Monthly Archives: June 2023

George Wylesol: 2120 | Review

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George Wylesol 2120 Review | You’re Wade, a schlubby middle-aged computer repairman, sent to fix a computer in a vacant, nondescript office building. When you get inside the door locks behind you, and you can’t get out. Now the adventure begins! You have to explore this building and try to find your way home. The building is huge on the inside with a lot of sprawling hallways and empty rooms but your only hope is to uncover clues and try to work out the mystery this whole experience hangs on.

Date Played: June 2023
Time Taken: 3 Hours
Number of Players: 1
Difficulty: Hard

Wait, hold on a minute… Is that… Is that Avery Hill Publishing?

A couple of days ago I spotted a review on my friends Room Escape Artist’s website for a book by none other than one of my favourite authors at my absolute all time favourite publishing house. Is it strange to have a favourite publishing house? Maybe. But I’ve backed just about every Kickstarter they’ve ever run, and any time anyone gives me money and tells me to treat myself, I head immediately to Avery Hill’s website. I don’t know why this started, and I’m not like this with any other publishing house. It’s just whatever they publish I know I’ll love. I haven’t disliked a single book they’ve produced, and that’s cool.

But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. This isn’t’ about Avery Hill, this is about George Wylesol’s 2120. My love for Wylesol started way back with Internet Crusader – a book I’m proud to say isn’t just on my shelf, but is now also on the shelves of most of my good friends too. According to Wylesol’s website, Internet Crusader is:

“full-length graphic novel telling the story of a doomsday cult and the fight against the literal devil, told through collages of chat windows, video games, and other early web design.”

I… LOVE IT.

So when I found out 2120 had come out via spotting a review on REA, I did a double take. Not just a new book, but a new book literally packed with puzzles. Sign me the heck up.

 

George Wylesol 2120 Review

 

What is 2120?

And why am I writing about it on The Escape Roomer?

Well, I would describe it as a choose-your-own-adventure escape room in a book. Yes, it’s a graphic novel, but one you don’t get the luxury of reading left to right. No, you have to choose your path carefully and many of those paths will be blocked by puzzles. Fiendishly difficult and sometimes slightly obtuse puzzles… But hey, I’ll take puzzles in books wherever I can take them.

The story of this experience puts the reader in the shoes of a computer repair technician called Wade. You show up at the mysteriously vacant office building at 2120 Macmillan Drive and, after stepping in, you find the door locks suddenly behind you. You have no choice but to venture further into this building. But where on Earth are all the computers?

What follows are pages and pages of wandering around a labyrinth of non-descript office corridors. Occasionally you come across untold manmade horrors, but more often you just find locked doors. Sometimes these locked doors have padlocks on them. Yay! Sometimes they just stay locked. Boo!

It’s like if House of Leaves had a baby with a graphic novel, and also the year is 1999. From the plastic yellow, to the sinister shadows just out of the corner of your eye, to the building that just seems to get bigger and bigger and bigger… It’s a true horror. Chilling and disconcerting and definitely not one to ‘read’ right before bedtime unless you enjoy trippy nightmares about faded carpets and strange cupboards with strange blurry photographs inside them. For some reason the book made me feel like I was reliving the Y2K bug, like some unspeakable technological nightmare awaited me on the next page. But no, it’s just a book. But good books should make you feel things right? This one gave me all the feels.

 

 

Okay, I get it, but you’re not selling it…

If you don’t like horror, this might not be for you. But if you like innovation, outside the box thinking, and wacky surrealism, then this is definitely for you.

I don’t want to describe it in too much detail, because I found that going in with almost no expectations was the best way to approach it. It made each new puzzling twist and each new reveal as I turned a new corner even more surprising. The book does a good job at avoiding spoilers – unless you go looking for them really hard, usually the next page you need to flick to to progress is within easy reach, meaning you don’t have to go walkabout too far. So in true nature of not spoiling it for you, I’ll leave it at that.

Although I was itching to complete the experience – the very weekend after 2120 arrived, I had friends staying with me. One of them made the mistake of asking “what I was currently playing”. Expecting me to launch into an excited discussion about video games, I shook my head and grabbed 2120 by George Wylesol and opened it up to one of the many bookmarked pages:

“I’m playing this book right now”

I wasn’t expecting much, except that everyone started to gather round and make helpful suggestions as we flicked through-

“Hey, go through that door” and “What’s this? How do we solve this?”

It’s safe to say, 2120 has been a hit with pretty much everyone I’ve shown the book to so far, even in passing. I’m proud to have it on my shelf. So even if it doesn’t initially look like something you’d be interested in, I’d implore you to reconsider and give it a go.

 

 

Choose Your Own Nightmare

In terms of the gameplay, since it’s choose-your-own adventure, it’s no surprise there’s an element of choice. However on successfully completing the book, I flicked back through and found that most (if not all) of the paths I’d already found. Since there are so many puzzles in the experience, I often found myself pausing and then retracing my steps to find a doorway I didn’t go through, or a cross-roads at the end of a long dingy corridor where I could try taking the other path. Eventually, the book allows you to loop around and come back to where you started in a seamless way, if you want to go back and rediscover more. In this way, although there are some alternate endings the player can stumble across, I did get the impression I’d “completed” the game by the time I finally put it down. But I’m not sure if “complete” is really the right word with an experience like this.

Like, did I complete the game, or did the game complete me?

But it worked so well. 2120 definitely encourages the player to be exploratory. Often the solutions for the puzzles the player encounters can only be solved by taking meticulous notes and by retracing their steps to re-examine something that seemed innocuous earlier but turns out to be central later.

The feeling the book manages to evoke is definitely that of early 90s computer games. Not just the strange, blocky illustration style, but also the text and the way you feel as if you’ve “clicked on something” every time you go to look at something closer up. In that case, it was possibly missing an inventory system, especially to collect clues as you go – though how an author could pull that off, I do not know.

Overall, I did find the puzzles erred on the side of difficult. I’m not shy for a puzzle or two, but more times than not I found myself putting down the book in frustration, or aimlessly flicking back through the pages I’d already consumed in annoyance. More than once I ‘cheated’ to get ahead – having found part of a solution but being entirely unable to find the remaining part, I made some educated guesses about where the book wanted me to go, and found those to be correct. But this may just have more to do with my own expectations of ‘reading a book’ and wanting to hurry on with the story, than any particular flaw with the puzzles. It’s an interesting medium, and the author used it to a fantastic degree, so I can’t fault them for that.

 

 

2120: The Verdict

Maybe I’m just not as used to booked like this – the usual “escape rooms” I consume are the physical or tabletop kind. But I was seriously impressed by 2120. I’m less used to experiencing my escape rooms in book format, but I enjoyed it. A lot. I hope this kind of book becomes more popular, and more puzzle designers consider it as a medium for telling interesting stories and sewing the seeds of interesting puzzles.

For this reason, the verdict is very simple – we adored this book, and we think George Wylesol is a playful genius when it comes to creating visual experiences.

Who do we recommend this for? Everyone, and no-one at the same time. This book is for you, and it’s also probably not for you. I don’t make the rules.

2120 can be purchased directly from the publisher by heading to this link.

We were sent a complimentary copy of 2120, but this doesn’t affect our review in any way whatsoever!

Cambridge Escape Rooms: Heaven and Hell | Review

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Heaven and Hell Review: Ever wondered what happens when you die? Does heaven exist? What if you’re sent to hell? As mere mortals we do not have the answers to these questions, but now you have the opportunity to find out. You will enter a state of hibernation. This will last for one hour and give you the chance to explore the afterlife. After your adventure you will need to use a defibrillator to return to life. However the defibrillator only works for one hour! If you do not find it in time, you may be stuck in hell forever! It could also be heaven, but in this case it’s nearly the same thing…

Date Played: June 2023
Time Taken: 46:52
Number of Players: 3
Difficulty: Easy-Medium

Content Warning: Death

When Al and Ash of Escaping the Closet recommend a game to me – I know I’m in for a treat!

This was exactly what happened when I mentioned in passing that I was travelling to Cambridge to play a few escape rooms.

“Oh, you’ve got to try Heaven and Hell while you’re there!”

Oh yes. You can be absolutely sure that this was the first room we booked – and in fact, the very room we planned the trip around!

Visiting Cambridge was also a super fun trip because I was playing with one of my co-writers, Georgie! Since moving up to Edinburgh I don’t get down South as much, and so we wanted to make the most out of a brief visit for my birthday and play as many escape rooms as we could possibly cram in on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. After a brief stop for lunch, the third in our trip was the ever-exciting and mysterious Heaven and Hell.

Cambridge Escape Rooms is tucked away off a busy road near a bus stop a short ride from the station. Buses run regularly so you can be fairly safe in both getting there by bus and getting back on bus as well. The lobby space is welcoming, and there’s physical puzzles you can play with whilst you wait – and the usual shelves of play at home puzzle games if you’d like to buy one and take one home with you.

 

As Above, So Below

A question enthusiasts love to discuss is “which escape rooms have the most exciting ending?“. But with Heaven and Hell I’d like to submit it for the discussion category of “escape rooms with the most exciting BEGINNING“. You see, Heaven and Hell is a game played in the afterlife… Hence the name. So in order to enter the escape room you’re going have to die. Yep, I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you. I just hope you’re ready to meet your maker.

Getting the pesky concept of “dying” out of the way, what followed was an exciting journey through the after life and indeed – to Heaven, and Hell. Our central goal throughout our trip was to come back to life. And of course, as expected, we had just one hour to complete this goal within else risk being trapped on the other side forever.

*dun dun dunnn*

 

 

Heaven and Hell wasn’t always available at Cambridge Escape Rooms. In fact, the room was originally created by E-Exit in Budapest. The room has been lovingly recreated here in the UK, but from what I can tell from a quick Google online, Cambridge Escape Rooms has added their own twist on it. Whilst many, if not all of the puzzles are exactly the same, the set design itself seems to have had an overhaul. This is at least based on some photos I found of the Budapest version, and my own memory of being in this room.

Which is interesting, because the set was definitely the thing I loved most about this room. From the fun technology, to the “wow moments” every time we opened up a new door and discovered a new part of the afterlife, lovingly rendered in fluffy white clouds (or indeed the flames from the bowels of hell). Heaven and Hell as an experience was a really pretty one. Always something new to look at and always something fun to discover.

It’s almost impossible to choose between a favourite moment in the room – the hell portion, or the heaven portion, or even the exciting moments that built up to those two. There was something uniquely magical about stepping into the heaven room, all fluffy clouds and white doves. Equally, some of the interactions with the set in the hell portion were hilariously good fun. What can I say? I enjoy being in hot places being prodded by devils with pitchforks*

*there aren’t actually any devils prodding you, don’t worry!

 

Note: This is a photo from the Budapest edition of this room which differs in set design from the Cambridge version.

 

In terms of the puzzles, these were smooth sailing. Well, mostly. We were actually stumped on the very first puzzle for the longest time, which wasted a large amount of time we rushed to catch up on after. But a little nudge from our Games Master and we were off on our way.

We found that we didn’t get too stuck on anything after this point, which is probably why we’ve given this an Easy-Medium rating. Medium for that one puzzle, and Easy for everything else. There was a mixed bag. Some of the puzzles were a little too easy to bypass for my liking, and a few others felt a little contrived, but for each that didn’t totally click with us there were plenty which absolutely did.

 

 

Heaven and Hell: The Verdict

The original Heaven and Hell in Budapest is an immensely popular game, and this version of it in the UK has been faithfully recreated in case anyone can’t make the trip out to Central Europe. We really enjoyed our experience at Heaven and Hell, and spent a lot of the trip back into London discussing which was our favourite of the two we played at Cambridge Escape Rooms, this one or The Secret Clubhouse.

In terms of accessibility, there were several moments of big claustrophobia. One of them seemed to be compulsory for every player – although if you let the venue know in advance, they’ll let you skip this part. The others were optional, in that you can pick one member of your team to be the sacrifice and get in the small space. In our team, I was that person – but hey I kinda enjoy the small spaces! There is also a smoke machine in this room which can be disabled if you request it.

I’d recommend this escape room to anyone who can make the trip over to Cambridge. It’s a very unique experience and well worth it!

 

Heaven and Hell can be booked at Cambridge Escape Rooms. This room is also available at some sites in Madrid and Budapest.

Turbo Button: Floor Plan 2 | Review

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Floor Plan 2 Review | A comedy adventure inspired by escape rooms, packed with more puzzles than you can fit in an elevator. On your first day of work, the boss sends you on an errand to retrieve a lost treasure that will turn the company’s fortunes around. And good news: it’s somewhere in the building! Just use the elevator down the hall. Oh, and by the way, each floor is a gateway to another world, nobody speaks your language, and time and space are fluid.

Developer: Turbo Button
Date Played: Summer 2022
Console: Oculus
Number of Players: 1
Time Taken: 6-8 hours

Listen, I LOVE Floor Plan 2.

That’s it. That’s the review. Stop what you’re doing, grab your VR headset and give it a download.

It’s one of those games that even though I finished months and months ago sometimes I just log into it for fun.

We’ve mentioned Floor Plan 2 in other posts, such as this one (which is somehow still our most read article on this whole website by a massive margin), but somehow it flew under our radar to write a full review until now.

So, full disclosure, we as The Escape Roomer were given a code to play. Unfortunately for personal reasons the specific reviewer who was assigned to the game wasn’t able to complete the review. The months rolled on and regrettably Floor Plan 2 slipped down in our priority list. Until one day I sat down and thought to myself – hey, I could really do with a fun escape room VR game right now. I DMed the original reviewer assigned, since they were one of the only other people I knew with a VR headset and passion for puzzles, and the name Floor Plan 2 came up. So I went off and purchased a copy.

So whilst this review isn’t comped exactly, this review was sparked by an “oh my god this game is so fun why haven’t we reviewed it yet” …”oh wait” moment. As such, it’s a completely honest and unbiased and perhaps a little over-excited verdict on Turbo Button’s Floor Plan 2. The verdict? It’s fantastic and I love it.

 

Are you ready to climb the corporate ladd- I mean, elevator?

So yes, I love this game, but equally I’d be lying if I said that some moments in this game didn’t frustrate me so much I wanted to virtually slap the stick of butter out of the strange little creatures’ hand and shout at my CEO. But good art should make you feel raw, visceral emotions, right? Which also brings me to the other big thing I wanted to say about this game: It’s comedy. It’s surreal. It’s mind-bendingly bizarre yet also so surprisingly recognisably corporate too.

It reminds me a lot of those point and click puzzle adventures from the 90s and 00s. You know the ones I mean – where you wander around locations picking up objects and combining them in surprising ways to create unimaginable outcomes all in the name of puzzle solving. Floor Plan 2 is similar in a way – you collect objects as you go, and then eventually you’ll find a use for the object – and it definitely won’t be how you expected it!

But this is where the puzzles get much more interesting than anything else we’ve encountered. Floor Plan 2 is in VR… So throw all your preconceived notions about how games work out the window. For starters, your mode of transport is an elevator (or lift, here in the UK) taking you between floors of a large sky scraper. Some objects can’t be taken in the elevator, so how are you supposed to get them to the floor above or below? Well there in lies one of the first big puzzles.

 

 

Okay… So it’s an office block? I get it.

Do you? Because I’m not sure I do! Because the things you find in the office block are bizarre. Try a nightclub chicken party. A bathroom that rotates 360 degrees. An ancient Egyptian tomb. Outer space. A bumblebee kingdom. It’s bright, it’s colourful, and it’s a joy to spend time in. Floor Plan 2 is playful in its environment design, and even more playful with it’s puzzles and absolutely nothing can be taken for granted. Not even gravity. For all of these reasons and more, I absolutely adore this game.

My favourite moment in the game is the moment that first sold me on the idea of the game. It’s you, you’re sitting behind a desk, and people come to you with their problems. They scoot up on chairs and express their issues to you in loud voices that sound like someone going “bleh bleh bleh” into the microphone. No shade, I think its hilarious. You with your little name badge and boring desk job solve their problems. After all, this is Puzzl Corporation, and your company’s motto is to solve any problem.

 

 

At some point, you get promoted and gain access to the elevators, and this is where the game ‘really’ begins. Cue all the bizarre gravity defying chickenery.

The puzzles themselves are a mixed bag in terms of difficulty. There are some real tricky moments where you’re pulling your hair out, and many other moments where you walk in and have a sense of exactly what you need to do. Overall I’d probably say it’s a little bit too tricky – for the light-hearted, almost childlike environment, there were a few times where I almost put my headset down and didn’t return. But the difficulty of the puzzles makes for a longer, and much more satisfying game when you do eventually solve it all.

In all, the base game lasts about 1-2 hours for the core game, but after which an “overtime” remixed version of the experience is unlocked in which players can explore freely and try out new versions of old puzzles. One of the things you can do in “overtime” is hunt for missing pets, scattered throughout the building. Doing this unlocks new hands you can try out. Yes – really. A “totally not painful procedure” where you stick your hands into a loud machine and your hands come out completely different…

Do with that information whatever you will, but I had a blast!

 

 

A Comfortable Ride in the Elevator?

As with all VR games, I like to mention comfort – because VR isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Floor Plan 2 gives the players a fixed position teleportation system. Since most of the game happens in the elevator, you’d do well to make space in your floor to move freely about the elevator – maybe 2×2 meters to be safe. Beyond this, when the elevators open you can teleport to a fixed space within the room outside. In this way, it’s one of the least nauseating games in VR, and very suitable for people prone to VR sickness. You could even play the game sitting down, if you wanted to.

Similarly, the graphics are bright and colourful but very simple shapes – so I never experienced any game breaking or lagging issues on my device (Oculus Quest 2). It runs smoothly, feels comfortable to play, and is a fun experience start to finish.

 

Floor Plan 2: Backside Story

So why am I writing this review now exactly? Well, at the time of writing Floor Plan 2 had just released a brand new, FREE upgrade called Backside Story.

When an ancient elevator awakens and the experts are busy, it’s up to you and the PuzzScouts to retrieve the lost treasures that lie within.

I already owned the game, so all I needed to do was hit update, pop my headset on, and I was immediately transported back into Puzzl Corporation. And yes, I immediately started grinning from ear to ear! I was BACK! Back in this wacky, ridiculous, wonderful world of Floor Plan 2 for all new puzzles in all new locations. In this upgrade, players are contacted by a member of the PuzzScouts who needs help. You’re sent into a brand new elevator in search of three specific items hidden across 6 new locations.

In the new locations, there’s a Dungeons and Dragons themed maze with wizards and knights, there’s a circus tent with definitely-rigged games to play, and there’s a cockroach hotel room of corridors and locked doors to be accessed. In all these three locations, the elevator now gives you the ability to go “behind the scenes” on them. These are new locations in and of themselves, and the key to success with these puzzles will be seamlessly interacting with the front – and the back of the same location to succeed.

 

 

If you don’t already own Floor Plan 2 and wanted to buy it, this upgrade will be available with your purchase. However be mindful that the game will now be slightly more expensive overall (just a $5 increase).

In any case, I really love that the developers added this in. It patches a lot of things from the base game including plenty of accessibility options, which I love, but more importantly it added a huge amount of gameplay for free. The addition added an extra hour or two onto the base game (or in my case, at least 3 because I got very very stuck on one particular moment and spent days faffing!) is no small feat! It’s not so common that developers finish a game, and then return and add more content to the game just because they want to make it an even better game, but I applaud them for it.

 

 

Floor Plan 2 (and Backside Story) – The Verdict

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but Floor Plan 2 is a world that is an absolute joy to spend time in. It’s like a cross between a classic escape room and a game like Job Simulator, but more fun than both of those. When people ask me what VR games I recommend, this one comes up again and again. For goofy silly fun, but actual brain-boggling puzzles that really make you scratch your head – or rather, scratch the top of your VR visor.

For the absolute silliness and bonkers attitude of this game, we’ve decided to award it the special “Fun Factor” badge – awarded to games which are extra fun to play. You can read more about our award badges here.

FUN FACTOR All games are fun, but look out for the Fun Factor badge on any review that goes all out on fun!

 

Floor Plan 2 is available on Oculus and Steam VR.

P.S. Whilst we did receive a copy for free, the reviewer in this case (me) is not the recipient of that free copy.

PostCurious: Light in the Mist | Review

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Light in the Mist Review | Your friend’s mysterious disappearance results in the discovery of an unusual item, leading you to embark on a journey through time and memory. In this narrative puzzle adventure by PostCurious and Jack Fallows, an intimate coming-of-age story is told through an object that serves as a tarot deck, a puzzle game, and a work of art.

Number of Players: 1 – 4
Time Taken: 6 Hours
Date Played: May – June 2023
Difficulty: Medium

Why, oh why do I leave the very best games to play very last on my to-play pile!? If I texted any of my puzzle friends right now and said “Hey have you played Light in the Mist? It’s really good” I’d be laughed out of the WhatsApp chat. To be honest, I think it’s because I either buy them and keep them on my shelf for years waiting for the perfect opportunity to play it, or don’t purchase them at all thanks to extortionate extra-EU shipping fees games have these days *wipes tears with the UK flag*

Light in the Mist is one of those really good games I played very late. But in this case, it wasn’t me but a friend who bought it. And little known to me til I ended up chatting to the creator, PostCurious actually has distributors in the UK so shipping fees are… Surprisingly affordable!

Hey, better late than never, eh?

I first got my hands on a copy when my super lovely friends at Escaping the Closet and I boarded a ferry from Hull to Rotterdam en route to play a weekend of escape rooms in the Netherlands. We were sitting lazily on the top deck of the ship, listening to the drone of a singing-dancing-castanet playing ferry performer, when Ash suddenly reached into her bag and brought out a little box. “Oh hey, I brought a game! Shall we play?” She plonked a copy of Light in the Mist down on the slightly sticky plastic table, brushing aside the remains of dinner. And, as the boat left the port and sailed off into the deep water of the channel, we all started playing Light in the Mist.

 

 

I didn’t get a chance to finish the game until a month later, when I bought myself a copy and, completely forgetting where we’d ended up on the ferry, I started again from scratch in the comfort of my own home. So in short, at the time of writing, I’ve played Light in the Mist not once but twice… And you know the strangest part? Both playthroughs felt completely different. I understood the story in a different way. Different things happened to me. I collected different items. I learnt different things. Wow!

 

“There really is something weird about these woods, you know?“

Light in the Mist can’t be described as a game so much as it is described as a “puzzletale“. It’s a character driven narrative story, but the medium isn’t pages and ink, it’s told through a deck of tarot cards.. And of course, puzzles. As you work your way through the deck you choose which cards to draw in an almost choose-your-own adventure flow of the dreamlike meandering story. To navigate through the tarot cards, you solve each tarot card’s puzzle. Each solved puzzle will take you to a new page in the book and you’re encouraged from there to go at your own pace and follow your intuition. You’ll collect items, loop back on yourself sometimes, and uncover more and more with every metaphorical step you take through the woods.

With each puzzle solved you, the players, get a glimpse into the life of your friend Sam. You see, Sam is missing in these woods and the only item you have to guide you back to her is this deck of tarot cards. What follows is a story that unfolds non-linearly. It’s compelling, intimate, and in some parts quite upsetting.

Over the course of the game, which is around 5 or more hours (but I think I came in at at least 6), you’ll build up a complete picture of Sam. There are some trigger warnings at the start of the guide contained in the box, but it’s all handled gracefully and with respect. I believe somewhere in the trigger warning it mentions the intention of the game is to help tell painful stories, so nothing is in there for fun, it’s all essential to the story.

 

 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

I don’t know why but the whole time playing this game I had this poem going loops in my head. I love this poem. I also have a tattoo inspired by the poem, which features a little path curving through the woods (DM me and I’m sure I’ll be happy to share it the tattoo, haha). But all this to say, I had ~ that vibe ~ in my mind when playing the game. Not in a small part thanks to the illustrations by the ever fantastic Jack Fallows of Cryptogram Puzzle Post, who was PostCurious’ collaborator on the project.

On each new tarot card a new scene loosely inspired by the usual tarot imagery. Yet Light in the Mist takes place in a deep and dark woods, and Fallows has rendered these scenes absolutely beautifully. Dark trees rising from the mist, a shining moon hanging in the sky, and soft lights that glow from the depths in colours more vivid than I thought possible to print on the card.

These woods for sure are lovely, dark and deep.

DIAMOND BADGE awarded to the most visually appealing experiences!

Given how beautiful this game is, we’ve also decided to award it a special “diamond badge”, awarded to puzzle games which are beautifully visually amazing. You can read more about our award badges here.

 

 

Last but not least, the puzzles

It says a lot when it takes me this long into a review to even mention the puzzles. But what can I say? There’s just so much else about this game I wanted to talk about first.

The puzzles in Light in the Mist are varied. As a designer myself I usually like to mention some kind of “puzzle arc” or the overall “gameplay flow” in my review, but Light in the Mist presents a peculiar challenge in that it’s a non-linear game. Meaning players can tackle the puzzles in any order they want to. They might encounter a difficult one first, followed by an easy one. They might ramp up logically in terms of easy – medium – difficult. Or they might do something else entirely. I can’t say.

But what I can say is that players can expect to encounter a range. When I played in a team of 4, we seemed very well matched to play together, as different puzzle types played to our comparative strengths. However when I played solo, I had much more of a challenge. At least, with the ones I had left to solve. Without a second person or two to rely on for support, I found myself spending more time looking at the hints and mulling over different theories before I’d eventually crack the codes.

Nothing felt too insurmountable. There were frustrating moments, and other moments where the puzzle just clicked the moment I flipped the cards out. In the end, it balanced out to be satisfying across the course of the game, and with each puzzle being so surprising and varied never once did I ger bored or feel like I’d already seen something similar.  But it is a unique aspect to the game in that people might end up playing it in an order which isn’t necessarily conductive to satisfying gameplay. Notice I said MIGHT. My gameplay experience was fine, but it’s just something to watch out for.

 

 

A Mystical Convergence of Puzzles and Palms

When we were done – on the ferry I mean – I grabbed the deck of cards and started to read everyone’s tarot more traditionally. There’s something super cool about having a game that also doubles as something else when you’re done. In Light in the Mist’s case, it’s a deck of tarot cards that yes, you can read as a tarot. Not only does this give way to some lovely arcana imagery, but it also means you’ll be able to keep and treasure the deck once you’ve completed the game.

For the purposes of this review – not that I really know what I’m talking about – I decided to do a card reading for you. Yes, you reading this! I thought really hard about the type of person who might be reading our review. Who you are, what your hopes and dreams are, and where you’re going in live. Then I asked the special Light in the Mist tarot deck if they had any special message I should share with you. I drew:

  • The Queen of Swords (upright)
  • The Three of Cups (upright)
  • The Knight of Swords (upright)

The Queen of Swords generally refers to independence, perception and organisation in one’s life. The Knight of the same suit usually means ambition, haste, and communication. Inbetween these two cards we have the Three of Cups, which indicates groups coming together to focus on a common emotional goal – a sense of community and the sense of getting involved emotionally. When the Queen and the Knight of swords appear together it seems pretty significant. Court cards usually mean specific people, and because the two in the suit are side by side it probably means two connected people.

 

 

Now I’m not sure I really believe in this tarot stuff, but there’s a clear message shouting out to me in these three cards, and that is: Get together your two people, your real people-people (friends, family, whoever they are to you) and come together for a common goal – such as solving a puzzle together, and you’ll all grow closer together emotionally. If I sit back and think about that for myself then yeah, I do have two people I usually play puzzle games with, they are connected, and one of them is more perceptive and one is more the ambitious type. We usually play games together and it does bring us closer together emotionally. They’re my community. It’s nice to think of it in that way.

I’m not gonna say the cards are saying to go out and buy this particular game – but if you are here for a recommendation. Well then. This one ain’t bad.

 

 

Light in the Mist | The Verdict

There is a really good reason PostCurious and Light in the Mist are so well known for their puzzle games. Sometimes the pressure of expectation can make a game fall flat, but somehow Light in the Mist avoids that and still pulls itself off as a perfectly well-rounded, beautiful and thoughtful experience.

I would recommend this for, well, pretty much anyone. It’s not traditional in any sense, but with the rules it breaks, PostCurious and the team have executed it near-flawlessly to create a compelling experience. Part puzzle, part story. A round of applause and a standing ovation from us at The Escape Roomer.

Unlike many other games, Light in the Mist is regiftable – though I’m equally sure you’ll want to keep this one for yourself. There’s one destructible element, however this element is provided twice just in case you want to regift it and keep it pristine. At a price point of around £30 GBP (£37 with UK shipping), it’s on the slightly expensive side for what is essentially just a deck of cards. But as someone who has spent close to that on a particularly pretty deck of tarot cards that doesn’t contain any puzzles, I think you’re getting an excellent value from Light in the Mist. There is also a collectors edition available for £90. Do with that information whatever you will.

 

Light in the Mist can be purchased by heading to PostCurious’s website here.

All photos in this article belong us at The Escape Roomer for the purposes of this review. Please seek permission before using them.

 

How to throw a Taskmaster themed party

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So today’s blog post isn’t exactly escape room themed. Wait, what?! A non escape room post on The Escape Roomer? Scandalous!

Unless of course you count the fact that many of the Taskmaster series have incredibly puzzle-y and escape room-like challenges in them? And that Alex Horne himself is an escape room enthusiast, which we found out when we interviewed him. Both things are how I’m going to justify writing this post. That and I don’t know an escape room enthusiast who isn’t also a fan of Taskmaster. When I posted about my party on Instagram, everyone who reached out asking how it went and tips for throwing their own party were puzzle people. It leads me to one conclusion: The Taskmaster fans and escape room enthusiasts Venn diagram is a circle.

To celebrate my twenty something-th birthday, I decided to throw a party. But not just any party, a Taskmaster themed party. I gathered all of my favourite people in one room, locked the doors (just kidding), and gave them a series of tasks to complete. Throughout the process I learned a thing or two about writing good challenges. As a game designer, writing Taskmaster challenges doesn’t usually come up in my day-to-day work, but there was a lot I learned from theories of player progression, gameplay beats, the archetypes of fun that went into planning and executing the gameplay. That’s a lot of words for: I tried really hard to make it fun, it paid off, and so I wanted to share some tips and tricks with you.

 

 

Design Your Own, or Buy the Game?

The first question you want to consider is probably whether to design your own challenges, or buy one of the many, many resources the Taskmaster team have available for sale. If you buy the board game or book, the host can also take part! But then you lose out on the fun of coming up with your own wacky and wonderful challenges yourself.

If you do wish to purchase a list of ‘challenges’, the Taskmaster store has many:

  • Taskmaster Secret Series Game
    • The Secret Series Game invites you and your family and friends to take part in your own series of Taskmaster games at home!
  • Taskmaster Board Game
    • Compete with your friends and family in a series of ludicrous tasks to be crowned Taskmaster Champion. Judge or be judged. It’s time to summon your inner Taskmaster.
  • Taskmaster Card Game
    • Featuring favourite tasks from the TV show, this travel-sized card game brings the essence of Taskmaster to your very own home. Judge and be judged. Your time starts now…
  • Taskmaster Expansion Pack
    • 40 all-new task cards to add to your Taskmaster Board Game
  • Bring me the head of the Taskmaster book
    • 101 next level tasks (and clues) that will lead one ordinary person to some extraordinary Taskmaster treasure…

 

 

Picking the Best Environment

The first consideration was: Where am I doing this party?

  • If it’s sunny out and you have a local park, this is an ideal place to throw a Taskmaster party
    • Pro: The large space makes for large-scale constructing and crafting challenges, as well as search-and-find challenges, pretty much anything involving water (and so on)
    • Pro: It’s always fun to be out and about in the sunshine
    • Con: Whatever materials you want your players to use, you’ll have to bring with you
    • Con: Toilets! Gotta let your players take toilet breaks
  • Do you have a garden? Well, best of both worlds!
    • Pro: Same as above!
    • Con: Way fewer con’s here, except to say – careful of making a mess! It’s your garden you’ll have to clean up.
  • Hiring a space, such as a private function room.
    • Pro: A dedicated space where all the tasks can take place
    • Pro: Most places will cater / include drinks, and you might even have access to some impressive AV equipment
    • Con: You’ll have to stay away from particularly messy tasks.
    • Con: You’ll have to bring everything with you.
  • Why not go all out and rent out an entire Taskmaster sized building!
    • Pro (or Con): Your Taskmaster event no longer has to be one evening long, why not make it a whole weekend long?
  • Your own apartment. This is what I did, and it worked for me!
    • Pro: Your own space, to get as messy and loud as you like!
    • Pro: Everything you need is already there at home
    • Pro: You have your own AV
    • Pro: If you have a garden, perfect.

As indicated, I did mine at home. Unfortunately I don’t have a garden but I did make good use of the surrounding neighbourhood area with one particular (not messy) outdoor task. But you’ll know what suits you best!

 

Coming Up With Tasks

You know your players better than anyone else – so as you’re reading this you might already have some ideas of what sort of questions to give them. Maybe you have a particularly athletic group of people and can challenge them to do sporting activities, or maybe you’ve got a group of puzzle people and want to try your hand at one of those “escape the caravan” tasks from the TV show. It’s your party, so it’s your rules!

The ones I came up with are very specific to my players – a mix of people, some puzzley, some less so. I’ll write the tasks I came up with at the bottom, but in general, here are some fun tips to coming up with tasks:

When coming up with team or pair tasks, split up couples and put people with surprising parters.

If nothing else, it’s an excellent way to break the ice! In any case, couples (generally) work far too well together and you don’t want to give anyone an unfair advantage.

Come up with tasks that make people laugh.

Think ‘silly’, and think ‘party’. Taskmaster isn’t about being the best (well, maybe), it’s about doing things you’ve never done before that you might look incredibly goofy doing. I loved leaning into that.

Come up with tasks that take a range of time and mix them up satisfyingly.

I made an error with one of my tasks being too long, and put it too late into the game. Don’t be like me, break them up and mix them up with long-short-long-short. If you’re also serving drinks, the drunker players get the less patience they’ll have (but the goofier they’ll get!). Use this to your advantage.

Surprise players with a “Part A” and a “Part B”

A Part A might feel innocuously simple, coaxing the player to pick or do something in a certain way that is suddenly turned on it’s head in Part B.

Give tasks that make for great photographs!

After all, you want some fun memories to remember the day by, right?

 

The Taskmaster at Work

 

The best ways to come up with tasks are to re-watch old series for inspiration, or just look at a fun round-up article like this one. There’s also a handy website here which is a super invaluable source for playing Taskmaster at home.

So, what were my tasks? They were:

TEAM TASKS

  • In your teams, you have 30 minutes to find something that fits each of the following categories. You can take a photograph, or bring the physical item back. It’s up to you. 1 point for each ‘best item’.
    • Pareidolia (Something that looks like a face, but isn’t)
    • Something that reminds you of [host]
    • The quirkiest street art
    • An optical illusion
    • The incorrect time
    • Something pink and fuzzy
    • The smallest object
    • 100 years old (exactly)
    • Is it cake?! (something doesn’t look edible but is)
    • Greg. Someone called Greg.
    • A menu with an item costing exactly £6.50 on it
    • Most unusual food fusion (e.g. pizza ice cream)
    • The meaning of life
    • The most Scottish thing
    • Happiest looking dog
    • Nothing
    • Something that will offend [person in the team] the most
    • A famous person’s doppelganger
    • The most unlikely thing in your team’s colour
    • The cheapest thing that isn’t free
  • Design a new board game that does the exact opposite of another board game. For example: Peacehammer instead of Warhammer, or Reverse Snap where you have to ‘SNAP’ on any non-matching group of cards. We will play both games and decide collectively which team wins.

 

An optical illusion! Can you believe it, he is actually floating?!

 

SOLO TASKS

  • Decorate the best cupcake. Your cupcake must be edible. Best cupcake wins.

(the best part is – you’re left with a bunch of delicious cupcakes at the end!)

  • Stack the tallest book tower in 5 minutes. However you may only touch books whose authors have the same first letter name or surname as you.
  • Send one of the following questions via Text or Whatsapp to someone who will definitely reply. Fastest reply gets the most points. Slowest reply gets 0.
    • If a tree falls in the desert and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?
    • What if our dreams are actually glimpses into alternate realities?
    • If humans had the ability to fly, would we still have developed advanced transportation systems?
    • What if gravity stopped working for a day—how would it impact you?
  • PART A: Using the periodic table (and not the internet), construct your favourite word using chemical element abbreviations. For example:Fl O W Er
    (Flerovium, Oxygen, Tungsten, Erbium)
  • PART B: Write a haiku (5-7-5 syllable) poem for each of those chemical elements. Make sure your haiku is factual and informative about the properties of that element.

PAIRS TASKS

  • Put on a blindfold and follow your partner’s instructions to ‘draw’ something. Guess what they are asking you to draw. Correct guesses win points.

We started with the outdoor “find all the things” task, and I used this as an opportunity to split the whole party into groups of people who didn’t know each other. I also made sure to have a Taskmaster superfan and extra competitive person on each team. This gave me extra time to set up the next task, and people loved running around whilst it was still bright and sunny outside.

 

Challenge: Find the happiest dog. This is a bemused looking dog, very happy crowd of people around it!

 

Next, we did the remaining challenges randomly. Some particular favourites were the texting challenge (one replied immediately and others still haven’t replied even now!), the book challenge was also a lot of fun – but then again, I’m a serial book collector and there were plenty of books hidden around the house people could use.

The one challenge which probably didn’t work as well was the game design challenge. Again, as a game designer I was excited for this one – but it was the very last challenge and whilst I’d hoped it’d be a fun note to end on, it was after midnight by then and I think everyone was simply quite tired! The other challenge which I needed to amend on the fly was the drawing one – I originally wanted everyone to draw twice and instruct twice, but it would have taken far too long, so we ended it after just one round.

This is all learning for next time – and hopefully learning you can apply if you’re planning your own party!

 

Creating the Envelopes

To create the envelopes, this was super, super simple. From watching the TV show, I noticed they’re not actually “envelopes” but sheets of card that have been tri-folded and sealed shut with a wax seal. Now, finding a wax seal is the gold standard. Taskmaster sell their own official envelope with a seal here. Or, you can get these custom made like these ones on Etsy, or get your own personalised seal and buy the wax separately like this product here.

If you leave it fairly last minute to get something custom made like I did, you could also make your own. I went super simple: I drew out some simple wax seal outlines, shaded them in red, and them wrote TM on top. Which of course stands for TaskMAIRI, right? *cough*

To create the contents of the envelopes themselves: I opened up a Google Doc and selected the “Special Elite” font. This isn’t the official font or anything, but it was the closest I could find. Then, in print-layout I made sure each task was on a separate page at an appropriate size, and then printed the whole thing out on card.

The whole thing took less than a few minutes, and whilst having real wax seals would have been very cool – I was happy with the outcome!

 

Hosting the Games

The next thing a good Taskmaster party needs is a good Taskmaster! Am I a good Taskmaster? Pfft, probably not (I’m far too kind with giving points). But it’s all about the confidence and a fancy chair to sit in, am I right?

Unless you’re playing a pre-purchased Taskmaster game, your last big challenge is probably going to be deciding who and how to ‘host’ the game. This should ideally be the person who came up with the challenges. So if that’s you, then that’s great! But if you want to offload the hosting onto a particularly charismatic friend, by all means.

My two top tips here is firstly to do like the TV show and make sure that everyone gets a chance at reading out a challenge, so that the host’s role is purely judging. And, on the topic of judging, try to make sure the tasks aren’t too ambiguous in terms of “who won”. It’s super fun to judge, but “best thing” is so much harder to judge than “fastest to complete”, and nobody will argue. Unless of course you want arguments then… “Best thing” away!

But, at the end of the day, hosting a Taskmaster themed party is all about fun and your goal as hoster of the Taskmaster party is to make sure everyone has fun and feels happy… And doesn’t go home feeling like this:

My heart breaks, honestly.

In my party there were seven participants. This meant that each round there were 7 points up for grabs. 7 to the winner, 6 to the second place, and so on. In some rounds *cough cough* the outdoor ones, I awarded points for every item ticked off on the list. This meant that the winner walked away with a massive 60 something points, but everyone was at least over 40 by the end. Again, not exactly true to the original inspirational show, but if I’m the Taskmaster, I’m going to award whatever points I want to whatever task I want to – and you should too! It’s your party!

 

Last but not least, the prize!

What are you waiting for, grab the papier mache! It’s time to make a lifesize version of your own head.

I’m joking… Unless?

For my Taskmaster event, I gave the prize of a pineapple. It was the most head-like item I could find in the supermarket the afternoon before the party. I might have gone for a cantaloupe melon and stuck some googley eyes on. But at least this way your winner has something useful and delicious to take home.

Our grand prize winner, with his pineapple!

With that, I think all that’s left for me to say is go out there and host an awesome Taskmaster themed party! 

If you do – please do let us know how it goes!

February Scissors: Reflection VR | Review

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Reflection is a Chinese VR puzzle game. The puzzle is innovative and unique. Players will challenge a multi-dimensional space created by the mirror, and use mirrors to solve puzzles by manipulating the world in mirror and enter it. Puzzles including Logic, Physics, Space, Time and so on.

Developer: February Scissors
Date Played: June 2023
Console: Oculus
Number of Players: 1
Time Taken: 3 hours

I first heard about Reflection back when it released on Steam in September 2022. At the time, I was dying to play it. But for some reason (and I’m still not sure why) my VR headset just doesn’t vibe with Steam. So unfortunately I had to wait until June 2023 to finally get my hands on a copy – and it was well worth the wait!

In truth, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from February Scissors’ new game, Reflection. They’re a very small, indie games development company out of China. I’m not overly familiar with Chinese puzzle games – I’ve never played any escape rooms (physical or digital) or even any Chinese tabletop games. I suppose this has a lot to do with the language barrier – but also that China has such a booming puzzle game market there’s almost no need to translate and export. Except this is why Reflection is so cool – it doesn’t use language in any way. Besides the occasional prompt on my VR headset to ‘pick up an item’, I don’t think a single word was uttered by any of the ‘characters’. Sure, there were plenty of landscape items with Chinese letters dotted around in the environment – carved into stone or on lanterns, but none of this needed to be translated. In a similar way, a lot of the communication in this game is done visually – you’re exploring temples, with mountains rising out of the mist around you. Everything felt intuitive – walking around, picking up objects, waving them and moving them around. It’s languageless, and yet I still feel like I understand the story that went into it.

 

 

A Reflective Genius

The concept is simple: Reflection is a puzzle game where you use mirrors to manipulate the physical world around you. The game begins fairly straightforward – although I’m embarrassed to admit that I found even the earliest levels in the game tricky enough as they were. Quickly though, as new mechanics are introduced, the game becomes more difficult. At some point I even found myself shifting gravity and dropping objects in a throwback to the video game Portal.

In all there are seven distinction sections of the game, each introducing a new mechanic and adding to the complexity. The first few are about mirrors, the third introduces the ability to change paintings around you, the fourth bends space and the fifth takes that even further by allowing you to flip the whole world upside down, in the sixth you play with the butterfly effect, and finally you can manipulate time. Pretty powerful for little old me, huh.

Is it difficult? Honestly? Yeah! I’m so used to puzzles that conform to the laws of physics that being placed into VR and told I can manipulate everything was hard. But it wasn’t insurmountably hard, and after a little pushing and pulling the edges of reality usually the puzzles slotted into place.

 

 

VR: Is it Comfortable?

If it weren’t already clear, Reflection is also a VR game, so rather than clicking a mouse, if you want to manipulate something – such as picking up an object or moving a mirror, you’ll do so in physical space around you. I played on my Oculus Quest 2, but I believe it’s also available on other VR headsets. In terms of controls and motion, I found it quite easy to use and fairly intuitive. When you’re holding a special lantern you can point and click to ‘teleport’ to any location. There’s quite a bit of turning your head around and stretching to look at something, but otherwise quite comfortable. That said, at some point I passed my headset to my partner – there was a really fun bow-and-arrow moment I wanted them to try – and being less familiar with VR, they said they found it gave them a slight bit of motion sickness. With that I’d probably rate it about 2/5 on the “this might make you feel ill” scale, with a VR rollercoaster at 5, and something like The Room (where you’re in a fixed position always) at 1.

With Reflection, you can jump in and out whenever you like. It’s broken up into mini-chapters, and whenever I left and came back it autosaved and took me back to the start of the mini-chapter I was on. So in general, I played this game in very short bursts – just a few levels at a time. On my lunch break, before I started work, whilst I waited for my partner to make us some lunch. For me, this felt like the perfect way to play it – in bitesized, satisfying puzzle pieces.

 

 

Reflection VR: The Verdict

I really enjoyed Reflection. We’re currently in this period of time where there aren’t a lot of exciting puzzle games out on the Oculus store (cue some angry people yelling in the background that there are). But all that to say, Reflection launched on Oculus at the perfect time where I was in limbo for a good puzzle VR game. It scratched that itch and gave me a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days of puzzle solving fun.

I’d recommend this game for anyone who wants something a little more gentle, relaxing, and slow-paced.

Reflection can be played on Oculus, or Steam. We played on Oculus!

We weren’t charged for the game but this does not influence our review in any way!

Happy 10th Birthday to clueQuest!

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It’s time to break out the yellow-and-black confetti because one of our favourite escape rooms is turning 10 this June.

As one of the longest running escape rooms in the UK, clueQuest has come a very long way since 2013. Founded by the Papp brothers – Gabor, Zoltan, Peter and Gergely, clueQuest has transformed from a little site in Tottenham Hale into one of the most popular and most beloved escape rooms in London, now located in Kings Cross.

When clueQuest first emerged nobody could have predicted the extraordinary journey that lay ahead. clueQuest invited the public to join forces with it’s signature yellow mouse Mr Q and embark on thrilling missions to protect the world. The debut escape room mission, PLAN52, tasked newly recruited “agents” with uncovering a double agent’s identity. Little did they know that this captivating adventure would become a monumental success, with over 170,000 people having played PLAN52 to date. It’s been nominated (and won) countless awards since then. And, remarkably, it can still be experienced today at clueQuest’s current home in King’s Cross.

Here on The Escape Roomer, we’re big fans of clueQuest. Not just their physical escape rooms like PLAN52, but we’ve also played all of the VR games they have on offer, and their Print+Cut+Play kept us sane through the global lockdown.

An EGGsciting adventure

You may also remember a few years ago The Escape Roomer was taken over by the evil, nefarious Doctor Black Sheep. For one week, the entire site was clueQuest yellow and Dr Blacksheep could be found across a number of hidden pages, causing mischief and mayhem.

 

 

Reflecting on the remarkable journey, CEO Gabor Papp remarked,

“clueQuest’s mission statement has always been to create happy memories for people. If companies were measured by how much laughter and happiness they contain, then clueQuest would be the most valuable place in London. We’re so proud of that as a business and as a family.”

To mark this momentous milestone, clueQuest is announcing they’ll be celebrating all year long. Each month, customers will have the chance to win one of many £1,000 gift cards. Each month will bring a new opportunity to win a prize. Be sure to keep an eye out on their website here.

Here at The Escape Roomer, we’re raising our glasses to toast the clueQuest team on their 10th birthday! Here’s to 10 fantastic years of escaping, excitement, and shared adventures 🥂

Gourmaze: The Time Traveller’s Space Bytes | Review

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The Time Traveller’s Space Bytes Review: Super computer G.P.S. has travelled back in time to better understand humans and find the missing data that’s causing it to glitch! You and your team of space cadets have been called upon to find this data on a journey through Space & Time. Along the way you will travel to different eras… expect to devour delicious pizza with the Romans, sip spectacular cocktails with movie stars & indulge on a sweet dessert in the Seventies. Buckle up and prepare yourself for an epic adventure!

Date Played: 6th June 2023
Time Taken: 47:45
Number of Players: 4
Difficulty: Easy
Location: Mayfair, London

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. Puzzles AND FOOD?! Sign me the heck up. Gourmaze is just about one of the most unique things you can do in the capital city. It’s the quintessential good vibes, special occasion, summer activity- and no, I’m not just saying that because I seem to always book and play Gourmaze on my birthday.

Team The Escape Roomer is on the quest!

The Time Traveller’s Space Bytes starts in a cute little pub in Mayfair – perfect for having a quick drink in before you get started on your mission. Like with many “outdoor puzzle hunts”, clues are delivered via a back and forth on your mobile device. In this case, Whatsapp. Every member of the team gets a link, joins the party, and when you’re all ready you type START to begin your delicious time travelling quest.

 

Gourmaze: Food Thats Outta This World

The story of the Time Traveller’s Space Bytes is fairly simple and fun. You’re guided by a robot called G.P.S. whose goal is to understand humans and what makes them tick. Unfortunately their data is incomplete, which is where you come in. You and your robot companion over the course of two, maybe three hours (if you eat slowly) must journey through the worlds of TV and film trivia, the musical world, religion, and of course food and drink. All the things that make the world turn round – and they can all be found here in London.

Our first clue arrived!

Unfortunately my player 2 and I had since moved out of London up to Edinburgh, and there’s absolutely nothing like this up north. So it was really nice returning to the capital and seeing how everything had changed. Over the course of our walk, we learned new things about our city, saw some seriously cool new streets and perhaps most importantly – discovered some new favourite places to eat and drink. As I write this, I’m back in Edinburgh and already missing the delicious smells and bustling hubub of some of the places our puzzle trail took us. How soon until I can come back to London and go back to all those places? The pizza is calling me!

 

Pizza is Calling, The Escape Roomer Answers

Gourmaze has been going for some time now and at the time of writing they have three puzzle trails available. One is themed around desserts, the other about Asian food. This one is all about pizza. My favourite! In terms of food it did not disappoint. In this review, we’re not allowed to disclose where the locations are – which is fair – the puzzles are all about actually finding them and saying the secret code to your waiter in order to get your food. We wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. So instead of giving away their locations, I’ll just describe the food instead:

Our first stop – pizza!

Our first stop, piping hot and extra cheesy pizza in an absolutely gorgeous building. Probably the least likely building I would ever expect to find pizza in. But there it was, waiting to be taken out the oven and served to us.

Our second stop, a cheeky cocktail spot hidden excellently behind a bookcase. For real! If we didn’t know it was there – we wouldn’t have spotted it at all.

Have you ever tasted smoking popcorn?

Our final stop? Dessert! And to a place I’d actually been fortunate enough to pop into earlier that very same week and already knew exactly what I wanted to order. This final place was in an excellent spot for toasting our success with a drink or two, and for catching a train home after as the sun set over the city.

 

Bitesized Puzzles for the Hangry Mind

In terms of puzzles, Gourmaze won’t be for the hardcore enthusiast. I’ll be upfront about that for sure. They aren’t the most difficult puzzles – but here, I think that really works. There’s nothing worse than a HANGRY group of puzzlers, so we rather appreciated having a quick win to get food in us. One of the things this trail did do fairly well however was make use of the waiting time once we’d ordered our meal. In more than one case, we were given something physical with our order – a laminated piece of card, or paper we needed to solve. These were designed to be solved whilst we waited, or whilst we ate, and the solution would come in handy for our next stop.

Similarly, these weren’t overly challenging – in all cases we spotted what we needed to do and got on with it. What they lack in difficulty, they make up for in being well placed and fun to play. They used up otherwise quiet down time, and then once we did get back on our feet we found that the exact routes the puzzles took us were almost always unique and exciting lesser-trodden paths.

 

A puzzle with our pizza? Don’t mind if I do!

 

The Verdict

I really, really enjoy Gourmaze. Whenever people ask me for recommendations for something to do in London that’s a little bit different but still scratches that escape room itch, I think of Gourmaze first. It’s perfect for fans of food (I mean who of us isn’t?) and it’s perfect for puzzle enthusiasts as well. Whether it’s just a more fun way to do date night, or a full-blown corporate shindig, Gourmaze is a lovely way to celebrate.

My only caveat, and it’s really quite a small caveat, is Gourmaze does come with a hefty price tag. This trail is around £49.99 per person. Let’s assume the average pizza is about £14, the average cocktail about £10, and the average dessert around £8 (hey! I did say this was London, didn’t I?). Your total food, bought outside of the game probably only comes to about £32. Lets round it up to £35 when we include the service charge. Of course, you also get a discount at each of the locations for extra drinks and snacks, which we did go for… And perhaps most importantly you also get an excellently good fun puzzle game that takes you between each location. But this means you’re paying about £15 pp for the game, and about £35 pp for the food. I’ll let you be the judge of it – you know your own budget, and who knows how much food will cost by the time you’re reading this, what with the spiralling cost of living crisis. But for me, and considering I saved this for a special occasion (my birthday), it felt worth it! By comparison, the closest competitors are probably Hidden City (at around £25 pp but no food), or Street Hunt (£16.50 pp and also no food). For a more affordable Gourmaze alternative, The Sweet Escape is (at the time of writing) £27.99 pp, and the Talisman Treats £39.99 pp.

In any case, back to the review at hand. The Time Traveller’s Space Bytes was a fun, light-hearted and unique play on traditional outdoor puzzle trails. Gone are the days you have to plan your own food breaks into your day out – Gourmaze does it for you. I really can’t stress how much I enjoyed it. It’s not going to impress the hardcore puzzle enthusiast, but who among us isn’t a pizza enthusiast, and it absolutely ticks the box for them!

 

The Time Traveller’s Space Bytes can be booked by heading online here.

We were not charged for our experience but this does not affect our review.