Escape Ipswich: Taken

A very average game, would suit first time players or if you have exhausted all other games in the area. The production design was pretty poor, the blood was done with what looked to be a red emulsion paint, the props had seen better days. I felt as though we were very much in an escape room plonked in a room rather than in the serial killers lair. We still spent plenty of time in the room and had to ponder with a couple puzzles requiring a few hints (though i feel some were required from lack of sign posting/illogical jumps), it just felt a little lack lustre & old compared to their other games. 

Having played over 50 rooms, and compared to some of the others at this venue, as a whole this room was incredibly underwhelming. The theming wasn’t great, and the puzzles were often a bit illogical. We spent 10 minutes scouring the room for the code to unlock the first padlock - in the end we had to be given a hint, with the solution making us both a bit irritable as it was sloppy in its design. Some of the other puzzles were fine, but halfway through we came across another that didn’t make sense as it involved ambiguous symbol matching.

Perhaps we’re just fussier than we used to be as we’ve done some truly outstanding rooms, both in theming and with the puzzles involved, but we left the room feeling a bit irritated, and it was one of those we complained about the whole way home.

Like Taken Candy From a Baby

Since I was making an on-the-day booking for a team of 2, I chose Taken.

Story

Rescue your kidnapped friend(s) and escape the hostage situation.

Puzzles

On-theme, but incredibly easy. A bit of searching here, a bit of thinking there.

Mise en scene

A straightforward but immersive enough space that did the job of looking like a kidnappers’ hideout.

Final Comments

It would work fine as a beginner room. I should have been braver and booked us a 4/5-star challenge: we received 2 clues and escaped with 25:26 left on the clock.