The Escape Rooms – Spy Mission

The Escape Rooms – Spy Mission.
Location: Stoke
Game Date: 20/03/2018.
Team: Amy, Ian & Michael

Theme:
“Your team works for a secret organization named “Knight Order”; a classified government agency specialized in international espionage and black operations. Recently an elite group in the agency known as “White Knights” has gone rogue and was deemed a threat to national security. Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate White Knights’s safe house and uncover the conspiracy against your nation.”

A very plainly decorated room, with the bare minimum of theming and a heck of a lot of books. So many that, in the briefing for the room they say that you don’t have to move any of them (it would probably take a whole hour to move them there’s that many)
There wasn’t masses of immersion, but the room theming did improve in the later stages of the game.
A large space with good lighting, no torches needed in this room and plenty of space for the maximum team size.

Game Play:
A linear game that focused on mainly logic & observation puzzles. The puzzles were good, but felt that in some instances were flawed and “skippable” – we managed to entirely skip one puzzle by sheer luck, which didn’t hamper our game but kept us questioning as to WHY we hadn’t opened a certain type of lock & I managed to solve another puzzle in a certain, but not ideal way… I feel with a couple of tweaks these problems could be ironed out and the game could be made slicker.
There were some nice puzzles however which had decent ah-ha moments and satisfying conclusions. One puzzle was a little tedious, as it felt more repetitive than explorative.
The flow was good, and (aside from the skipped lock) we had no problems figuring out our next move and where to turn to next. Not the most overtly signposted game but there was enough to make the connections if you’re observant.
The game has an interesting ending, which was marred a little by the narration not being perfect, but we got the gist (ably delivered by Liam) and made our ultimate decision to escape & finish the game, a nice touch and one that was not unanimous!
A game that providing you don’t find the skips and flaws is quite enjoyable

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a hint button, then the host comes into the room to deliver the clue.

Game Host:
Liam and Anne were our hosts, and it was lovely to catch up with them again (after seeing them at ERIC!)

Did we escape?
Yes, in 48 minutes!

Website: http://www.theescaperoom.co.uk/Stoke/
Price:
2 Players £44
3 Players £60
4 Players £72
5 Players £80
6 Players £90