Company:
Deadlocked

Location:
122 Castle Street, Reading, RG1 7RG

Synopsis:
The Wexell Corporation has developed an artificial intelligence, designed to create bespoke escape rooms that adapt to the competency of the players in real-time. This exciting technology of tomorrow is not yet ready for widespread use, but this is your opportunity to get a sneak peek and apply to Wexell to become a beta-tester. You will be tasked with testing the system to it’s limits and provide feedback about how to improve it for the future; that is, as long as nothing goes wrong in the process.

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 10 minutes to spare

Value for money

8/10£19pp (as a group of four) is definitely worth it for this game. It’s in the cheaper half of room prices and you get a theme/game that feels fresh.

 Daiman

8/10At £19, this room is the lower end of the scale for price. The room was a fun experience, and the host was very entertaining.

Jenny

8/10At £19 each for a team of 4, it’s a very reasonable price. The room is fun to play with some interesting ideas, but it’s not for everyone. More on that in a bit.

Paul

7/10This escape room is on the lower end of the price scale and for the experience you get it’s worth a look.

 Bharath

Theming

7/10The first space that you enter looks and feels really cool with a very clinical atmosphere. The later parts of the game, though they absolutely have a reason for looking the way that they do, don’t feel as fun to explore. Again, the clue system is on theme which makes a huge difference.

 Daiman

6/10The set design is to make you feel like you are about to test an escape room before it went live to the public. The first room was just a white room with nothing else in it, however when you get through to the next stage the design improves and seems more on point. The host and the clue system kept on theme which helped raise my score.

Jenny

6/10The room is a bit rough and ready with a homemade feel to it, but there are some clever uses of technology in there. I feel the theme will be very Marmite – you’ll either love it or hate it. It is full of geeky things like computer parts and binary codes which will put some people off. I loved it personally.

Paul

6/10The production values varied in the game, I thought they were better in the first section of the game where you get more of a testing chamber feel compared to the second section.

 Bharath

Uniqueness

7/10The theme is definitely something that we haven’t encountered before. I loved the first space and there’s another element in the game that we don’t want to spoil but could make for some fun moments! The second part of the game felt a bit more conventional.

 Daiman

8/10Being behind the scenes in a beta test for an escape room felt unique to other games I had played. The company had a great idea with the puzzles and I found the technology in this room far superior than others I’d played.

Jenny

8/10There’s a lot of unique ideas and puzzles here. Whereas their other room The Phoenix Research is a stereotypical escape room, this one goes very experimental. You start off in a seemingly empty white room and end up in a tech filled chamber.

Paul

7/10This room could end in different ways depending on the actions you take. Like their Phoenix room, the decisions you make can impact on the experience you have.

 Bharath

Puzzles

8/10This is where the game excelled for me. The game was very clear with the objectives that needed to be carried out and structured them in a way that individuals could work on parts by themselves. This meant that there wasn’t any standing around waiting for someone else to finish something. They were logical, fair and on-theme.

 Daiman

8/10The puzzles were a lot more advanced in difficulty than I’d experienced and I really enjoyed some of the technology used in the game. The puzzles were logical and there seemed to be plenty for all of our team to do. I also liked how the clue system was on point.

Jenny

8/10There were quite a few games and ideas that I have never seen in an escape room before. They relied heavily on tech which was cleverly used. Once into the second room, the games weren’t linear which meant you could split up and do your own thing and not find yourself just watching from afar.

Paul

8/10The puzzles in this room definitely feel more quirky compared to other escape rooms that I have seen. They are more based around technology and you get to interact with their AI system. Some of the comments that EROS made were interesting to say the least.

 Bharath

The good

This was a wonderfully crafted game. It was just a joy to play and I was surprised by the amount of tech that there was in the room. It’s an extremely ambitious experience but it manages to stick the landing.

 Daiman

I liked the difficulty and uniqueness to this game. The added advanced technology really increased the experience of this room.

Jenny

I liked the innovative use of the tech and the added bits of humour. After being underwhelmed by their other room, this brought in a much-needed kick of excitement and uniqueness.

Paul

How the puzzles fitted together and added to the story is what made this a fun room to do. The added bonus of multiple endings adds to this experience too.

 Bharath

The bad

I think the second area of the game wasn’t as exciting as the first part but I absolutely understand that it needed to be the way that it was. The first room spoiled me a bit!

 Daiman

I feel the theming was a little limited in this game, and that the difficulty level may reduce people’s experience of this room.

Jenny

The theme and tasks will alienate some people. The room lacked polish with a handmade feel to it. Their lobby/waiting room was cluttered and messy.

Paul

There were times where I was unsure whether we were progressing or not as it wasn’t always clear on whether the puzzle was solved or not.

 Bharath

Overall scores