Make Your Escape: The Signal

Good good - nice spin on the end of the game with some added pressure! 

#42

We spent the day and did all 4 rooms at Make Your Escape, and had a brilliant time!

We started with The Signal, which is a really fun Area-51 themed room. Very original out of the 40+ rooms we have done, the story was quite linear and had a few very fun puzzles. Set decoration was on point and the fact you have to make a decision in this room that determines the story was brilliant! Don’t miss it!

After playing Utopia and Dystopia this game seemed rather easy and not quite as good as the others.  A great game for escape room beginners.

A good game. I usually play as a 2 so 6 people was too many for the amount of things to do in my opinion. 

Bonus points for the soundtrack played during this game, I was delighted to hear music from System Shock 2!

Not the best.

One Maths puzzle was beyond ambiguous and left all four of us frustrated.

One puzzle was interpreted incorrectly, when we asked for this explaining, our GM said that their printer cartridge was low on ink so the colours on the 2 props didn't match up properly.

Disappointing.

One of the puzzles broke, but other than that this was a great room

We played the halloween version of this room but apart from a few superfluous decorations and (I believe) the inclusion of a live actor there were no "scary" moments.

Our experience was also hampered by a few things:

• A reset error where a key piece of information was missing and we had to be provided it via the clue system in order to continue, we had to prompt the GM multiple times to provide this information.
• An employees personal phone left in the room, we believed this to be part of the game because the torch was left on, so we were looking for a code to access the phone which never came. Thinking we needed the phone, we carried it around and at some point the employee entered the initial room to try and find it, and broke the immersion as they tried to rush out of the room and not be noticed. At no point did the GM notice or intervene that we had an external device.

Marketed as a suitable game for entry-level players, The Signal is also good for more experienced players. Some interesting puzzles but overall nothing that will stump the pros. Very strange choice to have no ambient music playing during the game - other reviews have mentioned it so maybe the system was broken. Shame as immersion was broken as could hear outside noises, staff members talking in control room etc… Overall, worth a go!

This was my second-ever escape room and it still bears up in comparison with many of the games I’ve played since, with a great dramatic moment and a crucial choice, giving greater depth and excitement than a simple escape objective.