Escape Reality – Down the Rabbit Hole

Escape Reality – Down the Rabbit Hole.
Location: Leeds
Game Date 28/05/2017.
Team: Amy & Ian

Theme:
“You and your friends were enjoying yourselves at a party when, suddenly you found yourselves transported into another world. Whether it was the drink, the food or some bizarre phenomenon that caused this rapid change of fate doesn’t matter now as you are all in danger. This dimension does not work as you would expect, in fact things can go quite topsy-turvy very quickly if you are not careful. You may not realise at first but there is an evil twist to the game. Have your wits about you, this room will try its best to tease and taunt you. Your team’s challenge is to escape sane and unscarred, whilst finding your way around this peculiar place.”

Alice in Wonderland…. everyone knows this so Escape Reality do have some very big shoes to fill.
The game was very well decorated, with lots of Alice inspired graffitti style art on the walls, this game was HUGE it just kept going, and going, and going which is a good thing as it’s called “down the rabbit hole” – and it does feel like you’re going deeper into wonderland with each new room discovered.
It was a lot more immersive and better decorated than Jungala, so it was nice to see the improvements from their first to their latest game.  However, I was still aware that I was in a themed room rather than actually in wonderland

Game Play:
The game was strictly linear, and had a great flow. The puzzles in this game were great, logical, solvable and fun! They tended to lean towards the logical/word side of things, and there was a distinct lack of padlocks!
All the puzzles had nice ah-ha moments and when these were cracked the solutions came tumbling down and were very satisfying.
The puzzles were all in theme to Alice and there was one puzzle with a massive set piece that was a lot of fun to solve! The room was just a lot of fun, discovery and wonder!
I would recommend that enthusiasts play this room in a 2/3 and newbies… I would get a few rooms under your belt before tackling this bad boy! There’s a lot to do with a few tricky puzzles that a little experience will help a lot with!

Clue System:
Escape Reality has a clue system that is unique to their franchise. You are given an iPad which includes your countdown timer, and also a QR code scanner. At various points in the game there are stickers next to each puzzle, these are numbered (so in themselves give you an indication on how you’re to approach the room) – if you are stuck on a puzzle you can scan the code, and get a solution (with a penalty of +5 minutes to your time) or you can press a hint button and the game host will come into the room to give you a hint (free of time penalties)
I didn’t like this, I don’t like self cluing my games at the best of times, and I dislike like getting penalties for needing a hint! (I feel it makes the player feel defeated using the codes for a hint!) – of course this might work really well for super competitive people, it’s just not my cup of tea!

Game Host:
Pateek was our game host again, and briefed us quickly and got us in. He was very easy to chat to, and friendly!

Did we escape?
Yes, in 53 minutes!

Website:  http://www.escapereality.com/leeds/
Price:
2 Players £44
3 Players £60
4 Players £72
5 Players £85
6 Players £96