[ESC] Enter. Solve. Conquer. – Trio 1 [Exposure]

[ESC] Enter. Solve. Conquer. – Trio 1 [Exposure].
Location: Chesterfield
Game Date 26/09/2017.
Team: Amy & Ian
THIS GAME HAS NOW CLOSED

Just a warning about playing in Chesterfield, the parking is HORRIFIC if you are not going to go in the daytime.. playing at night we found 2 car parks that were shut, 1 that was 20 mins only, another that was disabled only and the retail park over the road had a 2 hour max limit (and sometimes we can push this being in an escape room with how much we chit-chat!) – this is in no way a reflection of [ESC] but I feel it is important enough to mention and make a note of… give plenty of time for parking! (we spent 40 minutes looking for a spot!)

Theme:
“There’s been an outbreak. Can you solve the puzzles and create the antidote in 60 minutes?

[EXPOSURE] is our first live action escape room and combines elements of problem solving, teamwork and co-operation to provide a unique evening’s entertainment for groups of 2 – 6 people.

This room is themed around a scientific breakthrough that has gone awry, however no specialist scientific knowledge is required to solve the puzzles.”

Theming was decent, finished well and had some nice touches for an office/lab that was abandoned 16 years ago! – cobwebs about the room, slightly dilapidated & very abandoned in feeling,  and a well placed skeleton (that scared me when I walked in… I am such a wimp in escape rooms!) helped created a good atmosphere and good immersion.
The room is spacious and could easily hold a team of 5, I think any more may be a little bit of a squeeze for a team of 6.
The lighting in the room is good, not dark spots or dim bulbs.

Game Play:
A totally open game that can be attacked in any order once the first puzzle has been completed. The goal is to find 6 keys to escape the room before the virus kills you! This is quite a unique take as it creates a truly open game. Each puzzle is self contained, this is good as it gives you opportunity to come and go to puzzles to stop getting brain lock. The puzzles were good, but very, very wordy… there was anagrams, decoding, codebreaking, code spotting.
They were all logical and some were quite clever, but a team without a word buff will suffer hard in this room (In fact, Ian said that had he played that room without me, and with his mum there is not a chance that he would have escaped as words are not his forte)
The puzzles all have nice ah-ha moments and are all perfectly solvable without clues (we only had nudges to go back over stuff we’d missed or gone off the boil on) and come to nice conclusions. It’s a unique room in that solving the puzzles doesn’t necessarily give codes, so if you like opening those combination padlocks then this might not do it for you! (at one point Ian got VERY frustrated at having a couple of keys but nowhere to put them!)
The puzzles should be commended for all being very well on theme, there was nothing erroneous and they made good thematic sense within the parameters of the world the game was set in.
There a nice science “experiment” puzzle in the game, which was a stand out moment for us, a cool us of a very simple bit of chemistry!
I would say, for any team… take someone who is strong at word puzzles. It may be useful to take an extra team member (especially teams of 2, one of the puzzles is very long and gets quite arduous for a team of 2!)

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a walkie talkie as and when we needed them.

Game Host:
Gazz was our game host, and ran our game well, giving us good nudges in the right direction when needed. He was warm and personable, he clearly enjoys escaping and this was evident in his room.

Did we escape?
Yes, in 52 minutes!

Website: http://entersolveconquer.com
Price:
2 Players £30
3 Players £45
4 Players £60
5 Players £75
6 Players £90