Lucardo Manchester – The Orphanage
Location: Manchester
Game Date: 21/07/2020
Team: Amy & Ian
Duration: 60 Minutes
Theme:
“This game may scare you! PG rated may be unsuitable for younger players – Please call for more information. St Josephine’s Orphanage for Girls was once the finest educational facility in the North West. Today, the grand Victorian property stands empty, derelict and abandoned. Until now as the property stands up for auction by a local firm. You and your colleagues have been invited to enter the grade II listed site and evaluate its potential for developing it into a new, state of the art urban-living apartment complex. Tread carefully though, you wouldn’t be the first to walk its eerie halls and perhaps decide for yourselves that some doors are better left closed.”
The Orphange was just perfectly creepy, dilapidated and atmospheric, from the graffiti covered entrance, to the dusty (but not actually dusty) interior this room told a story in it’s décor, theme and sound-scape.
The room was incredibly creepy, with as tangible feel of the paranormal about it, and the story telling delivered through the game was impeccable. From the moment your host delivers the pregame story you are thrown into the world, and through the course of the game you find out what really happened in the fateful Orphanange. This game had one of the best and thorough stories we have come across in an escape room to date. With a true beginning, middle and end, it was living out a mini horror movie!
The lighting in the orphange is atmospheric, and quite dark to begin with, but this is used cleverly to increase tension and deliver story, never to hamper players or create difficulty by darkness. The space is large, and whilst there are a couple of tighter moments, these don’t last too long.
Lucardo have done an excellent job with a room that pitches the creepiness level perfectly. Spooky and scary enough to create atmosphere, set you on edge and leave you disturbed, but not too far to leave you a jibbering mess in the corner! A brilliant balancing act that is done with tact and skill.
Game Play:
A game that melded both open, and linear elements together to create a seamless experience, compromising of Searching, Logic, physical, teamwork, word, play-time (yes you read that right) and observation puzzles. There was a good selection of puzzles and each and every one was intrinsic to the theme and really felt like they came from the room, furthered the story and engrossed the players in the world of the orphanage. There was reasoning, and gravitas behind every puzzle in the room.
It’s always a fine balance with puzzles in scary rooms, as when players are scared their brains tend to leave their bodies and Lucardo have catered to this remarkably well, creating a set of puzzles that are intriguing as they are logical. The Logic is perfect in all the puzzles contained within the game, and this makes solving them a dream, especially under the presence of the Matron of the Orphanage. There is not a shred of ambiguity which leaves clean puzzle solving, the level of difficulty is considered with the scary-ness of the room too, and this leaves a slightly easier room, but that is much welcomed when one is frightened!
The puzzles were all a joy to solve, with wonderful ah-ha moments that left us feeling smart and satisfied.
Flow was wonderful, there were moments that slowed down but this was only due to story delivery, and were a welcome respite from the fast paced nature of the puzzle solving. The ebb and flow of this game really worked to bring the puzzling and story together cohesively.
Signposting was as perfect as it can be in a game, without being directional, or overt. IT was just enough to guide, whilst keeping in the game world and within the story.
Overall, this was a room that melded story and puzzles together incredibly skilfully to give a well rounded experience that will please every player!
Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a walkie talkie.
Game Host:
Rick was our game host and he was wonderful, really getting into character throughout the game, and delivering us in theme hints at the perfect timings.
Covid19 Safety:
Did we escape?
Yes, in around 35 minutes.
Website: https://lucardo.com/manchester
Price:
2 Players £50
3 Players £75
4 Players £80
5 Players £100
6 Players £120
Brit of an Escape Habit 