Chelmsford Escape Rooms: The Last Testament

By | March 20, 2019

by Chelmsford Escape Rooms (website)

Interface Moulsham Mill Project, Parkway, CM2 7PX

Chelmsford

2-8 players

60 minutes

You and your team arrive with a Solicitor at the front door of Appleyard’s B&B.
You have been summoned to attend the will reading of your great uncle, Reginald B. Appleyard.
Reg has lived on the premises all of his life, you know very little about him and you’ve never bothered to write, call or visit.
The solicitor has an envelope, inside which is a VHS tape. What has uncle Reg got to say? Why does he want you? What is the secret?
Will you escape?
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Overall rating

Rated between 1.5 and 3.5 out of 5

based on ratings from 7 users
combined with 1 pro review

Your review

Player reviews

LolainHollywood experienced rated this:Rated between 30 and 30 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
story-driven
Decent room, interesting theme and some fun tasks… seemed as if there weren’t actually many puzzles (although I appreciate this is subjective) and I spent a good 5 minutes sat on the floor with a calculator and I’m alright at maths. I think that people with weak knowledge of maths may struggle.. 
Anonymous experienced rated this:Rated between 15 and 15 out of 5
Outcome: Successful escape!
poor hosting

We were enjoying the game to a certain point but we came to solve puzzles, not perform for the gamesmasters entertainment and unfortunately the gamesmaster wouldn’t let our feeble effort pass through the puzzle instead they kept insisting we carried on singing, all of us, for a very long time even though it was abundantly clear that we were extremely uncomfortable and not enjoying this aspect of the game. After this point we just wanted the game to end. We gave it a go, we are not singers and the insistence on continuing to make us feel uncomfortable left us feeling rather frustrated, annoyed and sucked the enjoyment out of what should have been an enjoyable experience 

Manix84 rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Played: 12/01/2020 Team size: 4 Time taken: 40m 15s Outcome: Successful escape!
Dianna rated this:
Played: 17.4.19 Team size: 2 Time taken: 60:00 Outcome: Failed 🙁

The Last Testament at Know Escape in Chelmsford was my 25th room. 

In doing a range of other escape rooms, I have come across a wide range of puzzles, great use of space and immersion. 

As a whole it very much feels that this room tries to have a story to it but for us, it didn’t flow and was incredibly disjointed. We found things before finding the clue to lead to that thing so when we did then find the clue it was redundant and confusing. 

The game starts with the GM playing Great Uncle Reginald’s video for you. This takes place in the room and so we of course, took this opportunity to start exploring the room and as a result earned a five minute clue penalty for not paying full attention to the video. Although the room overview states the solicitor has an envelope, inside of which is a VHS tape, it isn’t introduced in this way and we wondered afterwards if it would have been better to have found the video somewhere in the room (as another puzzle almost) and to then have to play it ourselves. 

As we got going, we discovered that this room had limited variation in its puzzles - things were in the main either a padlock or a combination code. There was very little variety and whilst this can work in some rooms, it didn’t in this room. There was also scope for variation and some things could have easily been something other than ‘another key’. In terms of the puzzles, one was incredibly simplistic in nature (and wasn’t really even a puzzle) whilst another required careful calculation and working out. It felt like you went from one extreme to the other - there was clear thought put into some puzzles but this was completely lacking in others. My partner asked at the end if this was their first ever room because it felt very much like the puzzles had been created and had never then been updated or reviewed. There are certainly better ways of doing things, or even use of certain tech that could be used to update some of the things in this room. Compared to other rooms, it felt very much behind on the times. 

There are two doors in the room to give the feel of it being a B&B, both doors have keyholes in them so naturally you think you’re going to need a key to open them, to lead into different rooms. Unfortunately this is not the case and we wasted a lot of time checking to see if the keyholes actually had locks in. I did say to the GM at the end that they shouldn’t have the keyhole in, to indicate they aren’t used in the game. 

For us, there was also poor use of space. We spent a lot of time trying to work out how we were going to get somewhere which was never the case. This wasn’t at all clear and more could have been done in the design of the room to indicate this. It goes back to what I said about the original design not being reviewed or updated. 

It really says it all when your partner wants to walk out with 25 minutes to go, as mine did. We were both frustrated by the lack of flow and even us standing around doing nothing didn’t prompt the GM to nudge us in any way. I also think this is where the company’s 3 clue rule falls short. We were reluctant to ask for clues, despite clearly not knowing what to do next, in case we needed to use that clue later on. In any room, I would rather ask for 20 clues and escape than ask for none and not complete it. At the end of the day, it’s my game that I have paid (in most cases a lot of money) to play, and I should be allowed to play it as I want and if that involves me asking for more than 3 clues, that should be allowed. 

On the whole, possibly an enjoyable room for novices but I would say not one for more experienced players who have an understanding of escape rooms, who expect things to flow, variation in puzzles and better use of tech to support the room. Unfortunately not just The Last Testament, but my Last Room with Know Escape. I won’t be returning to do another room there. 

Jose Adrian experienced rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: Team size: 2 Time taken: Outcome: Successful escape!
Wesley Mead expert rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 16 Feb 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 46m Outcome: Successful escape!
story-driven
TeamHawley experienced rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 2 May 2022 Team size: 5 Time taken: 48 Outcome: Successful escape!
immersivestory-drivenfamily friendly

Reviews by escape room review sites

By the time I actually started playing Chelmsford Escape Rooms' first game, I felt a right cad. This was due to the unusual premise: you and your teammates are at the residence of your recently deceased great uncle, who you never bothered to visit during his lifetime but whose inheritance you're now eager to claim. Offended by your clear negligence, his will specifies that everything he owns will go to charity, unless you can solve the puzzles he's left for you and thereby abort the bank transfe...

See also

Other copies of this game in other locations:(Different copies of the same game sometimes have significant differences.)