Escape Game Over — Attraction in Great Britain

As enthusiasts/owners, supporting other businesses within the industry is something we not only enjoy but also take pride in. Having spent time in the Derby area recently we took the opportunity to play all games at three other escape room centres (playing 13 games in total), before taking an ‘on the hoof’ decision to play Jack The Ripper, having played most of their other rooms sited at the Derby venue at their other locations.

Our meet and greet was pleasant enough, although little time was taken to suss out our prior experience of playing escape rooms; this would have made no difference to our experience of the game, but might have given our game host an informed approach to the management of our game - one cap doesn’t fit all!

Aesthetically, first impressions of the room were quite good, subtly setting the scene of Jack The Ripper’s patch, if a little tired and sparse on physical props. Before we embarked on our quest, the clue system was explained to us but to be honest we felt how this is executed detracts somewhat from the flow of the game and felt the delivery of clues was quite poor and difficult to hear at times

The game itself just didn’t live up to our expectations; very linear to the detriment of stunting the flow between puzzles (of which there are a limited number). Arguably, we felt there were unnecessary elements of the game, even for what would appear to be a game pitched at a novice level and unfortunately a major anticlimax ending to what could potentially be a great themed experience - when your last words in the game are “is that it?” you can’t but feel somewhat underwhelmed!

There is no enjoyment to be gained by leaving such a blunt reflection on our experience of Jack The Ripper, but more a moral duty to raise awareness to other potential players that there are so many good games available in the city centre at other escape room centres, which will unquestionably give you a great experience of what escape rooms are all about, before spending your money and time playing this particular game

Can’t comment on the other games at Game Over, Derby but absolutely convinced that Jack The Ripper could easily be developed to be a much better escape...

I've done a few escape rooms and they've all been fun, unfortunately the Maniac room has broken that pattern.

We informed the staff that we might be running late due to our bus not turning up, and they told us that'd eat into the room's timer, which we've never seen before at any other escape room place. We arrived before the timeslot, but the briefing took so long we lost 4 minutes of our time. One of us was led into a wall while blindfolded at the beginning. The puzzles were generally obscure with poor clues if any existed at all. One of the key items we needed (a picture) was completely missing and we had to guess the code as a result. The rooms were filled with red herrings and fake clues that did nothing but throw us off. A line about a book, but there being no book. C+F, which means literally nothing. Seems like remnants of old puzzles which they haven't gotten rid of. At the start, we're told not to use force (which is a given) but after entering a code into a keypad, we had to use force to open up the path to the 3rd room, leading to us wasting time due to uncertainty about whether or not we should pull on it. The hints we got weren't helpful, if we got them, I had to press the button 3 times to get a hint at one point. One puzzle involves a mirror, but another involves turning lights off that you seemingly can't turn back on, so you can't see what's in the mirror. A chest of drawers containing a code got swapped, so one lock was completely pointless. We also had no indication that we supposed to use these drawers at all. We ran out of time, and when we returned the reception the person there didn't talk to us at all about the game or our experience. And we had to ask them to take a photo for us. It felt like the staff just weren't interested and didn't engage with us at all.

And after that, we discovered that the toilets were seemingly keeping with the Saw theme, the toilets weren't clean and there was no toilet paper in any of the cubicles.

Overall, a very disappointing experience. I wouldn't recommend trying Maniac, even if you're a Saw fan...

We did the Temple of Montezuma. The greeting was good, but the host did not tell us any of the back story of the room. I would advise that people use their phones as torches because the torches they give you are not particularly strong. You are allowed to bring your phones in, so that is fine. One thing I was not keen on is that the host oversees a couple of rooms, which means that they are not always on-hand to give you a hint, and, when you do request a hint, you need to explain where you are up to, as they are not following your game. The decor for the room is great. There are some very cool puzzles and clever use of magnets, which I liked. It was let down mainly by the piano puzzle, which just would not work for us. Afterwards, the host told us that we had put in the correct code, but that the machine is a little finicky, so you have to get the timing exactly right. I don’t think this was possible because the buttons were really hard to press. You had to hit them several times to get anything, so it would have been difficult to achieve any kind of timing. Finally, the exit door was a bit disappointing. I know that escape rooms usually have an “emergency exit”, which is often the door you come in through or a door with a push button. In the 2nd room, there was a door, which, it being an escape room, we obviously went to open. There was no push button. It just opened onto the corridor, and then, the host came on the speaker and told us that was the emergency exit door and go back inside. It somewhat ruined the immersive experience, especially as it turns out that that WAS also the door you exit the game through. Perhaps, a warning not to open that one might be good? Overall, it was a good concept, but it’s disappointing when the room itself, rather than your own logic,...