Escape Reviewer

User Score

Quick Facts:

City/Area: North Toronto

Escape Length: 45 Minutes

Players: 2-6

Cost: $18/person

Design: ✭✭✬✩✩ 2.7

     Idea: 2.5

     Details: 3.0

     Features: 2.5

Creativity: ✭✭✭✩✩ 3.0

     Novel: 3.5

     Comprehension: 4.0

     Surprises: 1.5 

Puzzles: ✭✭✭✩✩ 3.2

     Challenge: 2.5

     Logic: 3.0

     Abstract: 4.0

Prison break scenarios are a staple of the escape game genre, barring being slightly overused. The real challenge in designing a prison escape is creating something that feels different from every other similar one out there. At Escape’s take on the genre doesn’t really achieve that, offering some solid puzzles and an experience that only took 24 minutes to complete without hints for a team of three fairly experienced escapers.

 

At Escape’s Prison Break takes place in a fairly small room, divided in half with real metal bars – always a nice touch. The room’s timer is a prison-style caged television set that occasionally pops on with commentary from a fellow prisoner – cute! The goal as presented is to create a reaching tool to retrieve keys on the other side of the bars, and then unlock the outer door to escape the second half of the game. But the second half is much shorter than one would assume, and that makes for a short game with an underwhelming finish.

 

Along the way there’s a mix of puzzles somewhat bungled by wear. One important locking mechanism didn’t work the way it should, leading us to think that we didn’t have the solution for the better part of ten minutes. Another puzzle involving contact between elements was so worn that we solved it without understanding it, simply by tracing the markings left by previous escapers. The puzzles are solid in concept, but there needs to be a few more of them given the difficulty rating on At Escape’s website. Some of them are also in need of minor but highly important repairs.

 

If you’re in the area or already plan to do another room in At Escape, Prison Break can be a nice bit of fun. However, both design and maintenance issues keeps me from recommending it. 

Reviewed by Jason on August 9, 2015

Review Breakdown

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