I don’t know how I missed it when planning my move to the area, but the famous Tulleys Farm have a sister escape room in Hatton, just a 20 minute drive from Leamington!
I had heard of Tulleys through the Escape Room Enthusiasts groups on Facebook, and it has long been one of the rooms I’m dying to visit. But since its located down in Crawley in Sussex, it’s not exactly convenient to drop by.
So when I discovered there was a sister venue so close to my new home, I knew I needed to pay it a visit. Luckily, Tim’s birthday provided the perfect opportunity.
Hatton Escape Rooms
The site is located at Hatton Adventure World, an out-of-town entertainment park featuring outlets, food spots and various entertainment activities: laser combat, an assault course, animal activities, pick your own, and, of course, Hatton Escape Rooms!
The waiting area was funky, filled with cogs and with special seating areas for each of their two rooms: The Outfitters and Mutiny. They also had a bar and a range of Exit Games available for sale. The GM was friendly and able to add on our additional two people just before we heading into the room for the briefing.
The Outfitters
It’s 1926 here in Chicago, and depression is still rife. Jobs are few and far between and the Prohibition has been in force for six years now. Everyone still drinks, nothin’ has changed. But now the mob control the streets, the supply and the money. The influence of the Outfit is far reaching. Most of the cops are even under their control. Who can put them in the joint? You can, that’s who.
The Commissioner has put together a special task force of straight, trusted cops and you’re on the team. You’ve spent the last few months infiltrating their network and now tonight is the night to get the evidence you need to put them away forever. But it won’t be easy, your cover might be blown!
Do you have what it takes?
~ The Outfitters, Hatton Escape Rooms
Theming
The briefing video was the one shortfall of the room, for me. It ties into the overall theming of Tulleys Farm: a futuristic AI investigation into humanity. This was a bit disconcerting initially, as it felt like they were just playing us the wrong video, though it did soon transition to being focused on the Prohibition-era tailors. Additionally, the audio was very quiet, and even the smallest amount of rustling clothes threatened to drown it out.
Luckily, the rest of the theming more than made up for it! Stepping through the door took you very realistically to the 1920s – wooden panelling, the old-fashioned till. Initially the space is small, but it doesn’t stay that way for long. In fact, I think this was the most expansive game I’ve played.
And the room kept its secrets very well. I won’t go into too much detail, but if you’ve been escaping for a while, you’ll have an idea of what you’re looking for. This room does an excellent job of subverting expectations and distracting you.
The GM also made good use of the setting to respond to us in character, ridiculing our attempts to solve puzzles while still adding in banter and light mockery of our escape attempts.
Puzzles
This is a hard room. Probably the hardest room I’ve ever done. I usually tend to the lower end on participant numbers – taking three to a room designed for 2-6, for example. This room had a capacity of 2-8 players, and we took five. We were grateful for the number, and could definitely have made room for even a couple more brains.
The puzzles were varied, logical and creative. For some, our experience doing escape rooms in the past definitely helped speed us up. There were multiple puzzles that required the players to work together, and it was also very branching which meant that it was easy for everyone to find something to do. Frequently throughout the game I moved away from a puzzle I was struggling with to another one, coming back later to the original one with a fresh perspective and renewed enthusiasm.
And there were a lot of puzzles! This isn’t always a mark of quality, as sometimes this can be tons of simple puzzles packed in to increase the time without shifting the difficulty in a meaningful way. But this room was different. The majority of the puzzles required you to either think outside the box, or link together multiple different elements from different props or signage in order to deduce the answer. It took us a while to adjust our mindsets to this level of complexity.
Finally, the inputs were very creative, utilising a lot of interesting mechanisms beyond the standard fare of locks. There was one puzzle in particular which I wasn’t a fan of the first time I saw it (actually in the room I got engaged in), but I felt was implemented better here, and felt a bit more satisfying, particularly as we actually triggered it about a dozen times over the course of the escape.
Summary
One of the best rooms I’ve done, and definitely up there for difficulty. Bring along multiple friends – you won’t be short of puzzles to solve!
Theme: 4.5/5 | Puzzles: 5/5 | Difficulty: 5/5
Clue system: in-character voice-over
Success: yes, 6:46 remaining
