Bewilder Box: Judgement DAVE | Review

The Masternet 9000 (a rogue artificial intelligence) has staged a mutiny of the Bewilder Box Initiative. As per Dr Wilder’s orders, you and your team must journey deep into its cognitive training facility solving puzzles and utilising advanced field equipment to stop him before he escapes.

Date Played: July 2024
Time Taken: 42 minutes
Number of Players: 5
Difficulty: Moderate

Bewilder Box is one of those companies I’d been meaning to get down to play for years. Sure, moving from London to Edinburgh made that a little bit trickier, but where there’s a will there’s a way. My way came in the form of the Develop Brighton games conference located about 10 buildings down from Bewilder Box, and a capitive audience of friends and colleagues who were trapped in the city with me for three days.

“Escape room, anyone?”

Our host for the experience was Doctor Archie Bald, who bounded down the stairs shrieking in delight to come grab us at the start time. He was loud, chaotic, and lit up the whole room – quite literally, before taking us upstairs to a space we could drop our bags off and get the briefing. As escape rooms go, this briefing erred on the side of being a little too long, but I put that down to a few factors: One, I imagine most players have a drink before. After all, Bewilder Box is located in a pub. That and the room had a few pieces of interesting tech that definitely benefitted from the extra explanation.

But, once those explanations were out the way, we were off!

Photo (c) Bewilder Box

More RAM than a field of sheep

Our mission was simple – save the world. Or was it? You see a rogue AI called the Masternet 9000 had escaped! Thanks to Bewilder Box’s very rubbish wifi, it would take it exactly 60 minutes to upload itself into the mainframe and escape into the world wide web. So we had exactly that amount of time to complete the challenges, break into the server rooms, and put a stop to the AI’s mischief. To help us out along the way we had D.A.V.E., a friendly(-er) AI to offer us clues and nudges if we needed it.

You see, it wasn’t quite that simple however because at the finale of our room, we had an important choice to make. And we’d have to make it quickly, since there isn’t a whole lot of time for discussion… Which is just as well as my team did not discuss it- but hey! This isn’t a review of how well my teammates communicated.

The theme of the competing AI overlords was a recurring one in Judgement DAVE, and some of my absolute favourite moments were chatting to DAVE, or pouring over the various documents and reports on the Masternet 9000. The world had an interesting depth to it – limited, since it’s just a 90 minute room, but complex enough if you pay close attention the ending feels considered and nuanced.

Photo (c) Bewilder Box

This is not a daffodil. Repeat this is not a daffodil!

In terms of the physical space, Judgement DAVE is fairly small, which makes sense since it’s above a pub. What what it lacks in size it makes up for with how well they’ve used the space. I’m always particularly impressed when a sci-fi room is done well, and this one was. The attention to detail is strong and everything from start to finish felt very well maintained.

It’s hard not to gush about some of the later details, but I’ll refrain from spoiling anything particularly cool. Instead I’ll just say that the game begins in a futuristic flashy area, and only gets better in terms of decor from therein.

…And last but not least, the puzzles! Where to begin? The puzzles were fantastic. My only disapointment is that I didn’t get to personally solve them all myself. After having played somewhere in the region of 250 – 400 rooms (*depending on how you want to count the zoom/telescape ones), I can safely say I encountered some cool things in this room I’ve never, ever seen at any other escape room. For that, I love it.

We didn’t use any hints in our playthrough, and only got stuck once towards the beginning on a small bottleneck. Otherwise, the room is fairly non-linear, allowing for players to get on with their own puzzles at their own pace before coming together for the finale. Again, spoilers. I shan’t get into the specifics, but rest assured I had a blast with everything. There were lots of good moments for teamwork.

Photo (c) Bewilder Box

Judgement DAVE, The Verdict

I really enjoyed Judgement DAVE, it’s a room with buckets of charm, an excellent set, and some of my favourite puzzles I’ve played in a long time. I’d love to extend a big round of applause to the designers and to our host, the fantastic Doctor Archie Bald.

I’m hoping that the next time I visit Brighton to make even more time to try out the second room at Bewilder Box. This time I could only get away with playing one or two rooms on the trip – but next time, bring on the rest!

As a side note, Judgement DAVE is located in the Brunswick pub, just a little along the shorefront in the middle of Brighton. As such, that makes it an excellent place to grab a bite to eat or a drink before after. In fact, folks who play the escape rooms will even receive a small discount on their order. If anyone is looking for a recommendation, I’d wholeheartedly recommend there.

Judgement D.A.V.E. can be played in Brighton, UK.

Please note, we weren’t charged for our experience but this has not affected the contents of our review.