I’ve still not dared to go to an indoor escape room since my trip to TimeTrap Reading back in March. But Tim and I had just got married! Unable to escape to a remote beach or foreign country, we opted to celebrate the occasion with a different sort of escape.
Our venue of choice was the outdoor escape room at Kanyu Escape. We were seriously impressed by the two rooms of theirs we’ve done previously: Follow in my Footsteps and Lightning in a Bottle. So we hopped in the car up to Wetherby. We took the quirky turn into the centre of the roundabout where Kanyu calls home, and headed in to meet Bob, the game runner.
Poachers’ Compound
Sir Henry Cunningham’s old diary tells of his journey through Africa almost two centuries ago. Trying to re-discover his route, you stumble across a poachers’ camp in the wilderness of the savannah.
The poachers are away trapping animals for sale to private zoos, but they’ll be back soon. Can you foil the poachers, free a captured game ranger and escape before the bad guys return?
You’ll need the skills of a tracker, as well as a puzzler’s brains to figure out how to foil the poachers and escape their camp.
~ Kanyu Escape
Due to the outdoor nature of the game, it isn’t necessary to wear masks while playing the game itself, though you will need them for the briefing.
Theming
From the vines you weave your way through as you enter, to the surprise waiting after you’ve solved a couple of puzzles, this room adheres strongly to the African theming, with lots of large and impressive elements complimented by small details.
Some of the theming – the primary colour signs, for example – definitely felt more like they appealed to kids than other rooms I’ve done. Indeed, the game itself has two difficulty levels: one for children and one for adults. It was easy to imagine kids getting super involved in the game. I definitely gave into childlike urgency myself, and ran between some of the puzzles.
There was a solid visual theme throughout the majority of the game, which helped signpost your way to putting the right answers in the right places. It also helped obfuscate some of the tasks to be solved, and provided a great “aha!” moment when you noticed something in fairly plain sight.
As ever with Kanyu Escape, the build quality is very impressive, although for me the immersion wasn’t quite as outstanding as the two indoor rooms. Perhaps that was down to the fact that it was a bit overcast and grey for an African safari!
Puzzles
Before entering, Bob warned us that the usual run-time for this game was more like 50 to 90 minutes, rather than the usual hour for most escape rooms. Apparently especially speedy teams would sometimes manage it in 40 minutes, or thereabout. We were just a two so we didn’t expect to be setting any records.
Like all Kanyu games, this game was brilliantly branching. In fact, there was just one chokepoint in the entire game. The very final puzzle was one of the best ways to get all members of your party involved – though I can imagine it not being to everyone’s taste, as it’s a very physical task.
We played at the adult difficulty level, and there were definitely a few headscratchers in there. In particular, one early puzzle is perhaps the hardest task I’ve had to tackle at an escape room. It was very satisfying when you cracked it, although I was a little frustrated that Tim got to do so much more exploring while I was stuck on it.
On the other hand, a lot of the puzzles were pretty straightforward. I’d definitely say it’s an easier room overall than the other two at this location. But making puzzles work for kids had one big bonus – a lot of them are just plain FUN.
Summary
Another impressive experience from Kanyu Escape, and a great choice for a Covid-safe room in the current circumstances.
Theme: 4.5/5 | Puzzles: 4.5/5 | Difficulty: 3.5/5
Clue system: thematic field-telephone
Success: yes, approx 53 minutes elapsed (normal run-time 50-90 minutes)
