Published on April 1st, 2016 | by Dean Love
0Escape Rooms, London – Room 33
Room 33 is a museum heist game. You have to steal a vase from the British Museum! That’s the plot that you need to know, that’s all the set-up the game itself needs. But the Escape Rooms website and your briefing will explain to you that you’re from 1675, about to be executed by Emperor Kang Xi for losing his favourite vase, so obviously you travel back in time to the British Museum in modern day England to retrieve it from where it’s on display. The word “batshit” comes to mind.
Still – good room though! It opens… strongly, sort of. It starts with a visually impressive physical task, rather than a puzzle. Which was new to us. New enough we spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out a cleverer way around it. From the way it was setup, it did look a lot like at one point there was a cleverer way of solving it, but when we asked afterwards we were told no, it really was just the physical challenge it looked like. Which was cool, though I might suggest if you’re going to create a physical challenge that has players crawling along the floor, maybe don’t do it in the part of the building with a damp problem?
Past the first physical challenge and into the room proper, and there are some great puzzles. Nothing quite as great as the centrepiece puzzle of their other room, but good nevertheless. Like the other room, this one also tends towards the harder side of the spectrum, and so again, less suitable for beginners.
Result – we escaped, traveled back with the vase and avoided execution!
Date played: 3 January 2015
Team: Dean, Katherine, Jess, Sarah
Website: http://www.escaperooms.co.uk/
Summary: A very strong room, recommended for experienced players