Our Slasher Review - (Our quick read)
No Escape London, in association with UK Haunters, will be celebrating Halloween with a special Halloween overlay to all seven of their escape rooms. Saturday was the press launch and we were invited along to experience one of them. The escape rooms will all feature live actors who really add a scary dimension to the experience. The Halloween special will run for four nights, 28th - 31st October at all four locations over London. Tickets cost £35 per person with a cap at six people per booking. Each room will last an hour. The Butcher room is truly terrifying and had me jump a couple times but its not scary to the point it makes the room incompletable. The actor being in the room really added to the atmosphere. They have found the perfect balance between tame and terror that works for an escape room.
Top Tip: Read the clues carefully
Scare Factor: 3/5 for The Butcher room
Do We Recommend: Oh Yes!
For a more in-depth and spoiler review continue reading!
Our Stalker Review - (Our long review)
On Saturday evening we were invited along to the press launch of the No Escape and UK Haunters collaboration Halloween special. No Escape are an escape room company that have seven rooms based in four locations throughout London. They have rooms in Oxford Street, Holloway, Brixton and Aldgate East, the latter of which was the location for Saturday evening's festivities. The Aldgate location is home to two terrifying rooms, The Butcher and The Haunted Toy Store.
When everyone had arrived at the meeting point which was a pub just up the street, we were split into two groups of five. Our group were led out first and we headed up the road to the rooms. We didn’t know which room we would be put in but when we arrived we were greeted by our lovely games master and host, Mads.
(Image credit: No Escape)
Warning! What comes next may contain spoilers. It is also worth noting that Jess was an additional character to the story for media night. She will not be part of the normal event.
Mad’s explained the usual Escape Room rules and gave a wonderfully enthusiastic explanation of the story. We were told that Jess from UK Haunters had gone missing and that she had probably been taken by The Butcher. We needed to find and save her. We enter the room and Jess was right there. She was tied up and screaming for help but we couldn’t get to her straight away. There was a door between us and her. We had to work out how to unlock the door. We managed to get through the door and after being scared by The Butcher we then had to free Jess. She hinted at chains which got really confusing due to the room containing a number of chains, but it turns out there was a chain elsewhere in the room that would contain the key that would free Jess. We freed her, and The Butcher came back with a chainsaw and terrorised the room. During this chaotic moment Jess did a runner and left us at the hands the Butcher (Yep, she saved herself and left us to die).
What then ensued was approximately a forty minute game of scares and puzzles that really tested us and this is what would normally be offered to regular paying visitors during the Halloween special. (When the event runs in October the rooms will be an hour long). The Butcher remained in the room, creeping around, watching and just trying to make us uneasy. He really tried his hardest to scare us but our group was determined to solve the room so we didn't really get that scared. We did jump a couple of times but immediately got back to solving the room. For normal guests, having an actor in the room that is there to make you feel uneasy and scared works and definitely adds to the atmosphere and I think it's such a clever thing to do for Halloween. The puzzles were creative and challenging but none felt out of place. What I will say is that there is one in particular that is deceptively difficult and a calendar would have really helped. One could so very easily be added and themed to the room as I swear I spent a good ten minutes just trying to solve that one puzzle and even then I kept getting the answer wrong.
One thing I have a personal love for is variety in padlocks in escape rooms. I dislike rooms that have the same lock system throughout and luckily The Butcher room didn't have that. They had a variety of different locks and it really added to the room as they were used well. We managed to work as a team and solve the room in 39 minutes, which was awesome but we didn't have time to enjoy our success as The Butcher came for us with his chainsaw and chased us out the room. I learnt after that a puzzle had been removed for the press night just to make it shorter and that it would be put back in for the regular experience.
Once we escaped we headed back to the pub and waited for the other group to return. We got to chat some more with everyone and the other group arrived back and then the hosts and the actors from the rooms came back and socialised in character and it was just such a great laugh. Later in the evening they announced that we would be able to go down to the rooms and have a look at them and take pictures inside the rooms with the actors. It was really awesome to be able to look around the rooms and take some pictures and see what the other group had experienced. I would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved for making the night so much fun and great way to start my scare season.
(Image Credit: No Escape London website)
The Halloween special at No Escape will only be running for four days from the 28th - 31st October. Tickets can be purchased from the No Escape Halloween special website. There will be seven rooms to experience in total. The Butcher and The Toy Store are at the Aldgate location, Breakout and The Killer at the Holloway location, Darkest Hour at the Brixton location and Mrs Lovett and The Dentist at the Oxford Street location. The Dentist will be the most extreme room out of the seven. This is because he actor in this room will be able to touch you. Tickets cost £35 per person and each group can have up to six people. The rooms last an hour! The Halloween special will run on the 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st October
Σχόλια