DarkMaster Escape Rooms: Shamley’s Toy Makers

Massive room, truly epic game, loads of fun, so much variety and so many puzzles and so many original items... really good challenge ... one of our favourites 

An INCREDIBLE room! The theming in this room was outstanding and the set design was so clever. Very high tech puzzles which were original and creative. Would definitely recommend a larger group size as this was difficult but overall fantastic room.

Loved the theming but wasn’t a fan of a lot of the puzzles

This is a tough one.  I though the first half of "One Wing Airlines" was great but was let down by the second half, I thought "Into the Reliquary" looked fantastic with some genuinely clever moments so I had been looking forward to playing Shamleys.  

The game looks great and carries on the same level of build quality and attention to detail that we had enjoyed in the previous games, the story was also intriguing and there's a clever start that was a nice touch.

The opening phase of the game is a fairly typical search and assessment of the environment, it was the main puzzle in that first area that probably derailed us.  With the theming of a toy shop there are some puzzles based on famour toys/games and (I'm trying to be as spoiler lite as possible) whilst they may have looked good on paper, I don't think they worked as a puzzle as the answers were open to varied interpretation.  This would be our problem in the second room with a similar setup.  We failed to escape and from what I've been told we were just over halfway through.  I also hadn't appreciated the fact that with it not having full height walls we could hear the team next door in Reliquary (they were stuck on a puzzle, we were fairly sure we knew which one and nearly offered assistance).  By the end, I had endured enough and wanted it to be over.

I think the game looks great and has some genuinely clever potential, I've played similar games with similar themes and ideas but with a much better puzzle execution.

Hints were delivered by a pocket thermal printer that whilst very effective (and I am looking to buy one for a project) wasn't overly in keeping with the theming.

What really irked though was at the end the GM (who was excellent, she was absolutely brilliant and hinted us well but it still wasn't enough) told us that we had got about as far as they expect teams to get and that if we could get a discount if we rebooked for another attempt.  

We won't be rebooking.

I have no problem with failing to escape a game, it happens, but this was just not a good experience, but the thing is, it really could be..

Dark Master is seemingly gaining a reputation and not one it probably wants.  

Looks great, puzzles with too many dull steps.
Locked boxes in boxes.

You cannot knock it for the amount of puzzles, but there is nothing new or inventive about them, and often have too many steps to be enjoyable.

There's a couple of things that shouldn't be in commercial escape rooms.

And, you can hear everything from the neighbouring room as no effort for any soundproofing was made.