Well, what a lot there is for this month’s update! Including of course the annual wave of Christmas games, of which there are more than ever. There are Xmas games in other countries too, but they seem to have become a tradition in the UK on a scale that isn’t matched anywhere else. I’ve only listed new Xmas rooms below, so this isn’t even all of them – for the full list, see https://escapethereview.co.uk/location/xmas.
Greater London
🔒 Escape Entertainment near Bank have opened new game The Scheming Chemist, with two copies available for versus play.
🎭 The Greenwich branch of Houdini’s is trying something a bit different: Murder Mystery Evening is a two hour experience that „combines live actors, clue-solving, and mini-escape room elements“, as well as public booking and cocktails.
🎭 City trail company Street Hunt opened a second trail in London, named Will Breaker.
🎭 The National Theatre have a free puzzle trail for kids (8-12 years) tied in with their production of The Witches, running until the end of January – which I might not mention here, but it’s designed by one of the creators of Bewilder Box (and so hopefully more interesting to enthusiasts with kids than last month’s LEGO escape room, which by all reports was disappointing – sorry!).
South East England
🔒 Houdini’s will soon launch a new game Dragon’s Hoard in their original location Southampton, at their third and newest address in the city.
🔒 In Brighton, Ready Escape Games (better known as Escape The Vault/Cell/Nineties) have opened their fourth game Murder at the Party, which might sound like a ‚hangover‘ theme but is in fact a Regency-era whodunnit.
🔒 Timequest will soon open The Farm, part 2 of their new ongoing story The Helix Project.
🔒 New at Escape Windsor is serial killer game Cannibal Cabin.
🎄 Mythologic (Gillingham)’s Christmas room will be Sneaky Santa, available in December.
🎄 Gatwick Escape Rooms will open Christmas S.O.S! in late Nov.
🎄 Pier Pressure are bringing back The Great Elfscape!, moved to Gloucester Road from Upper North Street.
🎄 Otto’s at TimeTrap is switching from spooky Halloween mode to festive Christmas mode.
Other new games from last month’s update:
🔒 Captive Experiences (Hastings): Area 3: 1940s Heist
🎄 Escape Plan LIVE (Chatham): The Naughty List
🔒 Escape Windsor: Spaced Out
🎄 Major Mind Games (Horsham): The Scruffalous has nicked Christmas!!
🎄 Pressure Point Escape Rooms (Ashford): Santa’s Gift
🎄 The Escape Goat (Dover): Elfy is Missing
🎄 The Panic Room Gravesend: CSI – Christmas Scene Investigation
🔒 TimeQuest (Paddock Wood): Lab 42
South West England
🎄 Dreadlock in Bodmin will be running Xmas room Christmas at Gran’s, from mid Nov.
🎄 Escape Rooms Cheltenham also have a Christmas room, Candy Cane Kitchen.
🎄 So do Escape the Game in Bovey Tracey: Santa Escape – Frosty’s Christmas Wish.
🎄 And ditto for Escapism Plymouth, with Santa’s List, which was previously available at their Chester branch.
🔒 Whereas Ouija in Bournemouth have a new (permanent) room that’s definitely not about Christmas. The Infirmary will be a horror experience like the venue’s current two games.
Other new games from last month’s update:
🎄 Cornwall’s Great Escape Rooms Newlyn (Newlyn): The Christmas Express
🎄 The Great Big Escape (Dorchester): Saving Santa’s Magic
Wales
🔒 Adventure Rooms Cardiff opened Pirates, in which there’s a treasure chest and a pirate ship, and you need to extract the former from the latter.
🎄 Escape Blackwood will be running a Christmas Escape from mid Nov, though I don’t have details beyond that yet.
Other new games from last month’s update:
🔒 Escape Rooms Cardiff: The Tomb 2: Curse of the Serpent
🎄 PanIQ Rooms Wales (Porthmadog): Christmas Chaos
West Midlands
🔒 Another month, another new Houdini’s branch! This one is in Stafford, and offers a familiar line-up: Alcatraz, Titanic and Room 13.
🔒 The Puzzle Room Cannock have three (!) new games, completing the overhaul that followed their venue move. These are Emergency Landing, Operation Nuke, and The Riddle Master, an air disaster, nuclear thriller, and kids-friendly superhero game respectively.
🎄 Top Escape Rooms in Worcester are opening Elf Who, thereby bringing them up to an elftastic three Christmas games available simultaneously.
East Midlands
🔒 Rush Hour in Spalding have a new room with an intriguing-sounding premise, named Lost and Found.
🔒 Rushden Escape Rooms (previously ESC Rushden) opened their latest game, and it is indeed Retro, which you might remember fondly from Thinking Outside The Box in Peterborough.
🎄 Elves on the Shelves is Chesterfield Escape Rooms‘ festive offering, available from mid Nov.
🔒 UK Escape Games have re-opened their Mansfield branch (Robin Hood, Molly O’Grady), which has been closed since the start of the pandemic.
Other new games from last month’s update:
🎄 Break Escape Loughborough: The TwELF Day Of Christmas
🎄 Break Escape Nottingham: Santa’s Christmas ADVENTure
🎄 Escape Coalville: Jasper’s Jingless Christmas
🔒 Trapp’d Chester House (Wellingborough): Spellbound: The Witches of Chester House
East of England
🔒 Ongar (Essex) gains an escape room company: Puzzlez is now open, with three games Beth Death, Escape From Wonderland and The Witch’s Curse.
🔒 Agent Brains in Letchworth have a new game Mobbery opening tomorrow, the first of four games planned for their new second location (located very close to the current one).
🔒 EO Escape Rooms opened The Keyper’s Secret, in which you’re rescuing a princess; early reviews have been every bit as positive as you’d expect from this company.
🔒 Not just for Halloween? Fakenham’s Axes & Escapes opened Beyond The Graves, a spooky game with „the odd scare“.
🔒 Suffolk Escape Rooms (Saxmundham) have just opened new room The Hideout, where you’re trying to recover your ill-gotten gains from a hideout before the police arrive.
🎄 Escape Rooms Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) will offer The Night Before Christmas: Operation Snowflake from mid Nov.
🎄 Get Out Wisbech opened not one but two new games: The Haunted House („it has an eerie feel but is perfectly okay to be played by families“), and Mistletoe & Crime, with the latter available only until early Jan.
🎄 Keylock also have an Xmas room, National Elf Service.
🔒 Buried Alive by Escape Peterborough at the Priestgate Vaults is back open, for the first time since the pandemic.
Other new games from last month’s update:
🎄 Cluetopia Harwich: Grinch On The Run
🔒 Cluetopia Ipswich: Twilight Manor
🔒 Jailbreak at St Neots Museum: Jailbreak
🔒 Oliver Cromwell’s House (Ely): The Fate of the Ely Witch
🔒 Sudbury Escape Rooms: Rob The Bank 2
🔒 Ware Escape Rooms: Hunted
Isle of Man
🎄 Exit Strategy will also be running a Christmas room from 1st Dec; theirs is called Christmas Unlocked.
North West England
🎄 Escape Quest will cycle out Henry Fortune and open new game Mistletoe Mysteries on 17th Nov, which is a Christmas game but one involving detective work not elves. As with their other games, this is part of the Chapelgate Mysteries framework and will be a race to solve as much as you can in the time.
🎄 Up in the Lake District, Lakes Escapes will run Freezy The Snowman from 1st December, in addition to their previous Christmas room Santa’s Lost His Marbles.
🔒 A new game for Breakout Liverpool: The Haunting is a spooky exorcism story.
Other new games from last month’s update:
🎄 Cluefinders Liverpool: Remy’s Festive Fiasco: The Missing Gift
🎄 Compendium Escape Rooms (Bury): Bad Elf and the Key to the Sleigh
🔒 Cryptic Escape Rooms Manchester: Shattered Dimensions
🎄 Lucardo Rawtenstall: Seriously Elfish
North East England
🔒 Cluedini’s Darlington branch opened a Wild West room, Outlawed, in which you’re trying to steal a gang’s stolen gold.
🔒 From cowboys to pirates; Enigma Escapes in South Shields have just opened The Curse of Topaz.
Other new games from last month’s update:
🎄 Escape Rooms Durham: The Magic of Christmas
🔒 Northumberland Escape Rooms (Morpeth): The Matter of the Hatter
Yorkshire & the Humber
🔒 Now open in Bradford, Paradox Escape launched with The Mystical Cabin (where you’re trapped in time) and The Torture Chamber (where you’re trapped somewhere more gruesome).
🔒 Middlesbrough also has a new company: Escape Games opened Magic School, and are about to add Wise Guys to it.
🔒 North Yorkshire Water Park opened a World War II themed Escape Room as part of their activities list; and it seems already have Puzzle Rooms, a two copies of a puzzle room designed as a competitive solving experience.
🔒 Can You Escape York now offer Operation Contagion, where you’re trying to find an antidote in a zombie-infested lab.
🎄 Cryptic Escape Rooms Hull are subverting the festive spirit with Grinchmas, a Christmas game about helping the Grinch steal presents.
🔒 Project Escape Middlesbrough opened The Upside Down, based on a TV series you can probably guess.
Scotland
🔒 Locked In Glasgow seem to be fond of creepy themes, and their latest is Doll’s House – in which the dolls are not there to comfort you.
🚐 Ayrshire Mobile Escape Rooms have been around since last December, but I hadn’t spotted them until Exit Games Scotland pointed them out to me; they’re based in east Ayrshire and have three rental games: Dr Puzzle, Treasure Island and Monster Mash.
🔒 The Crieff Hydro Hotel in Perthshire has added an escape room to its line-up of activities, named Nuclear Countdown.
🎄 The Locked Door in Aberdeen will shortly open what I think the UK’s northern-most (physical) Christmas game, Christmas Carnival.
Play at home
🖨️ And if you want Christmas puzzles without setting foot outdoors, Escape Hunt added A Christmas Sabotage to their list of print ’n‘ play titles.
And also…
🏆 There are busy preparations going on for the Lock & Key Awards next March. The Key awards are for enthusiasts, for Best Team Photo, Best Anecdote and Fastest Escapers – we’ll be opening submissions for those very soon. Could be a good excuse to do your next escape room in fancy dress?
This update comes with the usual thanks to Pris and to Exit Games Scotland for their invaluable help!