Going over Halloween meant that we were there for the Lunar Festival and the town was suitably themed for spooky season. The decor really is superb and the actors go out of their way to make the whole experience feel genuine. Games with a wealth of puzzles where you complete as much as you can seem to work particularly well for enthusiast teams, keeping all players busy for a full hour. Chamber of Champions offers that in a race mode format, and an optional 90 min version where you do need to complete every puzzle. Escape In The Towers: The Comms Room (Canterbury) A company that seems less well known by enthusiasts but is much admired by those who’ve been, Rush Hour deserve a higher profile. Top option of their three rooms is an Alice theme where you’re saving Wonderland. Tempo: Eternal Life (Bath)

List – Escape the Review

Smuggler’s Ruin by Mindworks, Worthing: extending the Sussex escape room hotspot further to the west? Every year sees dozens of Christmas pop-up games, but it’s quite an achievement for one of them to make the top hundred list. Both that and established favourite Operation Moonshine share a profusion of puzzles, enthusiast-friendly design that makes sure experienced teams get a full hour of play, and exceptionally friendly hosting. The Panic Room Gravesend: Loop (Gravesend) A good dinosaur game is hard to resist, and by all accounts this is a great dinosaur game – with the clever idea of being set on a bus. Make Your Escape: Spellbound (Derby) One of the chain’s newer branches, both the games at Skegness make the list: western themed High Noon and serial killer game The Collector. Enigma Rooms Wakefield: Séance (Wakefield)

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Every one of Tulleys’ homegrown designs makes the list. They are huge sprawling extravaganzas with an overwhelming quantity of puzzles, particularly Nethercott and Dodge – even very experienced teams may struggle to complete them in 60 minutes. They’re sometimes criticised for actually having too much to do, but there’s no question that they’re some of the UK’s most advanced and impressive escape rooms. U-Escape: Franksy (Bournemouth) This year Enigma Rooms have no fewer than seven games in the top 100, more than any other company. First is the newest game at their Doncaster branch, Arabian Nights. Enigma Rooms Hull: Impact, Escape The Chocolate Factory (Hull) This game about an out-of-control AI fromBrighton stalwarts Bewilder Box stands outfor narrative focus and unusual use of technology, and remains one of my UK favourites. Cave Escape: Monuments, Carfax (Nottingham) Escape room games are the most popular type of escape game. This genre took the world by storm in the form of real-life escape rooms where participants had to solve a string of clues and riddles to escape the room before they ran out of time. Despite Escape Quest only running one game per season, both these games have shot into the UK’s top five in no time at all, and Mr Copplestone was one of only two UK games to win a TERPECA award in 2023 – need I say more? Escape Reading: Ram Raid, Age of Magic (Reading)

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Too far away, or not in the UK? You can play our games online from anywhere in the world. Use the link we send you to log onto Zoom. A Games Master will join you to get things started and help throughout the game. With an online escape room our Games Master will be in the room with a live camera feed and you must work with your team to find clues, solve puzzles, look for keys and codes to complete your mission and escape the room within 60 minutes! I’d write that Extremescape have managed the rare feat of having every one of their rooms in the top 100 – but I can’t, because they’ve just opened a fourth. But they’ve used the space of their location to create detailed, surprising, expansive adventures, where each new room is a step up in sophistication from the last. Houdini’s Escape Room Southampton: Extinct, Escape the RMS Titanic (Southampton)It’s not only the Birmingham branch that features in the top 100 though. Previously Interstellar at Trapped In Bury, Clue HQ have taken this unusual spaceship game over and made it their own. Cluefinders Liverpool: The Tomb: Reverse The Curse, Remy’s Festive Fiasco: The Missing Gift (Liverpool) The top game at their Retford branch is an archaeologist’s adventure through an Incan temple which gets plenty of praise for decor and puzzles. Enigma Rooms Skegness: High Noon, The Collector (Skegness) Is it an escape room...? Well, no... but this should by no means put escape room fans off going because it has so many elements of the theatre and story element that we love in escape rooms.

The Rooms: Escape Challenge ️ Play on CrazyGames The Rooms: Escape Challenge ️ Play on CrazyGames

Houdini’s have exploded from a single location independent to one of the UK’s biggest chains, but of their games these two continue to impress. Both are available at other branches, but for the best experience playing the original versions in Southampton seems to be your best option. Hounds Escape: The Explorer’s Diary, Southern Dis-comfort, Questionable Ethics (Crawley) Trapped in… the Forbidden Room of Fun! by Trapped In Fiction, a playful game with an unusual premise. One of the scarier games to make the list, The Watcher is from horror specialists Xscream, and has you trapped and made to complete tests set by your watching captor. It gets praise for its intense story-driven thrills. Honorable mentions Nottingham is one of the country’s top escape room destinations for enthusiasts, and Cryptology’s games are a big part of that. Both Dreamscape and Daylight Robbery are fast paced variable-score games, and the latter in particular is legendary for the sheer quantity of puzzles it throws at you. DarkMaster: Into The Reliquary (Crowborough) London’s longest running escape company is also one of the most highly rated, and their most recommended rooms are also their hardest and most recent. ORIGENES in particular takes an ambitious concept and executes it brilliantly. Co-Decode: Professor Dunstan, Sub Terra (Swindon)

It’s taken a while for the word to get around about EO Escape Rooms, but they seem to be increasingly on enthusiasts’ radar. All of their games get excellent scores, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of them on next year’s list. Escapable: Outatime (Wakefield) The trails themselves require very little puzzle-solving and a bit more of a challenge would be very welcome but the object here is to immerse yourself in this steam punk world and go on a few adventures along the way. It's a totally unique experience. Originally by Clever Dilemma, Wild West Saloon is now operated by Escape Kent, and remains a popular choice despite the stiff local competition in and around Kent. Escape Nation: The Citadel, Incognito’s Secret Lair (Stafford)

Escape the Rooms by Stephen Mangan, Anita Mangan - Waterstones Escape the Rooms by Stephen Mangan, Anita Mangan - Waterstones

Next is two at Hull that also featured in the 2021 list, a tribute to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and a spaceship game where I was particularly impressed by the physical layout of the set. Enigma Rooms Retford: The Legend of Catequil (Retford)

You can play our immersive escape rooms across the UK, Birmingham, Chelmsford, Coventry, Liverpool, Southend and Stratford Upon Avon which are all perfect for groups of players. Each game is private, so you only play with your team. You are never put with other groups, only with your friends, family, or work colleagues! When someone asks for recommendations for London games, generally the only person not mentioning Escape Plan in their reply is the company’s modest owner. The company has a WW2 theme running through all of their games; The Battle For Britain has a famous ending sequence, though these days it’s a split decision between that and the cheerily upbeat Roll Out The Barrel. Escape Quest: Mr Copplestone’s Curiosity Shoppe, Percy Pendleton’s Peculiar Predicament (Macclesfield)