I expected this month’s list of new UK games to be mostly just a handful of late-opening Christmas rooms, but a surprising number of companies have launched rooms in December, or have rooms opening in the next week or two. Here’s the full list; and may all your 2025 escapes be thrilling.
Greater London
🎄 Xscream Escapes have their own version of Christmas cheer – their seasonal room is Satan’s Grotto 2024: The Insanity Claus, with a mad bad Santa to stop.
Southeast England
🔒 Winchester company ClueCapers opened Treehouse 2: Going Wild!. I believe this is an all new game with no puzzles in common with their previous room Treehouse Retrieval.
🔒 Escape Hunt Reading opened a copy of Eye of the Sun God.
🎄 A late addition to the Xmas games list: Otherworld Escapes is running Santa’s Workshop.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Escape Kent Faversham: The Mummy
🎄 Pier Pressure (Brighton): Mince Spy Party
🎄 The Panic Room Dartford: North Pole Panic 3: Jingle All The Way Out
🎄 TimeQuest (Paddock Wood): Elf Magic 5: Missing Magic
🔒 Trapped In Fiction (Basingstoke): Trapped In… Peter Pan
🎄 Unsolved Mysteries (Chatham): All Alone – On Christmas
Last call for:
❗️ The Panic Room Gravesend: Dead Man’s Chest, Gold Rush, Lab Rats, Whodunit: Hotel Homicide (all closing end Jan)
Southwest England
🔒 Pun of the month award goes to Escape Rooms Cheltenham for Show Me The Honey!, a collection-style score-based room.
🎄 Here’s another Christmas room: A Christmas ADVENTure at DreadLock Escape Rooms in Bodmin.
🎄 And one more: The Lost Presents of Santa’s Grotto, from Escape Time St. Ives.
🔒 And more games opening at Escape Hunt: Journey to Atlantis at the Bournemouth branch and Excalibur in Cheltenham.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 Cornwall’s Great Escape Rooms Newlyn: Kraken Christmas : The Pirates Holiday
🎄 Cryptology Swindon (Incarcerated): Ho Ho Hurry Up!
🎄 House of Frankenstein (Bath): The Gift
🎄 Housetrap Escape Rooms (Bodmin): Ho Ho No!
Wales
🔒 Andy’s Room is the newest addition at Rhondda Escape Rooms, and is a tribute to the Toy Story movie franchise.
🎄 Caerphilly Escape Rooms have festive room Nightmare After Christmas, which from the story and artwork is much more family friendly than the name might suggest.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 Beyond Breakout (Powys): Christmas Adventures and The Magic Potion
🔒 The Escape Game Swansea: Sealed Fate
West Midlands
🔒 New at Courtyard Escapes in Stourbridge is Lockdown, which is not a reference to the pandemic years but a game where you need to beat the automated lockdown and disable it before it completes its program.
🎄 There are also two festive rooms at The Puzzle Room Cannock, Saving Santa’s Suit and Flying Home for Christmas – though the latter might be a reskinned version of Emergency Landing.
🔒 And in case you missed the good news, Top Escape Rooms were able to renew their lease so won’t be closing in January after all.
Also new, from last month’s update:
Escape Live Birmingham: Casino Heist
🎄 XscapeNow (Telford): Locking Around The Christmas Tree
East Midlands
🔒 Escape Leicester have a second address opening in January. It will launch with two rooms: Echoes of Madness and Mystic Magic of the Forbidden Castle.
🔒 In Scunthorpe, The Attic opens from tomorrow at The Paint Shop, the third and scariest part of their trilogy of Mystery Manor games.
🎄 A last minute Xmas room from Unescapable in Derby: they’ve broken with their usual naming scheme and are running Elf And Safety.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 Cryptology Nottingham: Ho Ho Hurry Up!
🔒 Gamesaints Lincoln: Dead Centre
🔒 Horton’s Emporium Daventry: The Castle of Memories
🔒 Rushden Escape Rooms: Apartment 666: The Hellgate Ritual
🔒 Tension Twisted Realities (Lincoln): New Theatre Royal – Snow White
🔒 The Paint Shop (Scunthorpe): The Mystery Manor: Chapel
Last call for:
❗️ Break Escape Loughborough (Loughborough): The Sands of Time (closing 5th Jan)
East of England
🔒 Hourglass Escapes in Downham Market opened a follow-up to their scare game The Doctor Will See You Now – this sequel is ominously subtitled Part Two: The Morgue.
🎄 Enigma Rooms Watford also have a Christmas game, Santa’s Christmas List – this one’s a short 30 mins room, and previously ran in Doncaster.
🔒 Escape Hunt Watford also opened a copy of Eye of the Sun God.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Escape Basildon (Basildon): Lollipop Lane
🔒 Escape Hunt Cambridge: Aladdin & The Magic Vault, Alice in Puzzleland, Dracula, Excalibur, Eye of the Sun God, Our Finest Hour
🎄 Escape Rooms Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds): The Night Before Christmas: The Great Rudolph Rescue
🎄 PerpleXed Escape Rooms (Soham): The Christmas Calamity
🎄 Pier Pressure Welwyn: Otto’s Oddities, The Great Elf Escape
Northwest England
🔒 Escape The Fort’s second room is now open: like their original game, The Dambusters is a 75 min game set in WW2.
🔒 Red-Handed is a crime scene investigation game from Lucardo Manchester opening in January; the description suggests it may have a (non-horror) twist to it.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 Cryptic Escape Rooms Manchester: The Christmas Heist
🎄 Lucardo Rawtenstall: Inspector Christmas, Rudolph’s Route
🎄 moviESCAPE (Stockport): Santa’s Express
Yorkshire & the Humber
🔒 I completely missed it when Hollym Escape Rooms opened earlier this year; they’re near Withernsea, with permanent games The Mad Lab and The Stitch Up, plus an Xmas room running at the moment called North Pole Naughtiness.
🔒 Escape Sheffield is now Gamesaints (who also took over Escape Lincoln’s town centre location). The list of games looks like they’re reskinned versions of the existing ones: Hands Tied, Magic Mission, Mastermind, Vaccine Vault.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 Cryptology Sheffield: Ho Ho Hurry Up!
🎄 Enigma Rooms Wakefield: Christmas Quest
🎄 Escape Hull: The Magic of Christmas
Northeast England
🔒 New at the Gateshead branch of The Escapologist is The Big Top: The Curious Case of the Missing Clown, a carnival game where you’re searching for a clown not hiding from one.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 EXIT Newcastle: Help Save Christmas
Scotland
🔒 Adding yet another reason for enthusiasts to visit Edinburgh, Escape The Past added new game The Deacon’s Cabinet alongside their existing room The Anatomist.
🔒 Ayrshire Mobile Escape Rooms added a sixth option to their line-up of mobile puzzle games; this one is called DaVinci Code.
🔒 And in Ayr itself, In Time Escape Rooms have now opened a new time-travelling game called Trapped In Time.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 Escape Dundee: Christmas at the Castle
🔒 Game Vault (Kilmarnock): Office Murder Mystery, The Heist, The Kill Room, Treasure Island
And also
🎄 Here’s the full list of Xmas rooms, if you’re trying to catch a few more while they’re still available: https://escapethereview.co.uk/location/xmas
🏆 And watch this space for the list of top UK games of 2024, to be announced very soon!