Cave Escape: Project Iceman | Review

Project Iceman Review: Having learnt from past mistakes and with the aim of creating a utopian society, governments and corporations worldwide have now successfully ended the use of fossil fuels and abolished weapons of war. MEGAMEAT, the world’s largest corporation has found an innovative solution to end world hunger…or so we thought! Bio-engineered to have no fart gland and producing zero emissions, the Woolly Mammoth IS BACK!!!

Date Played: October 2023
Team Size: 4
Time Taken: ~50 minutes
Difficulty: Medium

On the same trip we travelled as a team to play some rooms in Halifax, we also made a day-trip to Nottingham. One of the first on my personal “must try” list was Cave Escape, and thankfully between us there was one room we’d yet to play: Project Iceman. Project Iceman is a newer room from the fantastic team at Cave Escape, and it’s their first sci-fi experience. Now, I know what you’re thinking – sci-fi in a cave is a little different from the usual “sci-fi on a spaceship” or “sci-fi in a laboratory”, but Cave Escape manages to make the environment work well for them in terms of the story. You see, you venture down into the ground to return to the site of an archaeological dig on the brink of an amazing scientific discovery. In this context, it works.

An Escape Room… In a Cave

The first thing to mention about Cave Escape is, well… It’s literally in a cave. No, I don’t think you understand. Literally. So damn cool. On the one hand this makes for an instant high score on the ‘decor’ front. There are no fake stone walls here, you’re actually touching real cave walls. On the other hand, the room was a little stuffy. There’s no easy way to add ventilation, so I did feel a little hot and uncomfortable with being “locked” (in inverted commas, as you’re never really locked inside an escape room) underground. I think the room could have done with being a lot colder… Both for comfort, and for story reasons. I mean, you’re in the room with a giant block of ice. But I understand the physical limitations of the space.

Despite the ‘physical limitations’ however, this is a really high tech room. Maybe one of the most high tech ones I’ve played in a while. As such, there were a lot of seriously cool pieces of machinery we got to use. From screens with cool mini games, to handheld devices, and to our delight (and occasional annoyance) some motion activated doorways *cough cough* the less I say about that one the better. This game also played with lighting in a few rather fun ways, and had plenty of theatrics that played out in the storyline.

Speaking of the storyline, I know this is an absolutely bizarre comparison, but it weirdly reminded me of the Clifford the Big Red Dog film. Bear with me on this one. Clifford the Big Red Dog is also about a giant animal who an ‘evil’ corporation wants to use to end world hunger. Just like when I watched the film, I was also confused as to why a company wanting to end world hunger would be the bad guy, but maybe that’s just me. In any case – it’s not all black and white. There was plenty of nuance in the story that allows the individual player to make meaningful decisions. So this is another one for Mairi’s big book of “don’t forget to pay attention to the story” – something I almost always forget to do, because I’m so excited to get in and start puzzling. That and I have the attention span of a goldfish. But this is definitely a room where listening closely will be important.

So last but not least, in terms of those puzzles, what can we expect? Well, there was a fun mix. Of our team of 4, there was almost always something for someone to be doing. Often we worked through something as a whole team, and then other times we split off into smaller groups to tackle individual puzzles. There was some linearity and some non-linearity to the room in this way. Enough for people to be doing simultaneously but a definite and distinct ideal order to complete things in too.

The Verdict

This is my very first escape room at Cave Escape, and honestly I enjoyed it a lot. I’ve heard from other enthusiasts that it’s probably the weakest at Cave Escape… For that reason, I’ll definitely be back to play some more rooms by them in the new year. But since right now I know no better, I can safely say I had a lot of fun. One of the standouts of our whole experience at Cave Escape were the Games Masters. We interacted with several people working at Cave Escape, and every single person was helpful, upbeat and funny. It’s clear the team are very close knit and love what they do, and that was a really nice touch.

I’d recommend Cave Escape to anyone visiting Nottingham, if only for the pure novelty of playing an escape room in a cave. It’s true there are better rooms in Nottingham, and there are even better rooms at Cave Escape, but I was pleasantly surprised and had a fun time. At the end of the day, what more could you possibly want?

Cave Escape can be booked in Nottingham by heading to their website here.