Escape Reality – Iron Kingdom

Escape Reality – Iron Kingdom
Location: Leeds
Game Date: 22/02/2019
Team: Amy & Ian

Theme:
“Within the largest continent of the world, known as the Seven Kingdoms, there exists seven noble families. In the heart of this Kingdom lies the Iron Throne, the main source of conflict between everybody in the land. Whoever sits on the Iron Throne rules the entire continent, a position desired by many, a position in which people will go to extreme lengths to hold. News has quickly spread over the land suggesting that the new King is not the rightful heir to the throne. The discovery has caused an eruption throughout the Seven Kingdoms and a battle for the throne has broken out. You must find out who is the rightful heir to the throne. Who are you going to support? Which house are you going to fight for?”

Game of Thrones…. Sorry. Iron Kingdom… We have just started watching GOT (I know. SO late to the party, but it’s sooooo good) so my natural choice for Escape Reality this time was this room!
The room looked good, in typical Escape Reality fashion, theming was just enough, with darkness being used to create atmosphere within the room. The finish of the room was good, and whilst it was just a standard “castle” type room, the quality of the props was good and there was nothing in the room that could be outwardly misconstrued to be a red herring. Coupled with a good soundtrack there was a decent amount of immersion within the room.
The room was large enough for 6 people and had a good sense of discovery throughout. The room was dark, but torches were provided.

Game Play:
A strictly linear game that consisted mostly of logic, word, math and observation puzzles.
The puzzles were excellent in their logic, and all in theme to the room (and produced to a high standard) with good ah-ha moments and varying levels of difficulty (this is good as it ensures that everyone will get a chance to shine – important in a linear game)
There is one puzzle in the room that we managed to solve without the necessary puzzle parts we should have had (don’t worry… we went back and solved in the correct order).
This could be rectified I’m sure but luckily we caught our mistake and corrected ourselves (I was actually thankful for the numbered clues in this instance!)
The puzzles were interesting, fun and great to solve.
The signposting in the room was minimal but with it being linear it was made more clear as to what to do next.
The flow was good, with the puzzles leading nicely from one to the other, leading to a smooth game with no deliberate sticking points.
A good room for newbies, enthusiasts may find it a little bit lacking in puzzle “meat”

Clue System:
Ahhh… Escape Reality’s much contested clue system. We’re glad to say that from our last minute the iPad method has been tweaked slightly. There is still the option the take the iPad hints, but these no longer occur a time penalty! – The numbered clue markers are still around the room though giving away the order in which to solve the puzzles.
There is also a button to press that calls in the game host for a more personal help.

Game Host:
Morgan was our game host and he was awesome, bringing a geeky yet adorable sense of fun and theatrics to the brief and story! We wished we needed to ask him for a hint, as he promised to come back in costume & character… well he did at the end. What a fun game host!

Did we escape?
Yes, in 35 minutes

Website: https://booknow.escapereality.com/leeds/
Price:
2 Players £44
3 Players £60
4 Players £72
5 Players £85
6 Players £96