Escape in the Towers: The Comms Room

In contrast to the venue’s other two games, The Comms Room takes place in a single small room – but don’t let that put you off. This is a compact, high energy game that puts you in charge of defending Canterbury from a WWII air raid, and is my favourite of the venue’s offerings.

The location has the advantage of both atmosphere and historical accuracy – the very room where the game is set was apparently used as a comms room during the war. It’s a cool space in any case, further enhanced with lighting and audio effects; and although I thought it was going to be low lighting, in fact the light level tended to be dark only during interval moments where we didn’t need to solve anything.

There were several such moments because the puzzles were punctuated by sections of story, presented as projected newsreel footage, and sometimes other effects. These were a really effective way of both reinforcing the setting and advancing the story.

Most importantly, The Comms Room is stuffed with smart, original puzzles that build off the premise of organising the defence against incoming air attacks, that are satisfying to solve while also fitting the theme.

If there’s a weakness, it’s that at most points there’s a lot to look at and only one place where the players can make progress, which can mean time spent casting around trying to work out which step you’re supposed to look at next – or maybe that was just us.

Linear games are generally less stressful, as long as you stay on track, since you’re only dealing with one puzzle at a time. However, despite its linear structure, this game successfully creates an atmosphere of frantic overload, particularly near the endgame. I don’t know if a larger team would feel crowded; with two, it was an adrenaline rush.

This room is top-notch on all fronts: puzzles, setting and story. That’s impressive for any game, doubly so that it manages to do so much in a space so small. You could easily schedule a full day playing games in Canterbury, but if you have to pick only one, this should be top of your list.