Case Closed: Radio Nowhere | Review

Radio Nowhere Review | Playing the best of the 70s, 80s, and beyond, Radio Nowhere is the station everyone’s listening to. But when a body turns up in the recording booth, things get deathly silent. Identify suspects, narrow down your lines of investigation, and decipher secret broadcasts. Sounds like a normal enough case, but there’s a catch…The show must go on. Play your tunes, chat to your audience, and catch this killer before it’s too late.

Date Played: June 6th
Time Taken: N/A
Number of Players: 4
Difficulty: Easy

All images in the review are (c) Case Closed

Since we last visited Case Closed, a lot has changed. The company has moved location from Black Axe Throwing Co (which has sadly closed down), all the way to the other side of Edinburgh in Leith. Sad news for me because it’s now a bus ride instead of a short walk, good news for them as they’re now attached to a little board game café called Secret Solstice.

The other thing that has changed is that Case Closed has gone from a fairly unknown newcomer to quickly rising through the escape room leader boards to squarely position itself as Scotland’s #1 must play room where… At the time of writing this… It remains. That’s no small feat.

I was actually a little nervous as to whether Case Closed’s new room, Radio Nowhere would be as good as their original. Living up to a runaway success isn’t easy. Just ask the creators of flop sequels Jaws: The Revenge, American Psycho 2, and Titanic II. Thankfully, the game did not disappoint and we all emerged with broad smiles on our face, victorious. If anything, I’d say Radio Nowhere is ever so slightly better than Max Sinclair. But before we get into that, let’s talk a little more about what to expect.

The New Location at Secret Solstice Games

The new location at Secret Solstice Games is just as secret (read as, hard to find from the main street) as the last one. You’ll need to stray off the main Commercial Street and around the back in order to find the door. The door is unassuming, and our team rang the bell and waited outside for several minutes until we realised the door was unlocked. I should mention something about Norman doors… But hey! This is an escape room review, not an architectural one. Once we did figure out this first door-shaped puzzle, we were warmly greeted by the team at Secret Solstice Games then given our briefing.

Once past the usual “don’t touch plugs” and “nothing is above head height” you get in every escape room in the world, we jumped into character. Quite literally! Since we’d need special DJ names in order to get started. We were then led into the room where the briefing continued. A little backstory, a little nudge on where to get started, and then we were off.

The Show Must Go On

How Radio Nowhere works is much like it’s counterpart Max Sinclair. Your currency is information, and you have to fully engage with the storyline in order to understand what is happening. We’d receive information sheets to fill out as we discovered more and more of the who the what the when, where and how. In the middle of our radio booth we also had a whiteboard we could fill out with key information about the case. Similarly with Max Sinclair, we weren’t on a timer. Not really, anyway. You’re encouraged to spend as long as you need in the room (assuming you don’t go over the time and run into the next booking, but that hasn’t happened to us in a Case Closed room yet) and really engage with what is happening. We were told as we went in that we’d get as much out of the room that we put in, so being silly and jumping into it was a must.

Radio Nowhere is an escape room that isn’t really that much like an escape room. It’s part murder mystery, part radio-themed improv show. There were some locks and keys, yes. But solving those required less puzzling and more rummaging through pockets looking for password reminders. For that reason, I’ve marked it as “Easy” on the difficulty scale. No matter the team, no matter the puzzle solving ability, I’m pretty sure everyone will reach the “win state” successful ending, and that’s great but it’s very atypical of an escape room. The game does not punish wrong answers, and an incredibly attentive interactive Games Master (in our case, Ronan and Oran) will ensure the team gets from A to B.

With this in mind, I can 100% totally understand if a hardcore escape room enthusiast team played this and didn’t love it as much as I did. The immersive, improv-enthusiasts and escape room enthusiasts venn diagram is not a circle, and I’ve met teams who erred on one side or the other.

All that to say, the team that will enjoy this the most will have a mix of both. Just like we did! Our team had a unique makeup composed of game streamers, game writers and game developers. We had one person who immediately sat down behind the radio booth and decided it was their focus to host the best radio show they could. On the other hand, between the remaining players we probably had the concentration of Scotland’s biggest logical deduction game (think Obra Dinn, Golden Idol and Chants of Sennaar) players in one room. The escape room could not have been more perfect for us and, as with all escape rooms, who you play with matters a lot.

Video A Murderer Killed the Radio Star

The general premise of Radio Nowhere is that the body of someone who works there shows up in the booth at the station for Radio Nowhere. But the company are keen not to get the police involved so instead you, a band of guest radio hosts, are invited in to investigate the murder. But the only problem is, the show must go on! For an hour and a half, you’ll have to juggle murder solving and radio hosting in tandem.

We heard from the designers afterwards that the game is fairly flexible to specific teams. If a team wants to focus more on hosting the radio, then they get more clues to solve the case through their interactions with the radio. Think: People calling in, fan mail, and the teleprompter. If players choose not to engage with the radio, a back-up track can kick in leaving all players free to run around puzzle hunting instead. If there’s a mix of both, the game balances with a mix of both interactions.

For us, we were keen to try out absolutely everything the room had to offer. We thoroughly examined everything in the room, and also had some delightful interactions on the radio with our ever-increasing listener count and plenty of call-ins and fan mail.

Enter the Booth

Last but not least, in terms of decor, since Case Closed rotate weekly between Max Sinclair and Radio Nowhere, the room is identical to that of Max Sinclair. Same green walls, same desk, same cabinets. The only thing that is different is that this room is now a radio booth – complete with a microphone, screens, big sound systems and more. I actually never personally played Max Sinclair in this location, though when I accompanied team Escaping the Closet there last month I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the new space before they went in.

Since the room doesn’t need to be anything more than a radio booth, it is a fairly simple setup. Unlike escape rooms with enormous budget and beautiful show stopping set, Radio Nowhere is simply a realistic looking radio booth. This means that most of what you find in there is related to the case in some way, there’s nothing that could be described as “filler”.

Our favourite item in the room however was an old CRT7 computer that served as a pop-up police database we could use to search for more clues.

Radio Nowhere Escape Room | The Verdict

So why did I enjoy Radio Nowhere a little more than Max Sinclair? It was just so, damn, fun. Really. I was worried it might not live up to expectations but it didn’t just meet expectations, but also managed to exceed them. The designers have used the same space to create something refreshingly brand new and utterly vibey.

As well as a great atmosphere there are several gimmicks (though I hesitate to use that word), that really elevate the gameplay to the next level. Simple moments of interaction I can safely say I’ve never seen at any other escape room. I’m trying hard not to spoil what they are though, because the reveals are really worth the wait. Rest, assured this game oozes playfulness and incites a sense of wonder, before rounding off with a memorable bang.

For this reason I’m awarding it The Escape Roomer “Fun Factor” badge. Even though Max Sinclair got a badge of honour and I technically enjoyed this one more, I think where it really shines is in it’s fun-value.

It’s true that I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this room to every escape enthusiast I encounter (for that more generic recommendation I’ll stick with Max Sinclair), but for the right team this is a real gem and on my personal “must play” in Scotland list.

Radio Nowhere rotates weekly and can be booked at Edinburgh’s Case Closed.

Please note: We were not charged for our ticket, but does not affect the content of our review.