StaceyF

I really need to stop picking up the phone to these crazy archeology studying types. 

Another brilliant postcurious game. Liked this more than the first (the first was still brilliant). We played this one through in one go which definitely added to it. 

Love the jigsaw Exit puzzles and wish there was more of them. Fun inventive puzxlrs but a couple stumped us for a while. 

ClueQuest are one of my favourite escape room companies, so I was really looking forward to I Am AI and it did not disappoint.

It’s a 72-minute room, which helps offset the sheer scale of the space and the number of areas in play. This extra time is very much needed, as it’s a challenging room. We had originally tried to play as a three, but there is at least one puzzle that genuinely requires four players, and we were glad to have the extra pair of hands. The room itself is large and would comfortably accommodate bigger teams without feeling cramped.

The game begins in a non-linear way, allowing the team to split up and work on different puzzles simultaneously. As the room progresses it becomes more linear, naturally drawing everyone back together and increasing the focus and pace towards the end.

The use of technology is a real highlight. There are some genuinely joyous moments, with several implementations of tech that I had not seen used in an escape room before. Some puzzles involve multiple stages, which I particularly enjoyed, and even puzzle styles I don’t usually connect with worked well here. Strong teamwork is essential throughout, and while we did need a few hints (it had been a long day), we still managed to escape with under 70 seconds remaining.

There are no traditional locks in the room; everything is driven through technology, which is implemented extremely well.

Our host, Jo, was excellent and added positively to the experience.

Thoroughly recommended. It’s great to see ClueQuest and Escape Plan continuing to produce consistently high-quality rooms in London, and I hope that continues for a long time to come.

The Grunch is a fun, linear, lock-centric Christmas game that looks great, and I can easily imagine it being a huge hit with families. For enthusiasts, there’s nothing wildly new here, but I appreciate the logic of designing festive rooms that families can actually complete. Mythologic’s Christmas room last year—Sneaky Santa—was one I absolutely loved, but even our very experienced team of four left it a little tight. That is over at Margate now at CtrlAltEsc and I highly recommend it for anyone up that way. 

We went in slightly wary after being told we’d “be fine,” given our well-earned reputation for overthinking and missing the obvious. In the end, we were simply a bit dim on one puzzle and lost our 30-minute escape because of it. Textbook us.

I’m really looking forward to Mythologic’s new horror room, Lillith, when it opens next year.

Accessibility: Other than three or four steps up into the room, there are no issues to flag.

I now post mini-thoughts and photos of rooms on Instagram as @thegreatstacecapist.

I’m a sucker for the Christmas-themed rooms at Unsolved Mysteries, and this one absolutely delivered. I mean, who doesn’t want to go on a festive heist to steal Christmas presents?

It’s a collection game, so while the maximum haul is 12 presents, you only need one to win—making it friendly for all experience levels. Naturally, the enthusiasts among us will accept nothing less than the full 12, and we were chuffed to hit that target. Admittedly, we had a couple of wobbles along the way, mostly thanks to our steadily deteriorating observation skills (sadly, not even influenced by alcohol as we did the room in the morning).

We split up for most of it, and I really enjoyed the puzzles I tackled. A couple gave me a glorious eureka moment—the kind where you stew for a few minutes and then suddenly everything clicks into place.

There is one puzzle they warn you could be a “1% Club” question, and they’re not kidding. My partner solved it with Machiavellian cunning, and yes, I’m claiming it as a win even if the method strayed… creatively… from the intended path. In truth, I’m not sure we’d have cracked it properly, but with 15+ minutes left on the clock, who knows?

Huge thanks to Bradley for being a fantastic host. I especially loved the immersive moment in the middle. Very excited to return in the new year for their Vol. 3 room.

Accessibility notes:

• There’s a staircase down/up to reach the rooms.

• Inside the room, you’ll need someone who can do a bit of bending/ducking.

• The toilets are a few minutes’ walk away and require going down and back up a modest hill.

I now post mini-thoughts and photos of rooms on Instagram as @thegreatstacecapist

Really enjoyed this effort from PostCurious - managed to solve most of the puzzles and most importantly with a grin on our faces. 

My partner and I have a little tradition: before we fly out for our winter sun, we warm up our brains with a game at Gatwick Escape Rooms. This year the Christmas room wasn’t ready, so we switched to An Hour To Kill in Hollywood — and honestly, it was a solid stand-in.

For such a small space, the room squeezes in a surprising number of puzzles. It’s very much a classic escape-room setup, complete with approximately a gazillion padlocks. Nothing revolutionary, nothing we haven’t seen before, but still fun and satisfying to work through. Nothing really stumped us either, aside from the lingering mystery of why the villain had such a passionate hobby for murdering her husbands.

Overall it’s a good, steady room and an easy recommendation if you’re already passing through Gatwick. And with a new room planned for 2026, we’re all set for a few more years of pre-holiday puzzle-solving before we head off in search of sunshine.

No accessibility concerns here, unless you need the loo, which is up a flight of stairs. 

After our less-than-stellar experience in Bank Robbery, I went into Jumanji with cautious optimism. Thankfully it turned out to be a completely different world; honestly, chalk and cheese.

The room itself is gorgeous. It’s easily one of the most visually impressive rooms we’ve done at Island Phobia, and a total contrast to the sparse, slightly baffling Bank Robbery setup. I’ve played a brilliant Jumanji-themed room in the UK before, and this one holds its own really well.

The story is strong, the structure is clear, and you always know which direction you’re meant to be moving in. That alone makes a huge difference to pacing and overall enjoyment. Most of the puzzles were fun, varied and satisfying. One puzzle completely stumped us (I’m still mildly annoyed about it) and another took a while to crack, but I genuinely appreciated the ingenuity behind it. The rest flowed nicely and splitting up in the third stage turned out to be a smart move that helped us finish within the hour.

In my personal Island Phobia rankings, Magic School still reigns supreme, but Jumanji nudges just ahead of Dragon’s Ring. The hosting was excellent too; warm, helpful, and clearly proud of the room. We were very glad we’d saved this one for after our Bank Robbery misadventure.

There aren’t many escape room options in Tenerife, but if the escape bug bites, Island Phobia is absolutely worth your time. We’ll be back in a few years to tackle Sherlock and Nightmare.

Accessibility notes:
Expect some outdoor steps and hilly walkways to get to the rooms, all far sweatier in 30°C heat than they sound on paper. Inside the room, there are no major accessibility issues, though you’ll likely need at least one person who can kneel or get low to the floor for certain tasks.

This one wasn’t a favourite. Too many of the puzzles felt like they relied on patterns that only the designer could “see”, and I mean literally see, in one case. There’s a puzzle under strobe lighting that was practically impossible for me, though thankfully, my partner has a higher tolerance for nightclub-lighting chaos than I do.

We got snagged early on with a couple of puzzles, including one where we had the correct solution… but the lock didn’t agree. Sigh. That ate up far more of our time than it should have and meant we didn’t make it out within the 60 minutes, eventually escaping about five minutes over.

The hosts were lovely and reassured us that this was actually a good time, as most people need more than an hour and a half. But honestly? If a room routinely takes 90 minutes, maybe it shouldn’t be pitched as a 60-minute game. We handled the “hard” puzzles better than the easy ones, mainly because the easier ones felt unintuitive, so we overthought them to death.

Overall, definitely the weakest of the four rooms we’ve played at this venue.

Accessibility notes:
There are steps and hills on the walk to the rooms, which doesn’t sound like much until you’re doing it in 30-degree heat. Inside the room, being able to see in near-darkness is unfortunately an advantage (eye roll). If you’re sensitive to strobe lighting, migraines, or fits, be aware that one section involves a few minutes in flashing darkness.

We tend to be way too busy at Xmas to play our advent calendar so it extends well into the next year. As usual (most of) the puzzles were a joy. Looking forward to the 2025 one already! 

Secret Studio Escape in Time was one of the first escape rooms I ever visited, so it holds a special place in my heart. I've even done it twice, as they've got a unique offer where returning players can play for free and get involved in shenanigans. 

What truly impressed me about this room was their clever reuse of specific props from the original Escape in Time, a sustainable approach I genuinely admire. Bravo to them for that innovation.

The second thing I loved was the puzzles. There's a real mix here of fun puzzles and elements - some tried and tested, and others I'd not seen before or had a cool twist on them. We managed to solve one puzzle before we should have, but it didn't detract from the experience, which flowed really well. The only trouble we had was with some of the old props refusing to help us out (presumably haunted).

On that haunted theme, I don't often find rooms "scary" rooms scary, so I will often put "not scary", but I suppose some in our wider escape room crew would upgrade it to "creepy" as there is a bit of a supernatural element. 

The hosting, as always, is top-notch.

Once you've gone down the stairs into the basement (although I think there is a lift...) then there are no accessibility issues here. 

Enjoyed this room much more than Southern Discomfort as there was a lot more going on. Hosting and set design again superb. 

Enjoyable room at Hounds, which we whizzed through as a 5. Fun puzzles & great decor. Highlight was the hosting. 

Really enjoyed this pop up escape room. You’d be forgiven for feeling dubious had you stumbled across it but it was much more of a challenge than we expected. Nice comfortable theme with a bit of history about the area (which always goes down well with me) Good puzzles although one had us stumped until a eureka moment late on. At times hard to hear stuff as the Galleria was busy on a Saturday afternoon.  Brilliant hosting. No accessibility issues. Interesting to see what they come up with next! 

Really good room but there’s so much to do and as a two you’re going to have to split up to escape within the 75 minutes. Thankfully our host was kind enough to let us complete even after we’d gone over time. 

We’ve done quite a few Alice in wonderland rooms but this one definitely is up with the best of them. The design of the room is beautiful and I was delighted to hear some very famous voices narrate the story.

Some really fun puzzles but one very annoying skill  puzzle which we couldn’t complete in the end but the lovely host skipped it for us. I’m pretty sure they helped us along in other areas so we could complete for which we were incredibly grateful. Was very pleased we didn’t miss the final act. None of the puzzles would stump experienced escape roomers but its the sheer amount of them that will cause you heart palpitations. I reckon if we were in our usual three we would have done it in 75 mins.

Accessibility wise, there’s some crawling (and squeezing if you have an ample behind like me, lol) and some very steep climbing which was easier to descend than ascend for me.

Second room we did in Vienna before Christmas. We missed out on escaping by five seconds. Usually not a major issue for a room but in this one there were dire consequences! That said we completed everything other than pressing one button so we didn't feel like we had missed anything. 

It was an excellent room but we had one puzzle that sucked our time that was leaving me a gibbering wreck on the floor. I still don't know if I solved it or if they bypassed it for us. Either way it was terminal for the ending. 

Some great puzzles - there is a VR element but it is only for one puzzle. 

Rooms in Vienna are very expensive, especially so for two players so we spent a bit of time researching which ones were best to do and this one was one of the two we ended up choosing. Good fun room with a lot to do and some very cool moments. We were frustrated with a couple of the puzzles that didn't really click for us, but overall, it was a great room. 

It has fallen down the TERPECA rankings over the last year which I think is fair as I've seen a number of other rooms  in the UK use some of these elements to great effect but no doubt it was a world-leader when it opened. 

Our second escape room of the day and was an absolute hit - lots of puzzles that had us in the room for almost the whole 60 minutes which is always fine by me. Loved the idea of the Christmas spirit fun o' meter which we did have to improve during one particularly tricky puzzle! 

It's a fantastic room, brilliantly themed and decorated with fun puzzles and a great ending. Amazing hosting as always. My only disappointment was that we got out in under 30 minutes, and I wanted more puzzles! 

Fun Christmas room with some decent puzzles. Definitely a good one for families but good for the enthusiast that wants to get into the Christmas spirit.

Wear a jumper and/or your coat. It is in the "shipping container" at the back of the property, making you feel you really are at the North pole. 

Following our experience earlier that evening at Escape Entertainment London this room had a lot to do to restore my faith in rooms in the city and thankfully, it did. We'd had a good experience early on in our escape careers back in 2017 getting the record in their other room so we did have good expectations.

It's a fun non-linear room that's very on theme. Fun opening room. Lots of padlocks but some fun high-tech bits as well. 

Great hosting. Can't quite remember our time, think it was around 45 minutes. 

Accessibility - you need to be able to get up/down a staircase and crouch/crawl for one part of the game.

We did not get on in this room. From the off, it had my back up by combining the breaking of two rules of escape rooms as the very first "puzzle." It didn't get a lot better. There aren't a lot of puzzles in this room, and for whatever reason, we found them very hard. A couple were just difficult, and that's fair enough, but others required leaps of logic that were not signposted well at all. 

Also, reading through the other reviews for this game—and my thoughts while we were playing it—I noticed that some of the puzzles in this room have been stripped down/changed. I have no idea if it would have improved our experience had the originals been in place. The decor in some places was extremely worn. 

We only just managed to get out (although I had doubts we really did), and I was too grumpy to stay for the photo opp at the end. 

I don't recommend it for enthusiasts at all.

I loved Bridge Command when it was at Colab, and we played a few times before the pandemic hit. It is almost unrecognisable in its new guise, where a serious amount of cash has been splashed to build a high-tech set that looks like it could be from a TV show. 

Once you get there, you change into your ship jumpsuits (they probably have every size and then some) and are transported to your ships. Before you get your induction, you can stock up on your beer, wine, or cocktail of choice, which you can take with you—in an ingenious way—throughout the game. 

You can choose different scenarios (and two different ships), and this time, I think we went for a military one. The storytelling has gone up a notch, too, and you genuinely feel as if you are in a spaceship, and your actions really impact what happens in the story. 

While I often had no idea what was going on in the rest of the ship, I did have a lot of freedom in my role as comms manager and was pleased to have a use for the drama GCSE I scraped 25 years ago. That said, you don't need to have any drama/improv skills, but I always find these things much more enjoyable if I can give the actors something they've never had to work with before. 

All this won me a promotion to officer, which, in theory, should impact how the story progresses when we book next time. The team records what stories teams play, and the decisions and actions you take do have consequences later on, which gives it super replayability. 

One thing to note is that if you aren't a big group, you're likely to share your booking with others. This worked out well for us this time, as the people we were with were fun, but if you don't like that sort of thing, then you'll have to see if you can fill up the slots with your own group. 

There were no accessibility issues with the role I played. Unsure about the others! 

Final room of our ten-room marathon in Nottingham. 

We'd just come out of one of my least-favoured themes - nuclear meltdown - into another of my least favourites - chemical meltdown. This room probably suffered because it was the last room we did on a packed weekend, and our brains were not working that well. 

I wasn't a massive fan of most puzzles, but I liked the ending, which was suitably unique for a room of this nature. 

Accessibility: At least one person needs to be able to duck/crawl.