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Review: Egyptian - Escape Room Centre, Blackpool

Room Story - from Escape Room Centre

Thousands of years ago there ruled the Pharaoh Horus, named after the great falcon god. He prided himself on his intelligence and wit and spent much of his time studying puzzles and mysteries. With no children to inherit his kingdom he spent years building the Pyramid of Mysteries. Built to find a worthy successor of his kingdom.

Following its completion Horus lay down the challenge that whoever could escape the pyramid, within an hour, would inherit the whole of Egypt. Many tried, but all failed, every one of them becoming entombed forever!

His kingdom has long since gone but the Pyramid of Mysteries remains. Are you brave enough to take on the Pharaoh's challenge?



Key Stats

Room NameEgyptian
VenueEscape Room Centre
LocationBlackpool, UK
Date01/04/2018
Escape Time50:11
Team Size3
My Recommended Team Size3 - 5

Review

This was our first visit to Escape Room Centre in Blackpool. It’s conveniently located right in the centre of the town and very easy to find. When we arrived, we were promptly taken to our room. One of the interesting things here is that the outside of the rooms were also themed, so we walked past a few interesting looking doors on the way to our room. Our room was themed like a pyramid outside.

Upon entering the room, we were impressed with the theming and started to get stuck into some of the obvious physical puzzles. Firstly we concentrated on the largest puzzle in the room, which is probably one of the most strenuous puzzles I’ve done in an escape room as it requires some lifting and shifting. We spent a fair bit of time on this puzzle and when we reached an answer, we weren’t quite sure if it was right. I think it’s always really important that the puzzle gives you some indication that you’ve successfully completed it, but on this occasion it felt ambiguous to us.

We managed to solve another puzzle, but then we became stuck on another puzzle that one of us had been working on for quite a while with no success. We eventually had to ask for a clue and the host spoke over the loudspeaker in the room to explain what to do. It was a little frustrating as we’d already done the key thing we needed to do to progress, but like the first puzzle, there was ambiguity and a lack of certainty around whether you’d done the right thing.

We quickly became stuck again and when asking for a clue, we were given the answer straight away. This happened two more times, so we’ve come to the conclusion that there isn’t really a clue system – you’re just given answers. Some of the most satisfying moments in escape rooms are the “a-ha!” moments when you figure something out. Unfortunately, we were left feeling a little bit unfulfilled as we didn’t solve 3 of the puzzles ourselves.

When we’d completed the initial central goal in the first area of the room, we progressed onto the final area and quickly solved the remaining puzzles. Some of the theming got a little bit odd here, but we enjoyed the discovery as we continued to work towards the exit. It was obvious when we’d reached the final puzzle and with a bit of maths, we worked out how to escape. For us, this room could have been so much better. It has good theming and interesting physical puzzles to make it a good room, however, we felt that it suffered from a lack of confirmation that you’d done the correct thing at times and a lack of clues to help you along without just giving you the answer. These two things led to us feeling both confused and a little bit unfulfilled.

The team were Beth, Daniel and Becky.

Ratings


Overall A well themed and difficult room that suffers from a lack of clues and confirmation that you’re doing things correctly.
Difficulty It’s a difficult room – it’s mostly non-linear and there aren’t a lot of things in the room that are immediately obvious.
Fun We struggled with this one; there were too many occasions where we were wandering aimlessly unsure what to do.
Puzzles There are some really good physical puzzles in the room, but you often find yourself overwhelmed by symbols or ambiguity.
Immersion It’s a nicely themed room, starting before you even enter the room.
Surprises There were a few nice surprise elements later in the game.