Kingston Escape Rooms: Rob The Bank

The best escape room we've done so far, made us create an account just to give it 5 stars! Fun interactive elements, an interesting story with a simple, focused objective! Good for people of all ages, need to be able to move about on hands and knees. Nans in jail she got caught! #NanaAintNoSnitch #FreeMyNans2k23

This room did not live up to expectations. At all. TLDR at bottom.

There were several bottlenecks within the room which where rather long and ineffective at immersing us as players into the room.  Not only were there bottlenecks, it was all for the same action. Very frustrating as we could not do anything. At the debrief, I gave our host the opportunity to explain how it wasn't a bottle-neck by suggesting that it maybe could have been how we played the room out, but he was clearly not the person actually running the game so couldn't make any comment on it. This meant that there was little energy in the room, not helped by the fact that we had to stay "quiet" due to the proximity of the security guard. We could, quite clearly, hear the GM(s) talking whilst playing which dropped the level of immersion lower, adding to the fact that it felt like the set dressing was lack-lustre for the potential that the room and story had. 

There was very little signposting towards any of the "puzzles" and answers (calling them puzzles is most certainly a little optimistic, this room HEAVILY relies on read and get information and remember the link. There was one or two things I would have called a proper "puzzle" but even they were only really "do this, get that" style of puzzles, there was no layering/multi-stage puzzles to be seen). To add to this signposting issue, where we had found numbers, there were, in this particular instance, ONLY 4 different combinations which could be found in relation to the order, when taking into account we KNEW there had to be some way to get the order (we did find this later on), but considering there were only a very few number of ways it could be correct, we didn't need the order. 

There was a fun little gimmick, I won't go into any more detail, but it was also used as an opportunity to disrupt our gameplay, both from a time point of view and progress, as well as being a way to add things into the room which were not present before. To us, this felt like they had forgotten to reset things rather than being a gameplay design piece, thus making the experience all the more frustrating. 

The GM running our game, I can make no comment on as we never met them. Instead, we were greeted, briefed and debriefed by someone, who did not introduce himself to us.

We had one torch between three of us which felt unnecessary, considering the backstory is a planned heist. You wouldn't plan a heist and only prep one torch (which to add to matters is locked away at the start)  

The start had some illogical steps which, needless to say, were not great for game flow or getting us into the game. The setting to the start was good, though as a lot of this room could, with a little more thought could be improved many times over. 

TLDR: 

Very nice idea and premise BUT illogical room that lacks any puzzles, as well as having many bottlenecks.

I celebrated my 16th birthday with my friends and this was so far the best escape game I have played so far. It was thrilling,  scary and full on! I would recommend it to anyone who is choosing bit of 'scary' action! My best birthday present!

I can't wait to try the other games. I have attended some already, but this one ticked all of the boxes!!!

Well done Escape Hunt!

Best wishes,  

Martina and Beky

Had one of the best times of our lives here. Sooo funny at times and really immersive. I think you get out what you give, so if you’re stiff and timid then make sure you bring someone ‘silly’ with you! Great GM too. 

The most fun I’ve ever had in an escape room. Definitely go with a fun group or friends! Physical and comedic - great hosts to will never forget this experience - can’t remember any of the puzzles just the experience 

This room was very fun for my child’s birthday I would recommend going.

Great concept, similar to another we have done but this stands out as the first with 'live actors'. Logical, funny story, great balance of when to nudge us compared to leaving us to it. Definitely easier in a small team as there are quite a few points where only 1 person can be actively doing something.