sambrandman

Much of the Governor was reviewed at another Franchise in Chelmsford by Toby (which you can find elsewhere on this site).

On the plus side then was a strong theme (Prison break/haunted/psycho combination), with a nice variety of puzzles (albeit that at times it felt a little bit disjointed). There was a nice series of spaces that took you on a journey through the Prison.

There are however a number of flaws in the game, which detracted from our experience, and many of which could be reasonably easily addressed to improve the experience. There were some puzzles where you needed to search a dimly lit room with one UV torch to know where to start – never a fun experience. Another puzzle had accessibility issues, where we knew exactly what the puzzle was asking to do, and came to a solution, but couldn’t work out what needed changing due to poor lighting. Whilst the venue has a habit of leaving redundant information as deliberate red herrings, there was a feature in one of the spaces which I was genuinely astonished was not labelled “not part of the game”. 

For larger groups, redundant information is unlikely to be as big an issue, since by dividing and conquering these can be relatively quickly eliminated. For smaller groups, it can be frustrating, particularly in a game with so many padlocks.

Of note is that whilst we failed this room as a pair, apparently no group of 2 had succeeded at the room (at least at that venue) beforehand, and the pass rate was averaging around 10% for a larger group. We failed to reach a certain part of the game, and yet apparently had done “incredibly well” for a group of 2, which felt rather jarring.

This is a game that with minor modifications could be brought up to a much closer level to their “Rob the bank” game.

Not suitable for young families, and those who scare easily should request adjustments from the Game Manager first.

You’ve promised The Crazy Cat Lady you’ll look after her cats while she is away.  In one hour she’ll be home and all six cats have been mischievous and are missing.  You have one hour to find the cats and get out of her house before she returns.

So first thing – theming on this room is excellent. It’s entirely cat obsessed, as one would expect from the title. There are a myriad of little touches that add to an experience of complete cat overwhelm. It’s very family friendly, with just one “jump scare” (more of a surprise, not horror).

This room does have a nice variety of on theme puzzles that blended with the theme, but was still relatively reliant on coded padlocks in a way that didn’t quite let everything flow. Some people may have accessibility issues with some of their puzzles.

One point to note is that Chesterfield Escape Rooms have a philosophy of including quite a lot of redundant information that plausibly could provide a solution to the clues. Ostensibly this is done to create authenticity. For larger groups, this is unlikely to be a major issue, since by dividing and conquering these can be relatively quickly eliminated. For smaller groups, it can be frustrating!

Overall a good room that should appeal to almost any group of players (although more than 4 would likely be too crowded).

You are a group of bank robbers breaking into a bank that’s owned by a rival criminal gang (so no hard feelings).

There were a lot of strong points to this game. The décor was of good quality, with some nice touches, particularly near the start of the room. The puzzle mechanisms were also kept strongly on theme; some of Chesterfield Escape Rooms’ other games tend to be very padlock heavy, but here much more thought has gone into the mechanisms, and any padlocks fitted within context.

One point to note is that Chesterfield Escape Rooms have a philosophy of including quite a lot of redundant information that plausibly could provide a solution to the clues. Ostensibly this is done to create authenticity. For larger groups, this is unlikely to be a major issue, since by dividing and conquering these can be relatively quickly eliminated. For smaller groups, it can be frustrating!

The thing however that makes this game the most fun is that after a fairly standard start, it becomes very playful. There are a number of interactive elements with the “outside world” which are highly silly and entertaining, and a certain amount of (non-scary) live action complete with some well known theme music which made us laugh. There’s also a nice “extra win” condition that adds a different form of enjoyment. Good for most groups other than very young children.