Lucardo Manchester: Space Evader

Pretty dated room. Lots to do but no ‘wow’ moments whatsoever. Waited quite sometime when requesting a clue. 

Fun collection game set across two areas in a small spaceship (felt more like an escape pod than a starcruiser). 

Although only a physically small space, this room would actually benefit a larger team in some ways, since every puzzle is independent and can be solved in parallel - there's no linear progression or meta puzzle - it's a successive stream of "find a puzzle, solve the puzzle, get the fuel rod, move onto the next", with no dependency or connections between them. Our team of two collected 29 fuel rods (out of, I think, 42 available?) in the hour allotted - and that was pretty much working non-stop. 

Puzzles encompassed the usual variety of observation/dexterity/deduction, etc. and were all fun to solve. There were no individual "Wow!" moments that really got the heart racing, but it was more a constant trickle of dopamine as each new puzzle fell every few minutes. A team of 4 or 5 would probably get all the fuel rods pretty easily, since they'd simple have double the work rate, and there's no opportunity for bottlenecks.

No tech issues experienced, and we didn't receive any hints, so can't really comment on that, but our GM was friendly enough in the introduction, so no complaints!

A collection room in two halves,  theres alot to do in each section so enthusiasts can divide and conquer for the whole game. A great hour of puzzling.  Love the clue system too... so cute! 

It's really hard but an exceptional escape room experience. 

Even though we escaped we didnt feel the excitement like usual. There are alot of games that you can all work on and you need to get a certain amount  to win. This made it feel disconnected whilst everyone worked solo and there was rarely a team effort. Some games were also very hard to win, they had a couple of arcade type games that needed hand eye co-ordination more than a good brain. Spaceboy was the one you communicated to for clues but his voice was so intergalactically distorted it was difficult to hear anything he said. Lastly, because some games were very hard and you didn't have to solve one to move on it meant that that you don't solve all puzzles as you might do in a normal escape room contributing to lack of fulfillment and achievement. 

Space Evader at Lucardo Manchester is a challenging and rewarding escape room experience. With 42 puzzles to solve, it's one of the most puzzle-packed rooms we've ever played, and the puzzles are all unique and well-designed. The set design is fantastic, with two immersive environments to explore. My partner and I played as a team of two, and we managed to solve 25 of the generous puzzles on offer in the allocated time. We were a little disappointed that we didn't have enough time to solve all of the puzzles, but we still felt like we got our money's worth. One thing I would change about the room is the pacing. The first room is a bit slow-paced, and I think it could be made more linear to help keep things moving. The second room is much more fast-paced and exciting in contrast.

Amazing game. so much to do we had a blast - Recommend if you enjoy the collection genre! 

Incredible theming, but we felt more rushed through the game. Much different type of "Collection" game we are used to. Hard for a team of 2

This was great fun - keeps you very busy as a pair, we did not manage to complete all the puzzles although we were not far off. Engaged host who gave us a good tour of the bits we had missed at the end. Recommended. 

There are so many puzzles in here and enthusiasts will love that sense of getting maximum puzzling time; we loved the sheer volume of things to do and that's the real selling point, particularly as a team of two who like to see and do everything.

Saying that, I can see why this would be a really frustrating game for some; you can't go back on yourself to solve something you missed earlier and we were kicking ourselves over one earlier puzzle that we just ran out of time for.

We had a great time in here but I imagine it's a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it one.  There's the odd solution that we found a little obscure but the vast majority are good, with the emphasis on quantity. Good fun and the set looks great.

The new Space Evader room at Lucardo is super high-tech and looks very impressive. The puzzles themselves are enjoyable and very on-theme, however we did leave feeling ever so slightly disappointed as there were just so many puzzles, there were some we didn't get a chance to even look at despite racing through the puzzles as two very experienced players. I understand the room has to cater to groups of all sizes and so needs enough puzzles to still be challenging for larger teams, however as I say, we just left a little disappointed as there was no chance we could have ever solved them all even though we were speeding through them super quickly. This also meant that we never worked on a puzzle together because there was so much to get through. We missed that sense of accomplishment and the satisfying nature of having all the puzzles solved and all the loose ends tied up at the end of the game. The game was still fun but I would just recommend playing as a bigger team.

One thing I would also mention is that one of the puzzles was incredibly difficult to see due to the low lighting in the room, so much so that we could not actually complete the puzzle (I have pretty good eyesight!). Afterwards the GM said 'oh you could have used your torch' but there was no torch provided. They specified that you could have used your phone torch ('I didn't tell you that you weren't allowed to use your phone!') but as most games do not allow phone use, we had our phones stored in the lockers outside of the game. If a torch is necessary to complete a puzzle, one should be provided (very easy fix) or it should be clear that you can take your phone into the room and use it.

If you're following the new emerging phase of escape rooms that is "collection games" then I'd recommend playing Lucardos twist on it. 

We enjoyed the game, although we did feel there was an enormous amount do to, and it was very pushy "that we could play again" As much as I like the idea of playing again, I kinda felt let down. I understand this isn't a traditional escape room.. but I felt it lost the satisfaction of completing your game. 

On top of this - After playing the other collection games in the UK where you're allowed 60 minutes and you get to solve puzzles in your own time - this is a very different experience where you're herded through zones, leaving behind any puzzles you haven't completed and being presented with a whole new room. 

Although the room looked incredible, this unfortunately, isn't everything and couldn't make up for being moved on, leaving a sense that we'd missed out on puzzles.

I've enjoyed Lucards other rooms, but this felt like it just didn't hit the mark with your normal players - Maybe different for puzzle enthusiasts 

Played as a team of two, which I would not recommend. There was lots do as is normal which collection games, but at least with others I have played you have the entire hour to attempt all the puzzles. This game did not work this way, which left us feeling like we were having the carrot dangled in front of us and we were being shoehorned into each section with not enough time to take in the game.

The theming and attention to detail was truly incredible, but it very much felt like they only wanted us to see half the game and pay to come back again and play the rest, which let our experience down.

Superb. Love a collection game that ensures your full hour and this one is jammed with puzzles, gorgeous to look at and funny as all heck. Highly recommended.