Newbury, Jan 2018
Lost Island Escape places you at the mercy of island cannibals with a fetish for puzzles. The first task is to escape a darkened cage. Having completed that task, you can emerge onto the ‚island‘. It’s not so much a recreation of an island as a theme, but working within the limitations of office space they’ve done a decent job of creating a fun, slightly silly room. One puzzle stood out as off-theme at the end, but it was part of the escape sequence and in the excitement of (nearly!) escaping it didn’t matter so much.
The puzzles here seemed to have a little more freedom than The Swindler, and although a couple of minor technical issues got in our way, there was plenty to keep 2 or 3 people busy at all times. As compared to the Swindler, the island has a much smaller number of locks which was quite a relief!
The search factor was a little higher on the Island, as the game needed other ways to conceal clues and information. There were one or two things we definitely couldn’t have found without a clue from the GM, which was a bit of a shame. It would have been better to place those hints inside the game itself, but equally nobody really expects to get through a game without some kind of hint.
Overall, this game also felt like a reasonably traditional escape room, a little more brightly coloured than the Swindler. It was fun to play, and another good introduction to escape rooms. You could probably bring a couple of new players along provided you had an experienced player to keep them focussed. 