Company:
Deadlocked

Location:
122 Castle Street, Reading, RG1 7RG

Synopsis:
Professor Bradley Samwell, the head of research at the Wexell Corporation, has gone missing. His bizarre disappearance coincides with the completion of some rather questionable, but valuable research on a project called ‘Phoenix’. The Wexell Corporation has asked your team, with your very specific set of skills, to investigate the missing employee and retrieve the research. But what if there is more to this research, and this company than lies on the surface?

Date we visited:
24 February 2018

Price at time of visit:
£19 per person for a group of 4

Goats attended:
Daiman, Jenny, Paul, Bharath

Did we escape?
Yes, with around 9 minutes to spare

Value for money

7/10At £19pp (for our group of four), it’s at the lower end of the price scale and you get a well crafted game. It maybe isn’t the most exciting of games but it’s a good starter room.

 Daiman

7/10At £19, the price is very reasonable compared to other games. The experience will be great for all ages.

Jenny

7/10At £19 each for a team of 4, it’s a very reasonable price for what is a decent if unspectacular game.

Paul

7/10Definitely value for money as it was a fun experience for a reasonably low price.

 Bharath

Theming

6/10It’s another office. In that sense, it’s well-themed but studies are a setting that we’ve seen many, many times before. However, there’s a cool clue system that is on-theme for the room and all the puzzles feel like they belong.

 Daiman

6/10The theme is an office so there’s not much that can be done to enhance the setting, however the clues were on point and I felt the puzzles went well with the theme.

Jenny

6/10There are so many office-themed escape rooms out there, so this is completely unoriginal. However, the second space that is revealed during the game is more exciting. The post box idea, where you have the option of opening the box for a clue which can either help or hinder you, is a fun addition and the way it works is clever.

Paul

7/10This escape room is based in an office, so the theme has been done before. However what I like about this room is how the puzzles were in sync to the theming of the room and followed a story. If you do their other rooms, you can start to see how the rooms connect to each other.

 Bharath

Uniqueness

6/10To be honest, this would have been a lower score but there’s a couple of features that help freshen up a familiar theme. One was the aforementioned clue system, another is something that you encounter at some point during the game. I really don’t want to say anything else about it but I guarantee that you won’t see it in another game!

 Daiman

7/10This room was unique in the way they added an element to the game that you may not experience in other rooms. The set design and puzzles were quite standard but I did like the fact that there were minimal padlocks.

Jenny

6/10It looks like an office as intended, but it’s a simple set to create and lacks excitement, having seen this scenario many times before.

Paul

7/10What is different about this escape room is that you are given a decision to make. This is something you will be discussing in the pub afterwards. There is also a bonus ending for the really speedy teams which cranks the difficulty level up a notch. Talking to host afterwards, as it’s such a fun ending, it may be introduced into the main game.

 Bharath

Puzzles

6/10They did the job. Nothing was unfair and there was enough variety to play to different people’s strengths. As also mentioned, they were on-theme which is a big deal.

 Daiman

6/10The puzzles were fairly standard in this room, however they did stick to the theme which enhanced my score. I really enjoyed the mixture of logic/skill puzzles especially the game towards the end.

Jenny

7/10The puzzles here are on the difficult end of the scale. However the room has multiple endings so the games master can modify the game to suit the team playing it, so pros end up with more, and harder, puzzles compared to newbies. I found the games varied and the answers made sense.

Paul

6/10The puzzles in this escape room were fun to do, they were varied and there were lots to do. I would consider this room generally a non-linear based puzzle room so people can go off and get on with different puzzles at the same time. The puzzles itself were pretty generic to escape rooms, so I have seen these type of puzzles before. For people who have done escape rooms before they won’t find this room that difficult. The puzzles were mainly logic based.

 Bharath

The good

Despite the theme being an escape room trope, there was enough added to the experience to bring a bit more life to the game. It shows that the guys behind the game aren’t being complacent and were cognizant of that fact. And, as much as I mention the theme, I should add that it has a very good reason for being what it is – it’s not another Sherlock’s study!

 Daiman

Having played so many office rooms before, it’s hard not to compare games. This room excelled in keeping clues and puzzles on theme, plus I really like the secret option in this game. Our host James also added to the good experience.

Jenny

I liked the post box idea which I’ve not seen done before. The pre-recorded clues to help you if you get stuck are well done and keep the game on theme. The games master was very passionate.

Paul

For an office based theme compared to other escape rooms I have been to,  it’s at the better end of the scale. I like how the gameplay can change depending on the decisions you make. The bonus ending is a nice feature too.

 Bharath

The bad

I think you probably know what I’m going to say here! I’m definitely at the point where I’ve seen more office type rooms than I’d like!

 Daiman

I feel the office room is a little outdated now.

Jenny

The office theme is dull and has been done many times before so I lacked excitement for it. Their lobby/waiting room was cluttered and messy.

Paul

As it’s an office based theme there is no ‘wow’ factor in this game. The production values can be improved.

 Bharath

Overall scores