Escape Reviewer

Escape From Bleak Prison

Design: ✭✭✭✭✩ 4.0

     Idea: 3.5

     Details: 4.0

     Features: 4.5

Creativity: ✭✭✭✭✬ 4.5

     Novel: 4.5

     Comprehension: 4.5

     Surprises: 4.5

Escape Games takes the Prison escape theme and brings it to the next level with twists, turns, surprises and multiple rooms to immerse the player in a real life escape. Your team is split in half (we opted for staff to split us, as opposed to creating teams ourselves) and separated into two cells upon entrance. You are warned before the game starts that if you choose to toss items between cells, there is the chance that they may become unreachable if you have bad aim. This will end up costing you a hint to get the staff to retrieve the item(s) for you - be careful! For a place called Bleak Prison, the room and props were quite thematic and fitting. The puzzles are interesting, creative and quite entertaining. We had a technical difficulty (a wire was yanked by careless players in the next room over) but the staff member was prompt in checking the video footage and fixing the issue. Escapes that split up your team are difficult to execute properly as one team often feels as though they get the short end of the stick. Bleak Prison executes the split team very well, involving equal sharing of information between cells, followed by a fairly quick reunion so that the majority of puzzles are experienced by all players. With a 46% success rate, Escape from Bleak Prison is a highly entertaining and well-designed entry-level room. As a side note, a unique part of the room actually had a team member here at Escape Reviewer complete the escape without his shoes on. It wasn’t necessary but we felt it was pretty darn clever for thinking outside the box!

Reviewed by Chris and Evan on January 5, 2015

Stated Difficulty Level: 5/8

Theme: Prison/Adventure

Family Friendly? Yes

Company Atmosphere: 5.0/5

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