Cantina Escape – Escape The Cantina

Cantina Escape – Escape The Cantina.
Location: Manchester
Game Date 31/08/2017.
Team: Amy & Ian

We were lucky enough to be invited to be the first ever players of Escape The Cantina by the Moviescape Team, the room opens on Sunday 4th September. The premise came about when the team behind Moviescape joined forces (hehe) with the team from “For the love of Sci-fi” to bring a Star Wars inspired escape room to the Cantina which was built for a convention in 2015. The room has already been picked up in the Manchester Evening News, so if you’re going to want to immerse yourselves in the Cantina you’ll have to book your tickets early!

Theme:
“After the destruction of an Imperial Warship important cargo was left drifting through space. This cargo contained vital information and plans on the Imperial Armies latest weapon. You have one hour to  recover these plans before you are captured.  Your only help is the grumpy Cantina bartender… but is he who he says he is?”

Oh. My. Goodness.
This room is just gorgeous, so well decorated and so, so immersive. The space is HUGE. I mean, HUGE. It is probably the biggest escape room we’ve had the pleasure of being in and the space is used very well throughout the game.
The level of attention to detail is astounding and it really does feel that you’ve just stepped into the Cantina, you can feel the love that has been poured into this room in its construction, with so many booths and nooks to search in and discover! A true treat for any star wars fan (I, myself like Star Wars, but I’m not a nerd about it and still found myself saying “cool” “wow” “awesome” “neat” and lots of other adjectives for the entire hour)

Game Play:
A strictly linear game which had a good range of puzzles, observation & codebreaking being the main stay of the game, which worked well within the theming. The puzzles were all excellent in their logic and we never felt any frustration in solving them (standard Moviescape, solid, logical, solvable, fun puzzles!)
The flow was excellent and it was always clear where we had to go within the game next. The game was slightly different in that you had a series of cargo boxes to unlock and discover throughout the game, this only helped steer you in the right direction (as it’s SO easy to get distracted by the pretty sets and aliens!)
The standout feature in Escape the Cantina however, is its inclusion of a live actor. Normally a live actor in a non-horror escape room fills me with cringe, but I needn’t worry, Moviescape did it with excellence, the actor takes the role of the barman and without interaction with him, you aint getting out. The game expertly weaves between the “room” and the barman, creating many magical interactive moments. He is there for the entire hour too, so even when the rest of the team is busy solving a puzzle, one member might be indulging in a bit of banter with the barman.
We personally really enjoyed this interactive element, it added SO much to the room, gave a grounded sense of progression (so important in such a big space) and gave a sense of immersion that was hard to beat!
Solid, enjoyable puzzles, great banter with the barman and a super cool setting, all add up to a geektastic time!
Group size is entirely up to the players, the game is perfectly pitched for groups of 2-8 and I think even a group of 8 would have a lot of fun in this room as the interaction from the actors is top notch! It is an experience, a lot of fun and there are some great puzzles thrown in too!

Clue System:
Poker chips are exchanged for clues. but the barman is always on hand if you need him!

Game Host:
Our game host was the barman at the Cantina, and he played the part brilliantly. We also met a Jedi, who gave us our introduction with flair, he was about in the room too, watching over us (probably checking our midi-chlorian levels too…)
We also chatted with Carl who owns Moviescape, and as usual it was great to chat to him about all things moviescape, escape rooms and horror!

Did we escape?
Yes, in 55 minutes! (distracted, us….? never)

Website: https://cantinaspacebar.com/escape-the-cantina
Price:
Escape the Cantina is a flat price of £80 no matter what the group size is from 2-8 players