Worlds Away Escape — Attraction in Winchester

We did two of the rooms here: Nightshadow's Shroud and Detention Hall

Overall Impressions: The name of company is a delight and a deviation from the standard boring names and had my curiosity piqued. Like many escape rooms, the location isnt the clearest, but helpful signs and Dolly Parton guide the way.

The staff is extremely friendly and personable. Our game master John immediately meshed well with our group, getting everyone laughing and primed up before we started. The location is clean, with a comfortable lobby.

To communicate with the GM, you use a 2 way radio. I personally hate the use of radios for clues, unless it's something that adds to the immersion (for example, a WWII themed room) because it can very very difficult to hear their responses. On the plus side, the clues themselves were generally sent onto a monitor in the room, but sometimes the GM was asking clarifying questions in response to what we were asking him. It was difficult to hear.

Nightshadow's Shroud: 8/10 The story for this room involves trying to protect your coven of witches from persecution. I enjoy the twist of the oft-used theme of witches, where you are the witches rather than trying to defeat them. The puzzle flow was great, the room was spacious enough for our group of seven to operate without being on top of each other. The puzzle types were varied and creative, the room itself looked well maintained, clean, and immersive. I also have to give props to their sound, as the audio subtly adds to the story as you play.

The one puzzle that gave us the most trouble was because a member of our party stashed a major clue in a "completed" pile. After trying to help, and our team just getting more confused, the GM gave us an answer so we could continue in our game. I think this is an incredibly positive aspect and is a sign of a great escape room that cares about their participants. As a player, few things get more frustrating than your game grinding to a halt as you struggle with a puzzle, and a GM feeding you the same useless clue over and over. John saw we were stuck on one puzzle, offered a nudge, when the nudge failed, he offered a few clues. When those didn't work, he gave us the answer. After the room was done, he helped ensure we had each component, and gave us the chance to solve it again. Now that we had everything we needed (instead of a miscommunication in our team resulting in a critical piece cast to the side) the puzzle made sense, and we were able to reach the correct answer in a few seconds.

The game and experience was a delight, with a few surprises.

Detention Hall: 5/10 Where the first room commanded the theme and shined, Detention Hall does not. The puzzles themselves were generally good, but the flow wasnt as strong, and a few times we were left with a "now what?"

The room is large, but doesnt utilize the space, making the game feel underwhelming. One puzzle's main component was also pretty beat up, which made it a bit tougher to utilize.

That said, most of the puzzles themselves were solid and varied. One in particular was very bold to add into an escape room, but the use was brilliant and very impressive. The room would really benefit from some additional decorations and a soundtrack to add to the immersion. At its core, it is a fun room, and just needs the fixings and sprucing up to make it great.

Looking forward to returning and trying out even more of...

There aren’t clues, it is all number based and you have to get lucky to pick the right numbers for the right locks but nothing to assist with the order of resolving the locks. There is no flow from one lock to the next. The one overlay/word key was poorly drawn and did it line up without having to adjust every line. One of the locks we used the correct combination for over 10-min and it did not work. We know it was correct because the employee confirmed it was correct.

Edit to respond to owner: clues should be available in the room to indicate what order to solve puzzles. There was no such flow indicated by any of the puzzles it was just by luck to figure any of them out. We never refused any clues or help from the staff member. We did not break anything open. There was a drawer with a lock on it that was not fully closed to begin with and opened without the need for a key. Nothing was forced, your staff just failed to close it properly when they reset the room. And the lock that didn’t open with the right combination was done properly over and over, it was not user error. We successfully opened another lock with the...

We tried the escape room "The Nightshadow's Shroud" and I think our only complaint was the flashlights didn't give off a strong enough light so we could figure everything out. We managed to escape the room with seconds to go, but it was pretty tricky. The riddles and whatnot were not always easy... but the front staff gave us walkies to get unlimited hints and clues. Some of them (once we got the hint) were like "how did we miss that?" but overall, the experience was fun. I did ask about live actors because the website mentioned jump scares. I wasn't worried about a live actor touching me, more so as I am the type of person to SWING AND PUNCH THE THING that jumps out at me or touches me (didn't want to hurt anyone). My fun rating would've been higher if the themes were different, like a SAW movie theme or zombie theme... I'm sure they could put...