Breakout – Madchester

Breakout – Madchester
Location: Manchester
Game Date: 22/01/2019
Team: Amy & Ian

THIS GAME HAS NOW CLOSED

Theme:
“Zack is a passionate collector of anything Manchester related. As a group of thieves, you wondered in his bedroom and find yourselves trapped. You have 60 minutes to steal Zack’s valuable collectables and escape before he comes back. ”

A HUGE room, Zack really lucked out in his bedroom, as the space is massive and decorated very well, with bold brash murals adorning the walls and all the marks of a Manchester mad teen. The room was well lit.
The theme didn’t go on more than “Manchester” and there wasn’t a great deal of story delivered via the room, think of it a Manchester themed escape room and it hits the spot perfectly. There is plenty of detail in the set dressing, and decoration and a great soundtrack of (loosely) Manchester music that really captured that 1990s Britpop scene.
Not massively immersive, but a good, colourful and loving “Manchester” room!

Game Play:
An open game for the most part, that compromised of searching, observation, logic, maths & word puzzles.
The game, whilst an old, old game (I believe it’s 4 or so years old) was actually refreshing and interesting in its design and this keeps it current and unique.
The game centred around a bank of 25 or so pictures, with all puzzles leading to the deduction of which of these pictures lead to the exit code. This led to a notion of our steady progress, and deducing those puzzles and eliminating pictures in succession was incredibly satisfying.
The puzzles themselves were logical, and typical “breakout” style. They all had lovely ah-ha moments and several times we were surprised by the execution of the puzzles.
The flow was good, due to the open nature of the room, there is a good amount to bounce around on and it’s highly unlikely you’re going to get burnt out on a specific puzzle.
Signposting was minimal (breakout definitely like you to make each and every connection yourself) but it WAS there and was just enough to guide to each puzzle.
A room with plenty to do, it could be very overwhelming as a first game so I’d get a bit of experience before attempting Madchester!
Those with experience, take a small team and rise to the challenge!

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a screen.

Game Host:
Hannah was our game host, and we had something in common, she’s from my hometown! Which of course made us instant friends! She gave us a good brief, She was friendly and enthusiastic, and delivered us excellent well-timed hints.

Did we escape?
Yes, in about 52 minutes

Website:
Price:
Monday 10am – Friday 5pm is off-peak. Friday 5pm – Sunday 10pm is peak time.

Off Peak
2 Players £36
3 Players £48
4 Players £60
5 Players £70

Peak
2 Players £40
3 Players £57
4 Players £72
5 Players £80