I’ve been reviewing escape rooms for some time now and occasionally a room will come along that just feels like it’s gone under the radar for me and I feel this is what has happened with The Pit. It’s kind of been lingering about the Escape The Review top games for a while but I’ve weirdly always overlooked it and this was a huge mistake.
From the outside, The Escapement doesn’t look much. It’s got black walls and a small sign and a couple of posters in one of the windows. It’s pretty basic and a feels a bit run down but do not pre judge this based on the outside as it’s very much a case of what’s on the inside matters. We arrived and were welcomed by our first host of our two games Brody. He explained and joked about the usual escape room games speeches and then disappeared and he came back as his character for our game. He then led us inside and to the entrance to The Pit. In character he explained the game to us:-
“The Earth is faced with a severe crisis, and you are mankind’s last hope.
As some of the best miners in the world, you’re being sent deep underground on an extremely critical mission.
Can you work as a team and save the world from utter destruction?”
He then handed us both a helmet, a walkie talkie and a lanyard and assigned us roles. We then took it in turns to descend the stair case to The Pit and our game had begun!
Warning: Potential Spoilers Ahead
Straight away you are immersed into a dark and smokey room, the little torches on our helmets only enhancing our vision slightly. Our first job was to turn on the lights, air and water. We managed to get these turned on very quickly. The puzzles in this first room were great. There was a real mix of physical and mental puzzles and it really felt like you were underground. We managed to turn them on and our transport to the next room was ready.
What can I say about this next bit other than oh my god. I won’t spoil it for those wanting to play but it is one of those things that I have never seen in a room before but it works so well with the theme and is completely immersive into the experience. I love a good gimmick and this one was spot on. We managed to make our way to the second room and the urgency built a little bit. The room is more challenging and really requires you to work as a team. There’s a very interesting take on what I can only describe as a steady hand game with the steady hand game that requires team work. I also really enjoyed the dynamite puzzle in this room as it was simple yet very effective and it paves the way for the finale which is also really fun, again I’m not going to spoil it but it’s just fun.
But the question is how long did it take us to save the world. We had a 90 minute limit on this room and we managed to save it in 45 minutes. At no point did I ever feel like we were smashing the room or felt like we were being short changed on our experience. I loved every single minute of the room. A huge thank you to The Escapement and our host Brody for an amazing visit!