After getting engaged in an escape room, and then going to an escape room the day after our wedding… there really was no question what we were going to do for our anniversary, was there?
Having just relocated to Leamington Spa, we had our choice of all of the games in the local area. And we decided to pull out all the stops for this special occasion, and to go for the highest-rated one in the town (according to Escape The Review): The Machine, by Experimental Escape.
Experimental Escape
Leamington is so small that all three escape companies in the town are within a 5 minute radius from each other… and we’re just a 10 minute walk from them all! Experimental Escape is up the top of town, nestled between a coffee place and a shoe shop. Warning: there are a lot of stairs up to the top…
But once you make it, you are welcomed by your friendly games master (ours was Charlie) into their waiting room. I have to say that this was one of the warmest welcomes I’ve ever had at an escape room!
We’d chosen to do The Machine, one of their two more conventional escape rooms, but what really intrigued me was their range of VR escape rooms. We got to see a sneak preview of the people in there, who were currently searching a space base (or wandering around in circles in a bright white room, if you weren’t wearing a VR headset). I’ll definitely be back to try that out.
But on to the intro! We got the standard briefing from Charlie, then were shown an in-character intro video, and then it was on to the escape room…
The Machine
The Professor’s assistant Frances Turner is a main suspect in her boss’s disappearance case.
Can you enter the Professor’s office and prove her innocence?
~ The Machine, Experimental Escape
Theming
I love a good thematic door – really puts you in the mood for escaping! The set wasn’t as expansive as we have come to expect from most escape rooms, but they do pack a lot of detail into the space.
I don’t think it’s a spoiler to mention that the room is dominated by a machine (it’s literally in the name!). Well, it’s an impressive behemoth! All the flashing lights, exposed wires and frustrating foibles you would expect from a mad scientist’s project. Add to that the enormous chalkboard filled with scribbles, the hastily stacked books on coding, and the portrait of Albert Einstein… They make good use of the props as puzzle elements as well, though I won’t spoiler how.
One of the elements that I really liked within the room was the emerging narrative that came out over the course of your time in there. Often, escape rooms are fairly static in plot – you have 60 minutes in this room, and at the end, bad things happen if you’re still in there. But in The Machine, there was a definite plot that was acted out while you were solving puzzles, which is a pretty unique feature.
Towards the end of the room, there is a particular moment – you’ll know when it happens – that is quite divisive. I loved it – it amped up the pressure, but Tim was not a fan. Part of the reason I liked it was that it was so thematic. In fact, we really ought to have seen it coming…
Puzzles
Although there are locks in the room (including the dreaded directional lock which I still cannot open for the life of me), there are a lot of cool inputs that key off the feature set piece within the room. In fact, my favourite two puzzles were ones that involved said set piece, and led to those “a ha!” moments that are the real thrill of any escape room.
There was at least one puzzle that we skipped over by correcting guessing the input, which may have saved us 10 minutes or so. If I were a purist, I might have insisted that we follow the trail laid out for us, but instead we figured we’d give it a go – and it worked! Unfortunately for us, this did mean that we had a bit more of a struggle when solving a later, related clue. Not all shortcuts make your journey quicker…
As ever, searching continues to be one of the banes of our existence with escape rooms. I swear that you don’t even need locks – just hide the door and Tim and I would never make it out. Finally, this is one of the most linear rooms I’ve done, so I would recommend going in a small group of two or maybe three.
Summary
The Machine was a good introduction to the escape rooms of Leamington Spa, and I’m looking forward to heading back to Experimental Escape to try out their VR experiences!
Theme: 3.5/5 | Puzzles: 3.5/5 | Difficulty: 3/5
Clue system: in-room bell (limited clues)
Success?: yes, 31:13 remaining (topping the leaderboard for September, and making second place of all time)
