Breakout – Facility X

Location: Manchester
Game Date: 17/06/2019
Team: Amy & Ian

Theme:
“You arrive at an unknown location for a once in a lifetime opportunity; a conference held by the critically acclaimed, Dr. Andrews. His work is widely known throughout the research circles, but he has remained hidden in the shadows for years. What you don’t know, is that Dr. Andrews has gone mad, creating a string of tests that have gone disastrously wrong. You have one hour to escape his maze of tricks and games, before you become his final experiment…”

First things first, Facility X is a small room, a group 3 would have no problem but I think 5 would be a little bit squishy.
Decoration and theming was good and finished well, there is plenty to look at and inspect, (although it felt sometimes part of the game was to decipher was was decoration and what was part of the puzzles in the room)
It certainly had the feeling of being in a mad doctors lab. With a good soundtrack playing some classic horror movie themes this room was not terrifying but there was a sense of foreboding present throughout the hour!
Lighting was good within the room with it never impacting on our gameplay (and a torch was provided too)

Game Play:
A fairly open game that had lots of different puzzle types, observation, logic, word, searching being the mainstays within the room.
A split start meant that the game relies on communication and co-operation within the first part of the game, and it was done very neatly and without any ambiguity, which is so important when players are separated. Breakout handled this very well and it made for an interesting and smooth start to the game.
From the time the players were reunited the game felt more linear and more classic breakout. The puzzles were nicely on theme and never disappointed us.  One puzzle in particular was very unique and clever, a real meta-puzzle that brought together several standard “tropes” and used them in a clever and engaging way.
The logic was clear, concise and all the puzzles had lovely ah-ha moments, there was little ambiguity in the puzzles (although the use of red-herrings was fairly high as there was a lot of fluff in the room that wasn’t needed, part of the game felt like deducing what was needed or not)
Signposting was minimal, and a lot of connections within the game were left to the player to make, this is where a good observation eye comes in handy!
The flow was excellent, with the game always pressing forward and there were no deliberate slow downs or time-wasting puzzles.
A good game, that is excellently placed to be interesting for seasoned players yet challenging for newbies.

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a screen

Game Host:
Siobhan was our host and she was wonderful, friendly, chatty and delivered us clues with precision timing.

Did we escape?
Yes, in 37 minutes

Website: http://www.breakoutmanchester.com
Price:

Off-Peak:
2 Players £38
3 Players £51
4 Players £64
5 Players £75

Peak:
2 Players £42
3 Players £57
4 Players £72
5 Players £85