Mystery Cube | Review
“We are a top secret organization that investigates strange and mysterious cubic phenomena throughout space and time. So secret we can’t tell you our name. Because we don’t even have one.“
Rating: A Lot of Heart
Completion Time: 59:59
Date Played: 14th of May 2018
Party Size: 6
An oldie, but a goodie! When people ask me what my favourite escape room of all time was, I always say the Mystery Cube. I don’t know how long that coveted position will remain with Escape Cube, but for the most part I’ve got nothing but love for them.
Why? It’s got buckets of love in it. It also is a classic example that you don’t need the biggest budget in the world – just a sprinkle of passion and enthusiasm. I say this as Mystery Cube is quite literally built out of items I could *probably* find around my house, in an old office block in the outskirts of London.
In terms of gameplay, Mystery Cube is a small room with a non-linear progression, meaning everything can be done at the same time by all players. It’s a good job too, we escaped with just seconds to spare and I think if this game were any more linear we may not have! Yes, it does use a lot of padlocks – which I don’t hate by the way (I’ll say it on this blog many times over).
One of the biggest stand out things about Mystery Cube for me is how attentive the host is. As there’s just the one room, the host is 100% yours (that sounds really weird saying out loud oops). He reads the room well and makes notes about your game play throughout so that you have some great memories to look back on. Here is what was said about our play through:
Ultra-experienced escapers – and one of them a mystery murderer! Lots of general jollity in the Mission Briefing but straight into serious mode when the Mission began. Very fast start, discoveries and solved aplenty! Signs were good for a super-escape…but an early mistake was not spotted and corrected for 20 precious minutes and an “easy” find was overlooked. Delay! Very organised but a tendency to hack (sorry, process of elimination) which consumed significant time and mental energy whilst working on only one occasion! A useful recap after 46 minutes for the final task but alas some major over-complication impeded progress. What resulted was a fantastically exciting (even for Professor QB) escape with one second remaining! Escape time: 59m59s! Wow! Literally couldn’t have cut it any finer! And it’s always great to see escape room veterans having enjoying themselves!
“The trick is to look through the slot…”
“Check under things as well.”
“We can do it by a process of elimination.” (Hack alert!)
“Mairi, you’re on fire!!”
“Oh my god I found a key!” (Applause!)
“Fresh eyes just in case.”
“Is that not this though?”
Overall one of the easiest 5 star escape room reviews to give!
Mystery Cube can be played at Mystery Cube HQ in South London. Prices start at £22.50 pp.
