Trapped Escape Rooms: Templars: The Secret Service

Sometimes the hardest games to review are those that impress in some ways but then badly disappoint in others. That's the case with Templars, which seemed to have all the elements to be an exceptionally good game - but then let itself down with deeply frustrating gameplay.

Located in a warehouse in an industrial estate outside Okehampton, entering the venue achieves that magic transition from a mundane exterior to a hidden world that promises adventure. Our gamemaster appeared in costume and in...

September 2023

Overview 

Templars was the second attempt of the day for us having just successfully completed the Deeds. The building itself is set on a small industrial estate on the outskirts of Okehampton but is easily found. There is plenty of parking onsite and when we pulled up there was a man dressed in costume at the top of the stairs outside of the main entrance. We have previously described our welcome from the host, Dan in the review for The Deeds……

None the less, we entered the small waiting area and filled out the relevant online form on a tablet. The first impressions of Trapped were not what we expected but we we buoyed by our performance in The Deeds so we were looking forward to taking on the next room.

Room impression

Whilst being given our brief, we could see into the shop window, so we knew what we were walking into. As soon as the brief was finished, we walked up the steps and into the Tailor shop. 

As oil the previous game we had played, it is clear that Dan has put an enormous amount of time and effort into designing the whole venue and the rooms. The Tailor shop was very well decorated and we were quickly immersed in the game but we really did struggle to get going and when we did get going, it was in different stages throughout the game, we never found our rhythm in this one. The different elements to the game were interesting but one sticking point was towards the end of the game when we were on the last puzzle, some of the team had to split up and go back to another room. However, the door shut behind them and they were stuck in an old room and we had no way of getting all back together. This seemed to be a design fault if we had shut the door behind us, we should still be able to get back to each other. Again, seeing how the host was with us, could he have let us through? We will never know. 

Puzzles

As mentioned in previous reviews, there are no padlocks in any rooms. Dan made it very clear throughout the day at Trapped that we had to follow the clues and do not deviate. Unlike The Deeds, we never really got going and whether it was us not connecting with the game or not but we couldn’t seem to find the clues that easily. When we did find them, they didn’t seem to make much sense to us. When we did ask Dan for a hint, the hint seemed to confuse us even further and the GM’s clues just didn’t help us. We do have a tendency to over think some puzzles, but we just didn’t understand quite a few puzzles in this game and even when we did get some of the answers, we weren’t too sure how. The fact that this room has a 7% success rate may have had something to do with it but we didn’t really get to grips with this. Puzzle wise, there wasn’t much searching it was all quite logical and coded.

Game Master Clues

Dan stays in character throughout the day and you can’t just pick up the phone and say you are stuck because you will not receive any help for this. You need to state what you are actually stuck on or what you would like. Dan will not give you an easy hint, the clue will be cryptic and it is up to you to work out. On one occasion the phone rang in the shop and we were advised that another group was entering the building and he was going to be unavailable for the next 5 minutes or so. Whilst this can’t be helped, receiving a call during the game deflated us a bit and broke the immersion of the room straight away. It’s not the point that the GM would have been unavailable for a short period of time, it was more the fact that a call like that had to be made and it did annoy us that he made that call to us. 

Round Up

As the day went on at Trapped, we just felt our rapport with the GM wasn’t flowing as well as perhaps it should. We felt the Dan was annoyed with us being there and when we didn’t escape Templar, running out of time on the last puzzle, Dan gladly walked us back round the whole room, showing us all the things we had missed (which was nice). Templars is a very challenging room and we only missed out by a minute or two and we would have had another success on our hands but writing this review and others to follow for Trapped has proven really difficult because the design and puzzles of Templars was brilliant and is a must to try if you are serious escape room goers.