Escape Newcastle: Taken

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.

This was first Escapism room, overall quite an easy room. Shame about the aged puzzle if it wasn’t for this we would have gotten out with 30 minutes remaining

A little plain compared to their other rooms - Although I believe it was on first there. 

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. 

I worry that the reason this room is considered "difficult" is because of the lack of signposting. There was multiple padlocks of the same type (letters, directions, numbers) with no indication which was which.

 This meant trying the code on multiple padlocks, several of which required more than expected force to open. Some puzzles had very little indication of the starting point of the answer or order of the numbers or letters.

There was one large puzzle to get a key which was really long and unsatisfying. The room was essentially just an office and wasnt immersive at all. 

I think with some padlock changes, increased signposting and a little more ambience, it could be good. There were a few good puzzles, but none were difficult. The final puzzle was a little tricky, which was fun! 

Not the best escape room we have done but we still had fun and the host was great. This is not the best escape room for newbies, a lot of the solutions were poorly communicated and not communicated well, and some of the tech just didn't work properly.

One puzzle was so faffy which took 10 mins and required no brains to solve, only patience. Puzzles like this really leave bad stains on the experience for me

We had fun but there is better one's in Sheffield.

This was my first ever escape room. So I owe it thanks for sparking the flame that I never knew existed inside me. 

At the time everything was new to me but upon reflection after a number of years it would have seemed a fairly basic room having played a number of rooms  

Pretty woeful game tbh. Not a great use of space, not very thematic, couldn't hear the video. We absolutely burned through it and then spent about 15 mins on one stupid puzzle that's designed only to waste time and slow people down due to the rest of the game being so easy. It also has nothing to do with the theming of the game.

Ok game but nothing special. They definitely have better games, but this was one of their first games I believe.

Great little room for players new to escape rooms. 

Good first game for people new to the escape world. Puzzles pretty standard for enthusiasts, but still fun non the less.

Great beginners room if you're new to the world of escaping. The room theme is a bit plain and there isn't much story but it has some fun puzzles. Experienced players will breeze through most of the room.

Quite sparse on design but a decent theme, some fun puzzles. Got a problem with some really unnecessary red herrings and an absoute time killer of a puzzle, but it worked my brain and I had fun. Ran it alone.

#9

The first room we completed at the fabulous Escapism was ironically the least enjoyable there. The room seemed a little plain and the props a bit dated, but this is only in hindsight - we had fun while we were playing. The theme was pretty generic but it’s still worth a go. If you’re heading to Escapism though, all of their other rooms are really good fun and have more immersive set decoration no storytelling so try those first, especially Radioactive or Legacy.

Not what I originally thought the room was going to be, felt the themeing was a bit off par, Good start to the game - couple of red herrings to keep us gripped. Ignoring the themeing the puzzles were pretty straight forward only got stuck a couple of times as not knowing where to go next. Didn't put me off playing another room.  

Most of their rooms are absolutely perfect for a team of 2, specially Taken! I would not recommend it for more than 3 players.

Loved  this room made me jump when when we found the dummy.