London Escaped – The Prisoner – 0.5/10

London

*CONTAINS LIGHT SPOILERS*

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“It is the time of the Holy Medieval Inquisition around the 14th century. You have all been accused of witchcraft and imprisoned awaiting your death by the hands of a executioner nicknamed “Bloody Elbow”. He is infamous for his love of using horrifying torture to obtain confession of your crimes, this often lead to a slow and agonising death if you were lucky, “Bloody Elbow” has left you for a rest between the bouts of torture, this is your chance, you have 60 minutes to escape your hideous dungeon and change your fate forever.

The Prisoner escape room is authentically decorated and themed horror escape room with in period puzzles, the escape room is fully automated and fully immersive, use all your abilities to find the clues and solve the puzzles all within 60 minutes. If you want to make it harder then ask your game master to only give you clues when you ask for them, see if you have the ability to finish the escape room with no clues and join a very select group of people. Remember to succeed you need to look and see, you need to open your mind as well as your eyes to solve your quest”

Played December 2019

Well, what can we say here. We arrived at the venue and there were about 5 staff in reception plus another member of staff ready to take us to our room. In another area, more staff going about their business. That’s good, we thought, they have 7 games so there should be enough people here to be reviewing each game even if they’re all on at the same time. We locked up our coats and bags and got ready to go in.

There was a slight delay here while our host went to check why the exit door to the room was wide open.

We’re taken in one by one and *SPOILER ALERT* locked up in different places in the room. I felt it only fair that I write this review because I went in last and had the most freedom and therefore did most of the puzzles in the room. In fact I’d go so far as to say I did all the puzzles in the room.

The decor is budget dungeon and VERY dimly lit. There was only one candle to use between the 5 of us and this darkness was the only thing that made the room difficult at all.

My team mates found a key that released me and I went on to find a key which opened the next room and complete a maglock puzzle. This can’t be right, we’re thinking, I must be able to get them out by now if I’m going in to another room. So, after some clue encouragement I committed a cardinal sin of escape rooms and got 2 members of my team out of their cell, leaving 2 more locked in still.

The 3 of us complete a second maglock puzzle and we’re in to the final room. This can’t be right, we’re thinking, so we’re specifically requesting clues to get our last 2 team members out and we’re getting clues for the next puzzle. Maybe, we think, this gets us a key so we’ll carry on, but it seems weird that they’re missing whole rooms.

I complete a third maglock puzzle while the others are trying all the keys again on their cell door. I find a key to a cupboard, inside of which is a key to another cupboard. I now have everything I need to complete the next puzzle and I know exactly what to do. This can’t be right, I think. I stop.

E leaves the room to go and get a member of staff to help get R and K out of their cell. A guy comes in and points to a key on the other end of a rope we used to open a padlock. We hadn’t seen it because, as I said before, it is very dark, however if they had been watching the game properly they could have given us a clue about it. Obviously this moment brings down the immersion score but I have left it at 3 because it was a prison and 2 of our members really did have that prison experience.

We get R and K out. D discovers a room I hadn’t seen which I’m pretty sure had nothing to do with the game and should really have been locked. No one told him to get out.

I complete the fourth and final maglock and we escape the room, R & K having done nothing for the whole 25 minutes. There is not a soul to greet us. We wait a few minutes. No movement. We go to get our stuff. Coats on and ready to leave a lady appears and asks if we escaped the prison.

DARKE – Yes

Lady – Would you like a picture?

DARKE – No

Lady – Would you like to speak to a manager

DARKE – Probably not worth it now

Lady – What I can do is offer you a free game if you’d like to come back. I’ll email it to you right now

DARKE – Sure, no harm in accepting the free game code even if we don’t use it

That was yesterday. No code has been forthcoming yet.

Who would we recommend this room to? Not even newbies, sorry. I can’t with any conscience, having done all FOUR puzzles and taken all the enjoyment away from my team for foolishly not being able to see in the dark, recommend this room to a single soul.

Theme/Immersion – 3

Puzzles/Variety – 1

Fun Factor – 0

Difficulty – 1

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Reviewed by A