game takes place within secret rooms of The Depot pub in Islington, guaranteed to provide you and your team with a whole lot of fun and silliness as you take on the 60 minute challenge of the twisted toy-maker Poppa Plock. Guided by Oki, the outrageous ventriloquist dummy, your team must complete Plock's penultimate creation by taking on the crazy clues, contraptions and characters within.
Sometimes it's easier to give honest feedback anonymously. This review will be displayed with no connection to your user account (although site admins will still be able to see who posted it).
What did you think of the game?
If you type something in the 'Text to display' box, that will be displayed instead of any star rating. If you also set a star rating, the star rating won't be shown anywhere but will still be used when calculating the game's overall score on Escape The Review.
Play details
Add details of your play-through, if you wish
Add details of your play-through, if you wish. These aren't displayed as part of the link.
Date played:Team size:Time taken:Outcome:
What stood out?
Click/tap to select up to three tags
Click/tap to select up to three tags. These aren't displayed as part of the link, but will be taken into account internally.
Max three tags please!
Write a review?
Teaser text
Help other enthusiasts with more detailed thoughts on the game (no spoilers please!)
This can be the first paragraph of your review, or a short summary, or left blank, as you prefer. Anything longer than a couple of lines may get truncated.
Played: 20 Oct 2018Team size: 2Outcome: Successful escape!
originalcleverimmersive
The gamesmaster deserves a lot of applause for their performance with this room, firstly staying in character from start to finish and an unexpected but brilliant twist at the end! We were greeted in the pub by our wind up doll gamesmaster and taken to the games workshop full of fun and nostalgic themeing. Immersive, clever and definitely fun room. I believe Houdini's Southampton have now taken over/merged with handmade mysteries so definitely book this room now it's back for all to enjoy!
Quirky room now playable as a private group. I found it a little light on puzzles, but the enthusiasm of the (interactive) game master did make up for it. Music was incredibly off-puttingly loud however which was not enjoyed by either of us - to the extent that you could not hear audio aspects of the game that were required to complete the game.
Played: September 2018Team size: 4Time taken: 1hrOutcome: Successful escape!
The design of the room was great in general - loved the animatronics and the overall idea of monster construction was cool. That aspect was well put together and the story felt logical in its presentation. We really enjoyed the puzzle involving the pull strings, although some of the other puzzles (towards the beginning) felt weirdly obtuse in comparison. There were some neat touches throughout though, and one fun 'jump scare' moment that made us laugh. Few issues for us that stopped it from being 5 stars: *Music was too loud at times, making the final puzzle almost impossible to solve due to its audio nature. *The final puzzle had some issues due to the components not working correctly, and we had to have help to complete it. This made it all a bit anti-climactic and my honest feeling is that it needs a rethink *Our host was good and kept in character well, but a few of our group complained about him having very cheesy breath which made the opening close-quarters moments a bit sickening for them. A strange complaint, but felt it was worth mentioning!
Handmade Mysteries are famous for the quality of their hosts, who are costumed and in character from the outset, and Poppa Plock upholds that reputation - Wynne was excellent.
The large space is a big change, and an improvement, on Handmade's previous game, which for bigger teams could get a little cramped. It's also packed with gadgets and geegaws. With loud audio and a stream of suggestions from the hint doll in the corner, it approaches overwhelming, at least until you start to get a grip on...
The second outing from Handmade Mysteries. Poppa Plock was a big step up in puzzling but with six people in the room and an almost entirely linear flow, the game always felt a little crowded and hard to engage with. Theatre was, once again, a strong point but for me not up there with Lady Chastity.
Poppa Plock's eerie creation is part-Pinocchio, part-Frankenstein's monster. And it's unfinished! Whether wisely or unwisely, we went to help finish this twisted toy - but did it finish us first?
You have to hand it to Handmade Mysteries, they put a brilliant amount of effort into crafting the theatrical experience of their escape rooms. For the immersive element of escape rooms they are second to none in London.
