On the 6th of March, we headed back to Escapologic in Nottingham to take on another of their escape games, We had already tackled the likes of Butcher, Howitz, Robin, EPICentre, Cryptic and Curio which are all stellar games with mostly success but this time around we were there to face the first game this amazing company ever created, that being the dark and intricate Contraption.
Lead-in by our games master, the amazing Pagan who just like Curio gave us a comical yet professional introduction going through the usual safety spiel without it feeling like it was being drilled in. Honestly, she was born for the position of a games master and we are sure she does Escapologic proud with every group she leads into a game. Once the formalities were down Pagan told us the story of Contraption. Taken back to the 1920's Professor Mertz who was an absolute genius used the room we were in as her laboratory and workshop, she was also very very rich and had set a challenge for all who believed they had the stuff to claim her prize. All we had to do was find the money and escape the workshop within an hour or be locked in forever to assumingly rot with our failure. We looked at the typewriter on an old desk supposedly from Prof Mertz herself. "Hello Mr Thorpe" the game was on!
Potential Spoilers Ahead-Read at your own risk
Contraption may be an old room being Escapologics first-ever but never does it show its age in a bad way, which just like all the rooms we have done before when it comes to theming and design it excels in. The first challenge is to get some light which took us longer than we wish to admit, especially when we found out how simple it was. In the centre of the room, you will find an old fashioned bike and this is where Contraption's physical efforts come into play, just make sure a member of your team has strong legs. This feature was such a fun element of the game and to be honest, added some frantic tension whether it was designed to or not.
Contraption then throws a typewriter into the mix and some very creative ways of obtaining keys or even codes. Some of which we had never seen before in an escape room. Contraption will require you to work as a team, be it in code-based puzzles or even if you reach this point, the inventive way of exit which was truly the crescendo or should we say cacophony of this puzzling symphony of a game which we did with 10 minutes left to spare. Another feature which we loved and this can be said about "as far as we are aware to date" is that the games are run in a linear fashion rather than a frustrating hodge-podge of throwing everything at you at once, This keeps the experience fresh, exciting and engaging for the players and is one of the reasons we return so much, The sad part is we only have Immaterium and Heistakes left then we will have experienced all so far that Escapologic's Nottingham location has to offer, Although EPICentre and Howitz were a little while back so a revisit could be on the cards in the future.
Once again we would just like to commend and congratulate Escapologic for the fantastic product they provide, consistency seems to be key and they know how to not just rest on their laurels. Thank you to Pagan and the amazing team behind Escapologic, I'm sure you will see us again soon.
If you would like to take on Contraption or one of the many rooms Escapologic has to offer then you can do so at this link https://www.escapologic.com/
Until next time PSG Signing out.