Don’t Get Locked In – Extortion

Don’t Get Locked In – Extortion
Location: Bedford
Game Date: 25/08/2020
Team: Amy & Ian
Duration: 60 minutes

Theme:
“You and a group of friends decide to spend a weekend in Bedford sightseeing.  You rent a large house from a holiday rental website. It was supposed to be a fun relaxing weekend with friends. That is until you hear a noise downstairs in the middle of the night.

You go downstairs and realize that someone has been in the house and turned all the power off.  You sense that they are still outside watching you but can’t be sure. A growing sense of dread engulfs you..

You wake the others and two of you try to open the front door and take a look around – the back door and all windows are locked – there is no way to escape….”

Extortion looked beautiful, a clean well decorated space that created a good sense of immersion, finished to a high standard. The set was true to a fancy “air BnB” style and you could imagine staying in here with a few friends on a weekend away! There was no red herrings in the decoration.
The room was large, the maximum number of 8 would have no trouble in this game.
Lighting was dark for a lot of the game, and we were provided with light sources, had we been quicker on the first aspect of the game we would have spent a lot less time in the pitch black than we needed to!
The story throughout the game was good, and developed through the hour with a few twists and turns!

Game Play:
An open game with a very heavy emphasis on searching ang observation.
The puzzles in this game mostly were for the most part logical, but with the heavy search aspect it led to quite a slow start.
There was good use of tech within this room, and the aim of the game came to gathering codes and collating them into a centralised system. Although this was not intially clear, it took a bit of time to figure out the mechanics of how the game worked. Codes were found by searching, a couple of logic puzzles and a couple of physical puzzles.
There was a nice addition of an extra challenge within this room, which will serve nicely to keep larger teams fully occupied for the hour.
There was plenty to explore in this room, and a critical eye for detail is imperative to playing extortion.
An interesting concept for an escape room, the story delivery throughout the game was good and pushed the game into its twists and turns nicely, but this was a room about exploring and observing the surroundings rather than explicitly solving puzzles to escape.

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a screen

Game Host:
Cathy was our game host, she made us feel very welcome. Customer service here was excellent with her agreeing to tweak their clue style to suit us (they normally work on a “ask for hint basis” that we don’t like) – this level of service didn’t go unnoticed, it was incredibly appreciated and they clued us very well through the room.

Covid19 Safety:
Covid safety was excellent with clearly definied areas to keep 2m apart and also due the bar there was an area where you can be “mask free” – but masks were required everywhere else and in the game room. There was ample hand sanitizer and the room was scrupulously clean.

Did we escape?
Yes, with 4 minutes to spare!

Website: https://www.dontgetlockedin.com
Price:
Adult £20pp
Senior £18pp
Child £16pp