simonfinnie

We really enjoyed this. OK, it's not the hardest or most complex escape activity we've done, but it had a quirky charm that won us all over and left us with a smile on our faces. The acting of the characters/hosts was excellent and some real thought had been put into the story and puzzles to connect them to Dickens' A Christmas Carol. 

The host mentioned that they might introduce a new game next year. If so, we'll definitely check it out.

We did enjoy this but there were some deeply illogical and difficult to guess puzzles, which kind of spoilt the experience. We found we had to refer to the clue book a few times, which was a bit annoying (and something we haven't had to do with the actual EXIT games). That said, it had some fantastic puzzles, some of which were fiendishly difficult but great fun.

We did this escape room as a family (with 13 &  15 year olds) and really enjoyed it. The 80s theme was really well done and there were some lovely touches that made the whole thing original (especially the soundtrack to the whole experience). As others have said, it's clear the designers here put a lot of thought and effort into it.

We will definitely be back to try the other two games.

After a run of pretty average escape rooms, this was an absolute hit with our team. In the pub afterwards, we all agreed that this was in our top 10, which is no mean feat given the number we've done.

Clearly a lot of passion has gone into the whole design and set-up. The things that stood out for us were:

- The hosting was exceptional with just the right balance of everything (this was probably no surprise as it turned out our host was the room designer and owner);

- The parallel problem solving was spot on;

- The puzzles and equipment were all excellent;

-  The story and atmosphere were very good.

This was an average difficulty room, and apparently the other two are slightly more complex, so we'll definitely be trying those soon!

Overall: A bit dissapointing.

OK, so the positives are that the set-up is excellent from the Opticians reception onwards (no spoilers here) and some of the puzzles are great. It's also clearly designed for fans of the tv series, of which I'm one, with a few of the actors popping up at various stages. 

However, there were two main issues: firstly, the hosting was so bad it was cringeworthy and the themepark trick of let me inisist on taking your photo so that I can then try and sell it back to you was misjudged. If you're going to involve the hosts in the story then at least get ones that can act and not make everyone feel uncomfortable.

Secondly, the puzzles were almost all in serial. We were in a team of only four and even we found multiple times that three of us were hanging around waiting for one person. This is just poor design.

We all came away a bit deflated. It had some good aspects but we definitely weren't buzzing afterwards as we have been with other escape rooms.

OK, so this isn't the cleverest or most original escape room, BUT ther was something about it that actually quite nicely freaked us out. The overall atmosphere to the whole thing had us on edge and added some weight to the 'escape in under an hour' concept.

Overall : worth a go.

Very good value for £9 (incl dontaion to charity) and some really ingenious puzzles in here. As others have noted, the QR code mechanism is brilliant, but a bit fiddly. I understand that the next chapters have addressed this, so we look forward to playing those as well.

We took 3hrs but that was mostly down to the wine and conversation. A very social way of doing an escape room. Would recommend.

Good, solid, family-friendly escape room if a bit unoriginal.

The whole experience was excellent though, in no part due to the perfect host: Kieran. Unlike many hosts he threw himself into the part and was rapidly on hand with the odd clue or where the tech failed.

Two things stop this being a 5 star review: firstly, a few of the locks and tech were just a bit tempramental and we easily wasted 5-10 mins just getting stuff to work; secondly, whilst it was atospheric, it was a bit pedestrian in terms of puzzle design and lacked any real story or logical progression.
That said, we had a great time and will definitely try the other games there,

Good escape room with some really nice touches related to WWII, but we were slightly frustrated by a slightly illogical puzzle two-thirds of the way through and despite requesting assistance several times were left on our own for quite a while. The hosts outside the game were extremely friendly and professional, but unfortunately they weren't as available as we would have liked in the game itself. 

That said, we had a great time and intend to go back to play the Alice room!