The Great Escape – King Arthur’s Secret
Location: Leeds
Game Date: 21/02/2019
Team: Amy, Ian, Jodie & Kris
I’m going to preface this review with a few notes about The Great Escape as they do things a little differently and for me, personally it doesn’t really work, but I know a couple people who like it.
1. The games are only 45 minutes long. (yet the prices are in-line with other companies in the area whose games are 60 minutes long)
2. You are each given the choice of a character, each character gives bonus “power-ups” to the team, so for instance… a torch, 5 mins extra time, a free code, HINTS. – this adds an element of strategy to the game, but is also fairly unneeded and laborious. (just give people a torch and hints….)
3. We were blindfolded to go into the room… Not really sure what this achieved, worth noting if this is something you have an issue with!
Theme:
“Know this brave knight, man’s darkest hour is upon us. Following King Arthur’s death, the banner which held the United Kingdoms together has all but vanished.
Houses of the North, South, East and West battle in a constant struggle for power, causing a reckless destruction of everything we hold dear. The North is set to storm the capital, beginning what only can be imagined as centuries of needless war and devastation.
However, there is just one glimmer of hope. To find a new King of England and reunite the seven kingdoms under one true leader. Legends speak of secret chambers built into King Arthur’s Castle, riddled with mysteries and guarded by Merlin’s magic. It is said that when the time comes to pass, the secrets of King Arthur’s castle will only speak to the worthy, the one who has what it takes to become the King of England.
This is where your journey begins, brave knight. Here, deep in the heart of King Arthur’s castle…
Can you evade Merlin’s magic, unravel the mystery and unearth King Arthur’s secret?”
Theming was nice, and very detailed but the room was incredibly small, and cramped with just 4 of us in the space, which in turn led to it quite very hot & stuffy quite quickly.
The majority of the room’s space was taken up by an impressive round table, leaving the perimeter of the room to be traversed by us, the players. I will say this now… DO NOT EVER go into this room with more than 4 people. It is too small, and cramped.
The room was also dark, not for atmosphere, but I feel to increase difficulty. Couple this with the fact that the use of a torch is a “power up” and you have a recipe for disaster. We ended up with 1 torch between 4 of us and at times had to make do with tiny led candles to light up puzzles and padlocks.
From what I could see the room was decorated very well, with just enough detail to create immersion. But the dark and cramped conditions really hampered our enjoyment.
There is also and an element of crawling in this room, which I managed to really bang my back on. Some padding wouldn’t go amiss on the frame!
Game Play:
A fairly linear game that consisted of observation and code-breaking puzzles, with certain puzzle mechanics being used more than once to create different puzzles.
A bombardment of 4 digit locks (and those who know me, know I love locks) meant that puzzle variety was not great, with all puzzles leading to a 4 digit number.
The puzzles were all nicely logical and had good ah-ha moments.
The flow of the room was good, with there being a smooth transition from one puzzle to another and a good sense of progression throughout the room
The signposting was minimal but good, with there being enough to stop ambiguity and prevent logic leaps.
A good game for newbies, if you’re willing to take a plunge into the dark!
Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a walkie talkie (but ONLY if you have the power-up!)
Game Host:
Our game host was polite enough, however when faced with the choice of our “characters” we elected to choose a secondary torch, which was incredibly dim and needed new batteries, which we asked for to only be told “this is how the torch is” – it would have taken seconds to grab some new batteries and it really would have helped in the room.
Did we escape?
Yes, in 35 minutes
Website: https://thegreatescapegame.co.uk
Off Peak Price:
2 Players £46
3 Players £54
4 Players £68
5 Players £80
6 Players £90
Peak Price:
2 Players £52
3 Players £66
4 Players £80
5 Players £95
6 Players £105
Brit of an Escape Habit 