Deception Escape Rooms, Matlock – Trapped
When you see an escape room called “Trapped” you might assume you’re actually trapped somewhere and escaping from it, but not so at Deception. Here it’s a Doctor trapped in a “web of secrets and horrors” and your job is to break into his office, find what he’s hiding, and escape with the evidence.
Trapped is very much a game of two halves. And the first half can seem a bit disappointing. It’s not bad, just run of the mill: there’s an office, the office has puzzles in it, solve the puzzles, explore the space, etc. It’s a very traditional escape room, with traditional escape room puzzles.
Then it takes a turn.
The second part of the game sees you in a new, much more interesting environment, and puzzles move from being logical, “game-like” puzzles to being more practical. Using things you find in the space in a way you would if you were genuinely in that situation. It’s a lot more physical and meaty, and a lot less thinky than the first half. It can certainly throw you for a loop, and I think that’s very much the point.
See, Trapped isn’t exactly a horror room, but it does a great job of playing with tension. In the second part of the game that tension ratchets up, and sound is used to great effect in order to set you on edge. It’s all quite cleverly done, never going for a cheap jump scare, but instead introducing situations where you’re immediately feeling uneasy.
There’s a small issue in the second part of the game where a puzzle is potentially destructible, but the hosts were on the ball with warning us not to do it the second we mentioned it. It’s an easy way around it, but being spoken to via walkie-talkie can take you out of the moment a little. Indeed, that’s a more general criticism as there were points at which the host used the walkie-talkies to essentially try and unnerve us even more. But it didn’t really make sense, as the host wasn’t a defined character in the game world: if they’re telling us to hurry up I’m less worried that the doctor is coming back to get us than I am another team has turned up and they need to clear out the room!
Minor niggles aside, it’s a great game that does something a little bit different.
Also worth noting is that Deception are one of a couple of venues now that I’ve seen with a small five minute puzzle in the lobby. It’s nothing that will challenge you if you’ve played an escape game before, but it’s a handy way to introduce the basic concepts of examining things, deducing codes, and putting codes into locks. Significantly, it means you don’t have to do that during the game itself, so you can immediately start with slightly more advanced puzzles.
Result – we escaped in around 50 minutes
Date played: 22 July 2018
Team: Dean, Katherine
Summary: A game of two halves, that moves from a traditional experience to something a bit special.
4
Atmospheric
About the Author
Dean Love Dean is a professional writer who has worked for The Mail On Sunday, The Digital Fix, MicroMart and others.
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