breakout manchester

So I mentioned recently that I was going to write up a few of our room escape experiences, and lo and behold I received an email from Breakout Manchester saying that it was their first birthday - Happy Birthday to them! I then realised that this weekend will be exactly six months since we first visited Breakout, and in fact, since we first did a room escape, and so I thought it was as good an occasion as any to write about them.

image from Breakout Manchester 

So, obviously, Breakout Manchester will always hold a special place in our hearts as the place we did our first (and second!) room escape. We booked it on a whim, having read about room escapes in London a few months earlier and then being very excited to realise there was one a lot nearer to home. I opted for Sabotage, mainly because it was the first room that had availability, not realising it was one of the harder rooms. When we did it it was a 4* difficulty, but it has since been upped to a 5*, I don't know if it has changed in content, or if they have just adjusted it because it's fairly tricky.

The premise of Sabotage is to stop a missile strike in an enemy control centre, and escape, in 60 minutes. We got out with about 30 seconds to spare, and were absolutely hooked. I won't talk about the specific content because there is nothing worse than spoilers, but I will say that the puzzles took lots of different formats, and there was a lot to do in the time. The room made good use of technology, and there was a lot of information to assimilate, but the story felt generally believable, and the plot you were given before you went in made good sense.

When we returned, for my Birthday, we decided to go back to basics and do the easiest room, John Monroe, which is rated as 3* difficulty. We wanted to work our way up through the difficulty of the different rooms over time, and assumed we would find the John Monroe room a breeze after succeeding at Sabotage. We were a little over-confident I think, and didn't do that much better time-wise in the end, missing one or two obvious things for a little while. The plot here centres around a detective who has been murdered by someone he was investigating, and you have to work out from the suspects who it was. Again the puzzles took lots of different forms, and there was very little overlap with the puzzles in Sabotage. We assumed that the rooms would all be the same things just in different settings, but actually it used a variety of approaches that we didn't see in Sabotage at all. Our only bug with this room was that the story seemed a little less logical, particularly when some of the information on the suspects hidden in the room said that they were suspected of murdering John Monroe - it didn't make sense that he would have hidden those in his own office before he died. We do have a tendency to analyse these things in depth afterwards, and it's worth saying that it didn't in any way bother us during the game!

As a company Breakout seem to be doing great, since we first visited they have opened a further three rooms (two of which are the same so you can play two teams against each other - a great idea). They have also opened a site in Liverpool, which we have also visited and will be writing about another time. They don't seem to be resting on their laurels, and even the fact that, for example, Sabotage has changed it's rating makes me think they are constantly reviewing and improving the games they have.

The staff have always seemed really keen and enthusiastic, across both sites, and they have a good twitter presence too. I really like that they run the rooms for two people (not all places do this, and it puts me off going if we have to pay for a minimum of three), and they have great attention to detail. From the moment the door is shut, the room set-ups feel incredibly realistic, with a lot of props and items. As well as making the games more complex by throwing in a few red herrings, they generally capture the feel of the setting, so the two game rooms above felt completely different inside.

All room escape games generally have a way for you to get hints if you are completely stuck, and Breakout deliver theirs through a large screen in the room, which is also where the clock counts down. Generally there will be a noise to alert you when there is a hint so that you know to look (and I like that the noise is also themed to the room - so much thought!), and your helper types up a clue to appear on the screen.

If we could improve something about Breakout it would be this hint system, which, although better than some of the others we have seen suffers because you can't have a two way dialogue with your helper. This means that you sometimes get hints when you don't want them, or before you're desperate enough! The Husband and I have come out from Breakout rooms and felt like we had too many hints, and wondered what our time would have been without them. I did see on twitter recently that a team asked not to be given any so perhaps we might try that in future! Ideally though it would be good to be able to have some kind of way to signal that you want a hint, or even better, what it is you want a hint with. At other times we have been really struggling with something, but got hints about something else that we understood, or had already done. In one room, there was also a puzzle that we struggled with for ages, partly because The Husband is colour blind. We didn't think to mention it on the way in, and when we explained afterwards, the guy said he would have helped us a lot sooner had he realised. We both felt we would have been disappointed not to have succeeded because of it, especially as we knew what we had to do! I can honestly say it is the only thing we would change about Breakout, and it certainly hasn't stopped us going back.

Setting wise, Breakout Manchester works pretty well. It is centrally located and easy to find. The John Monroe room actually includes a large window facing out onto a busy street (the rooms are on the first floor of the building), and I was put off for a few seconds when I thought we would be seen by everyone doing their shopping. The minute the clock started ticking I rapidly forgot about it, although they did tell us a few people have tried to report burglaries when they have seen the room getting "ransacked" from outside. It has a large waiting area with plenty of seating, and all of the rooms have felt a good size. Having been to other places since, it is clear that the rooms aren't purpose built, but they do a good job to make the rooms feel realistic, with plenty of detail.

Something I really like about Breakout, and didn't really register until we played other rooms, was the use of background music too. Again, it's the little details like this that set the mood, particularly when it changes pace as you enter the last ten minutes. I've always found the staff at Breakout Manchester seem to love their work, and they really make the experience each time, helping to set the scene and get you engaged from the outset. I can't wait to go back and try some of the other rooms soon, and look forward to seeing what they have achieved by their second birthday!

project 365: week 21

137. Gardening finally finished, and herb pots planted up. I'm hoping to do a bigger post showing you the finished results at some point soon, now we just need the rain to stay away long enough for us to enjoy it!

138. Monday night with Millie, although she doesn't look very impressed with here for some reason. Probably tired of having her picture taken!

139. The first time I used some herbs from the garden in our cooking, fresh oregano for a vegetable pasta with goats cheese.

140. I've started contributing to a collaborative blog of black and white photography, and here was one of the practice pictures I took on the way home from a day working in London.

141. Hot pink flowers brightening up the study for spring, my mum kindly brought them as she was going away so thought I should enjoy them!

142. Made the most of working from home and went for a lunchtime walk with Millie. It was good to get some fresh air, and it stayed dry enough for a wander through the park, although the geese who hissed at us as we walked past their goslings weren't quite so happy to see us as we were to see them!

143. Saturday night dinner with The Husband, before a brilliant room escape. We got to Friday night and realised we had no plans for the bank holiday weekend, so made a few bookings and it turned out to be a lovely evening.

making our escape

(Coldplay - The Escapist)

I seem to have been mentioning room escape games for months on this blog, with the promise of a longer post later on several occasions. This post has been in draft for ages, so I thought I would finally commit to sharing a bit about this hobby that has got me hooked! 

So, what is a room escape game? I have heard some people describe it as being similar to a Crystal Maze or Krypton Factor type activity, and this is partly true. It is a timed activity, although typically at 45-60 minutes a lot longer than a room on the Crystal Maze, and generally it involves logic and puzzles rather than much physical skill - no Krypton Factor style assault courses here!

In truth though, my experience of room escape games, goes back many years, when they were (and still are) popular as online computer games such as these, where you point and click around a locked room, finding clues and objects to help you escape. Many a happy hour as a geeky teenager (and if we're being honest twenty-odd-year old) was passed completing the puzzles with The Husband. It seems to have been in the last year that real life versions have taken off in the UK, although apparently they have been around a lot longer. They are growing massively in popularity, often topping Tripadvisor lists of activities in various cities. There are so many to choose from, and as my friends have started going and taking part and agreeing how fabulous they are, I feel somewhat vindicated, and increasingly proud of my geekdom - turns out I was cool all along, just ahead of my time!

So what actually happens? Well the rooms are generally designed with a particular story in mind, the ones we have done so far have varied massively, there have been crimes to solve, science experiments to investigate, and even missile launches to stop. You are generally given the back story by your helper, who takes you to the room, and then watches your progress from outside, and can offer hints if you need them. The room will be set up to look like a "proper room" with furniture, pictures, books, etc, and you have to work out what in the room is relevant, and use it to solve clues, work out codes, unlock boxes, and eventually get out of the room. There is a timer counting down, and you frantically try to get out before the sixty minutes runs out.

The rooms often vary in difficulty, and generally can be done by 2-6 people (although this varies depending on the place). The Husband and I have always done them as a pair, and have thoroughly enjoyed all 6 that we have done. I'm going to write a bit more separately about the different places we have visited, as they they are all quite different. I don't plan on turning this into a room escape blog, as I realise it might be less than interesting for most people, but much like sharing the books I have read, I decided I'd like to share some of room escape experiences on here too.

When I tell people about it, a lot of people think it must be either claustrophobic or scary (or both!). Personally I've never found it to be claustrophobic, the rooms have all been quite reasonably sized, and all have a means of exiting in an emergency. I don't tend to think of myself as being locked in, more as having to solve the puzzles, so I think knowing that I could get out if I wanted to helps, although obviously other people could well feel different. In terms of it being scary, one or two of the rooms have had elements that made me jump (and maybe scream, just once), but there are plenty to do that don't include anything that is frightening - except for the fear that sets in in the final five minutes!

If you like puzzles, and logic, and fancy doing something a bit different, I'd highly recommend giving one of these a go. This brilliant site tells you where does them across the UK. They seem to be really popular with families, and from what I see on the twitter feeds of some of the companies, children quite often put parents to shame when it comes to code cracking! The Husband and I are definitely fans, and it is a really good way to spend an hour together, it's fun to feel like we have shared the experience (and definitely a good test of any friendship or relationship - there has occasionally been episodes of snapping - me, and not listening  - him!). We always come away with tons to talk about, and so far have managed to escape every time, albeit cutting it very fine on a few occasions. I'll share with you some more detail of our different experiences on a few future posts, but what do you think, is it something you would try?