Escapologic – Con-trap-tion
Location: Nottingham
Game Type: Avatar Led Online
Game Date: 29/01/2020
Team: Amy & Ian, Liz & Gord
Duration: 60 minutes
Theme:
“Strange machinery breathes in the stillness of the laboratory. Bubbles rise in a mysterious green liquid. Cogs tick. Gears clank. And in the air, the unmistakeable sound of fear…
As your breathing stills, and your pulse slows to normal, you take a look around. What happened here? It looks like the previous occupant of the room has left in a hurry. But why? Your eyes grow used to the dusty light, and you begin to make out the discarded pieces of arcane mechanisms. There has to be a pattern, a code, something to show you the way out.
Contraption was the first of our Nottingham escape rooms, and its fiendish ingenuity has given it legendary status! Can you put the clues together before the clock hits zero?”
We have played Contraption before, all the way back in 2016 (check out our review here) and the room looked as beautiful yet gritty as ever, with it’s steampunk themeing really conveying the madness of the soul who created magic and mischief within its walls.
The atmosphere was conveyed well over the zoom call and with immersive audio and visual media, Escapologic have created a top class avatar-led game. The story was told well, and gave a welcome pause within the game, where you can just sit back an take in the experience, story and surroundings.
Game Play:
A fairly linear game with some smashing puzzles, mostly centering around searching, codebreaking, observation and physical (yes, physical…our poor avatar, she will be fit in no time running Contraption!)
Puzzles were perfectly in theme and had just the right amount of whimsy and quirkyness to come from the mind of a mad professor. All exceptional in their logic and with great ah-ha moments, but most of all contraption was fun and had a wonderful sense of discovery even through the screen, and through its story delivery.
Singposting was subtle yet delivered us enough information that were were never stuck on what to do next.
The flow throught the game was exceptional, with absolutely no sticking points or bottle necks. Watching our avatar do one task in the room was hard, purely because we wanted SO badly to help her but couldn’t do anything!
Overall Contraption is a smart game, with slick, well honed design that really creates an immersive and enagaging game through the restrictions of being online, and it captures the feel and tone of the IRL room perfectly.
Clue System:
Clues were subtly delivered via our avatar
Game Host:
Charlie was our avatar and our Game host was Steve. Both were absoloutley excellent and delivered the friendly and enthusiastic hosting we expect from Escapologic.
Charlie did exactly what we asked, even with having to do some hard physical work, and Steve ran the telescape with perfection.
Did we escape?
Yes, in about 50 minutes
Website: https://www.escapologic.com/
Price:
£60 up to 3 connections
£70 up to 4 connections
£80 up to 5 connections
Brit of an Escape Habit 