Breakout Manchester: Captured

I have a soft spot for captured - Great game, plenty to do to keep you on your feet! 

This room is themed around the idea of the Saw franchise. You are "captured" and have to solve puzzles to avoid your death (naturally!).

The build up to the room is intense with the theming outside of the room and entering blindfolded. However, the actual room is more creepy than scary. There are some body parts and blood on the walls, but that's just a standard night in Manchester...

There is a variety of puzzles, including sensory elements which is always a winner for Gemma. It is a padlock heavy room but gives you lots of satisfaction for opening them all.

The room is logical and has no major flaws, but if you're looking for a super horror-y room, you'll be left disappointed. This would be a good first room for dipping your toes into the immersive horror escape style game, but not for thrill seekers.

Brilliant room, probably my favourite from the company! The story really sets the scene and immerses you from the start. There are some really creative puzzles that I hadn't seen before which is always great! Give it a try. It does have a creepy theme, but nothing scary.

Another great room from Breakout Manchester. Some really great puzzles here. 

Played alone - absolutely lock heavy to a mental extent but good fun and tricky in all the right ways.

It’s Time to Play a Game

Note: I played this room when there was only one version of it, before Breakout’s change in venues. There is now a Captured ‘A’ and Captured ‘B’.

Story

Of course, being kidnapped and forced to solve a series of challenges to avoid death screams SAW. While the room itself or the puzzles didn’t feel totally relevant to the film, I really enjoyed the build-up to the start of the game. Descending downstairs, seeing manic red writing on the walls, and being blindfolded before going into the room was very atmospheric!

Puzzles

There were some clever, fun to work out puzzles, mostly centred around padlock-opening.

Mise-en-scène

I got minimalistic warehouse/storeroom-y vibes rather than a basement. There wasn’t an awful lot going on scenery-wise, really.

Final Comments

Don't be put off if you scare easily: it's a sinister room, but the experience isn’t frightening. However, if you ask for a hint, brace yourself! I'd say 2-4 people is the ideal number: it’s a small space, so you'd probably be tripping over each other's feet with 6.