Tick Tock Unlock – Blueprint.
Location: Liverpool
Game Date 02/05/2017.
Team: Amy & Ian
THIS GAME HAS NOW CLOSED
Theme:
“Conspiracy theorist and a renowned history professor has vanished under mysterious circumstances. They claim that he finally lost the plot and ran away. But you know the truth. He was taken. And now they are coming for you. Tick Tock … you have one hour to figure out the truth!”
Theming was minimal, a typical office set up very reminiscent of early escape games. Clean, tidy and spacious, but a bit uninspiring. It got the job done however, with plenty of padlocks to unlock. There was some story told throughout the game, but this could be easily missed (especially in big groups) – therefore there was not that much immersion. My major annoyance with this room is that it was a bit tatty, especially with laminates and props, these could have done with being replaced, as laminated pieces of paper that have seen better days and are coming apart don’t give the best impression, and give a feeling of lack of attention to detail. Other than that though, the room was fit for function if not a little basic.
Game Play:
A fairly linear game with some parallel open elements, there was a lot to do in this room. Focusing mainly on logic puzzles and observation, it was most definitely a “classic” style escape room, the game host mentioned that there could be “red herrings” in the room, but I didn’t find any… maybe we were on form sorting the wheat from the chaff… so to speak.
The puzzles were interesting and fun, with no massive logic leaps which is always nice! This felt like playing a real life version of the old school “click and point” games, where you pick up pieces and eventually they become clear as to how to use them and are quickly solved!
As it seems the way with “classic” rooms, there is a black-light used… no I do not mind a good black-light puzzle, but when the black-light is used for 3 different puzzles… this is a bit of overkill, I think everything in an escape room should be used once to give variety in the puzzles, with the black-light aside there is a good variety of puzzles in the room and in a larger group there will be something for everyone to solve.
I would recommend an experienced group to take 3 maximum, first timers and less experienced would benefit from more players, but I would take 5 maximum!
Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a screen
Game Host:
Spencer was our game host, and ran our game well, he was obviously paying close attention and sent clues only when we REALLY needed them! He did amp up the room before we went in saying “Most of the teams who fail are 2 player teams” – this set me on edge, but we did OK in the end!
Did we escape?
Yes, in 46 minutes and 15 seconds… which was 15 seconds slower than the all time record. DAMMIT!
Website: https://www.ticktockunlock.com/location/liverpool/
Price:
3 Players £48
4 Players £60
5 Players £70
6 Players £84
Brit of an Escape Habit 
Completely agree about the repeated black-light: our group had to be given on-screen hints to use it the second and third times. The host had briefed that each clue is only useful once — so having found a use for the UV torch, our team recalled that and obediently resisted the urge to try it on anything else!
Other than that, we were really impressed with Tick Tock Unlock. This was a work outing, with most of us never having been in an escape room before. It worked really well as a team activity — especially having two teams in parallel, simultaneously playing the same game. Everybody got into it and enjoyed themselves, even those who in advance thought it sounded a bit weird.
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