Bury, Mar 2024
While some Christmas games are quickly put together and evidently intended for only a short run, Compendium’s creation is a more lushly decorated affair, and still going strong well out of season. The plot involves finding the key to Santa’s sleigh, stolen by a disgruntled elf, which of course is essentially just an excuse for a flurry of festive themed puzzles.
The Christmas theming creates a thoroughly family-friendly atmosphere, but that’s not reflected in the difficulty level – this is as challenging as most of the venue’s other rooms. It’s broadly a linear structure, and the start in particular may be challenging, not because it’s an unusually difficult puzzle but because you need to locate the right starting point in a profusion of things to look at.
The step we struggled with most involved a logic puzzle where we were led astray by incorrect assumptions about how the clues were intended to be interpreted; partly because of that, we finished Bad Elf with less than eight minutes left, making it one of the slower completions for that weekend’s binge.
However, while it’s not a light and easy game to bring your kids to for their first escape room, it’s a lush and cheerful set with no shortage of puzzles boasting the design quality you’d expect from Compendium. There’s no reason to skip this one if you’re playing at the venue, and no reason to wait until Christmas for it either. 