LR

A nice slice of the taskmaster experience with a good range of different games. Quite expensive for what it was but as a one off gimmick it was fun.

Another great game from 11th Hour. A solid set of pirate themed puzzles with an extra festive sprinkle. Good design, fun puzzles and wonderful hosting.

Despite claiming only a 35% success rate, this room was straightforward and very linear. There wasn't really enough to do for three. We ended up needing two clues but both were frustrating. The first we solved immediately but the lock was stiff and didn't open. We spent about another fifteen minutes trying to solve, including saying over and over what we thought the answer should be and how it did not work. There was no input from the games master until we asked for a clue which revealed the first solution we tried had been right all along. The second involved something that had missing/ broken parts so we assumed it couldn't be used but we were supposed to use it anyway. Not sure if the games master was running multiple games or didn't have the technology to see/hear what was going on but it felt like a nudge from a more proactive games master would have massively improved the experience.

Good wholesome Christmas fun. Would be great for kids.

The room was ok and the wand mechanism was a good idea and an interesting new mechanism to interact with the room. Downside was a number of puzzles just seemed to be trial and error rather than any kind of actual solve. At least one puzzle was faulty where pressing one button didn't always register. This wasted a lot of time as we had to attempt it over and over again. A second puzzle required us to trigger something repeatedly to watch and solve. Despite doing the same thing each time it seemed to only actually trigger the puzzle at random. Again not sure if something was faulty or if we never actually quite worked out how to make it work at all and were just triggering it by accident. Different areas of the game require ducking through a small opening repeatedly. There was no protective foam of any kind and my spatial awareness isn't good which resulted in me hitting my head over and over again to the point that I nearly gave up. I did love the idea of matching up escape rooms with a bar setting and it was nice to have a drink and discuss the game afterwards.

Worst escape room experience by far. Every element of this was lacking. The host was non existent, he let us in apologising in advance that the room wasn't that good and that various parts of the game and clue system were broken or not very good. Then disappeared for the rest of the game. There was an iPad system to get clues that, as promised by our host, appeared to be broken and we couldn't get it to give us a single hint. The room was a cheap, bordering on probably legally actionable knock off of Stranger things and a number of the clues required seemingly unfathomable random leaps of logic (or whatever is the opposite of logic) that made the whole room a frustrating bore.

This game wasn't particularly challenging but it was cute and wholesome fun. The host was great and in character right from the start. Only thing to watch out for is that even beginning the game is in character but the instructions of what to say to kick off the game were written in French in the email even though everything else had been translated into English so we struggled right at the first hurdle until the French speaker in our group read the email and saved the day.

Some parts of this room are a little less interesting requiring just looking around for things that were hard to spot because it was quite dark, as opposed to being difficult because the puzzles themselves were difficult. However overall the room was fun to play and the ending was an extra fun little puzzle.

A few standout moments in this room that really tie into the theme. Really enjoyed all of the puzzles and the distinct nature of the different sections of the game.

After smashing through the Metro we were offered a discount if we wanted to try another game and I am so glad we gave the Ghost Castle a go. The room had very cleverly been turned into a courtyard and then a building spanning multiple floors. There was lots of running back and forth and linking this across multiple rooms which was fun. It was doable for two but it kept us very busy. The puzzles were fun and fit really nicely with the theme. Only downside was a couple of the areas required ducking under plywood and the need to move back and forth through the various rooms at speed lead to a few banged heads

Game was very cool visually, set in a mock of a metro station complete with a metro car. The puzzles were quite simple but it was fun to do.

We had scheduled this room last on our way back to the airport after an exhausting few days in Budapest and perhaps that wasn't the best idea, especially as there were only two of us to work through the whole room. It had warned it wasn't the standard escape room experience and it definitely relied more on mathematics than some of the snazzier high tech puzzles you can find in some of the other Budapest rooms. By the end of it we found ourselves tired and frustrated. A number of puzzles required outside knowledge such as the value of different Roman numerals or mathematical concepts that were not provided inside the room so if you didn't just know them you wouldn't have been able to solve the puzzles. The mechanism to open a box to get out a key was also broken so even though we had solved the puzzle the key wasn't released. The games master clearly had not been playing attention and didn't realise what had happened so kept referring us back to things we had already completed to try and help us solve the puzzle which made us more and more confused before eventually coming into the room and realising we had already found the solution but the mechanism was broken. The delay cost us about ten minutes and meant we didn't complete the room in time so that was also disappointing, though they did let us play on for an extra few minutes so we could finish. Considering the concept of the room was that everything is bright white, it was all a bit dirty and grubby. Overall the room seems quite tired and run down.

An absolutely unique, beautiful room. Not in Budapest central but accessible enough via metro and a short walk. The game itself takes some physical extension, climbing etc. but the puzzles were clever and fun. One of the best games we played in Budapest.

Fit nicely into the pirate themed of The Brig. Was great to combine doing an escape room with a more social experience as we worked our way through the various chests included in this game while having a drink at the in house bar. The puzzles were still strong, beautifully made and fun to complete

The hosting of the game was great, strong theatrics and I can never say no to a good costume. I loved the split start of the game where everyone had their own space and own puzzles to solve but it still required strong collaboration with our team mates. 

I liked the immediate immersion in the story that was worked even in into the briefing mechanism. 

Not sure why but this game just wasn't for me. Nothing memorable stands out as particularly good or bad but I just didn't really enjoy it.

The setting of this escape room was very different, being based on an old bus. It was a strong concept, wonderfully decorated and the hosting was good. However the puzzles were limited and quite simple. There were multiple moments where we all waiting  on someone to complete a single puzzle and no one could move on to anything else until it was done which somewhat impacted the flow and experience.

We had already played Victoria's Last Challenge so the layout of the room and some of the key mechanisms were already known. Despite that the room managed to use an entirely different set of puzzles and was just as fun to play. It was lovely and festive and we loved all the small changes to make the room more Christmassy as well as the Christmas-based puzzles

The room was nicely themed and the puzzles were good. The very last puzzle almost got the best of us and things got a bit hysterical as we desperately attempted various more and more ludicrous things before we finally solved it. The game master was fantastic and we had a great time 

I loved the unusual theme of this room. It was entirely different from anything else we have played in both theme and some of the puzzles. We bought a very musical person with us which may have helped with some of the harder elements. The hosting is also always superb and we enjoyed the extra touches for our time and take away trinkets.

We played a lot of at home escape games during the pandemic and this series was by far our favourite. We loved the QR code mechanism to the game and the mix of interactive paper and online clues.

Was pitched as ClueHQ's more difficult game but it wasn't particularly interesting. Just seemed to have more padlocks to do rather than any more interesting or challenging puzzles to solve.

Pretty much the whole of this game was just trying codes over and over in different padlocks until you matched the right ones. No particularly memorable elements to this game but it was an ok play.

The best of the ClueHQ games in Swindon. A fun twist ending

One of the better ClueHQ rooms. Some good tech and puzzles. Too much smoke, not good for those with asthma

The room was okay overall but the ending didn't seem to really line up to resolve the opening premise of the story so we didn't really realise we had finished

Good theme, nice looking room and a good mix of logic and physical puzzles. This was my first escape room but still holds up as one.of the better rooms in Swindon.

Game design was lovely and some fun physical and technical elements that fit with the theme. We were invited to test the game before it was formally.opened so a few things didn't quite work as they were meant to but that was to be expected.

The room was a bit too easy and only took about 40 mins despite supposedly being a harder room but the look and feel and fit of the puzzles to the theme were good

Game was ok but simple and we got out in about half an hour. The only thing that held us up was a spelling mistake on one puzzle that had been missed during QA.

A different take on an escape room. Everyone picked a different role with guidance on what particular skills were best matched to each role. Once picked we took our relative stations on the bridge and spent a jam packed hour flying a spaceship. With a scoring system based on number of puzzles solved rather than time taken it was a very different experience and with four different roles the opportunity is there for replay value. The tech behind the puzzles was also great

I preferred the other two rooms offered by Co-Decode but this room was still beautiful and fill of strong, interesting puzzles.