Escape Sheffield: Taken

Quite sparse on design but a decent theme, some fun puzzles. Got a problem with some really unnecessary red herrings and an absoute time killer of a puzzle, but it worked my brain and I had fun. Ran it alone.

I worry that the reason this room is considered "difficult" is because of the lack of signposting. There was multiple padlocks of the same type (letters, directions, numbers) with no indication which was which.

 This meant trying the code on multiple padlocks, several of which required more than expected force to open. Some puzzles had very little indication of the starting point of the answer or order of the numbers or letters.

There was one large puzzle to get a key which was really long and unsatisfying. The room was essentially just an office and wasnt immersive at all. 

I think with some padlock changes, increased signposting and a little more ambience, it could be good. There were a few good puzzles, but none were difficult. The final puzzle was a little tricky, which was fun! 

Not the best escape room we have done but we still had fun and the host was great. This is not the best escape room for newbies, a lot of the solutions were poorly communicated and not communicated well, and some of the tech just didn't work properly.

One puzzle was so faffy which took 10 mins and required no brains to solve, only patience. Puzzles like this really leave bad stains on the experience for me

We had fun but there is better one's in Sheffield.

Like Taken Candy From a Baby

Since I was making an on-the-day booking for a team of 2, I chose Taken.

Story

Rescue your kidnapped friend(s) and escape the hostage situation.

Puzzles

On-theme, but incredibly easy. A bit of searching here, a bit of thinking there.

Mise en scene

A straightforward but immersive enough space that did the job of looking like a kidnappers’ hideout.

Final Comments

It would work fine as a beginner room. I should have been braver and booked us a 4/5-star challenge: we received 2 clues and escaped with 25:26 left on the clock.

#9

The first room we completed at the fabulous Escapism was ironically the least enjoyable there. The room seemed a little plain and the props a bit dated, but this is only in hindsight - we had fun while we were playing. The theme was pretty generic but it’s still worth a go. If you’re heading to Escapism though, all of their other rooms are really good fun and have more immersive set decoration no storytelling so try those first, especially Radioactive or Legacy.

Not what I originally thought the room was going to be, felt the themeing was a bit off par, Good start to the game - couple of red herrings to keep us gripped. Ignoring the themeing the puzzles were pretty straight forward only got stuck a couple of times as not knowing where to go next. Didn't put me off playing another room.