What better way to unwind than with a last minute idea of going to an escape room. Genius Escape’s Nuclear Nightmare was our choice as it was close to where three of us had met for dinner. None of us had heard about this room, but when you book you get asked if you want standard, advance or genius mode. This intrigued us. We went with standard mode as we weren’t sure about how hard the room would have been. Now its worth noting that we are ok with escape rooms. We’ve done a few between us, but this was kind of our first live one since Lockdown, so we were a bit rusty, even with doing many online ones.
The escape room is in Chandlers Ford in Hampshire and the premise of the game is that you are on a tour of a company called Fusion-Tec but there is a problem. The staff of the facility are all locked in the staff cafeteria and its up to you to stop a nuclear disaster. Like with most escape rooms, you have 60 seconds to solve a series of puzzles. This game was spread over three rooms, each room becoming unlocked when puzzles are solved. The use of props as well as technology really help to immerse you into the story. You even get a little instruction manual that will help throughout the game.
Without going to much into detail to remain spoiler free I will try to keep this next bit simple. The puzzles ranged from easy to hard and you really did have to sometimes think well out of the box. The puzzles were great and very diverse. I wouldn’t suggest going to this room if you are a twosome just starting your escape game journey as even on standard we struggled occasionally, needing hints for a couple of things. We’d find ourselves getting stuck and just needing a bit of direction. The hints given are very subtle too, so you still have to think about them, but they do help guide you in the correct way.
Overall we really enjoyed it and it really made us work to get out, but we did, with 2 mins 51 seconds left on our clock. It was close!. The staff at the room are so friendly and welcoming. The room itself is tricky and challenging but in such a good way. We recommend it for those who have a couple of rooms under their belts but at the same time, don’t let that stop you form giving it a go, especially if you are in the area as it was really great fun.
PS: Sorry we left the room in a bit of a tip. We did try to keep it tidy but when that clock is running down, stress levels get higher.