Escape for Real: Portal review

Like Beyond Zero, the briefing is in its own separate room just outside the door to the room itself. The host was dressed in a white coat to add to the lab theme. However the brief was so long I can’t recall much of the story. The main bit I took from it was we needed to find the professor’s portal to be able to get the parallel world back to normal. The first room we entered was a white room full of science paraphernalia. There were multiple puzzles to do here, and we found ourselves splitting up and playing each game separately so you could miss some gameplay.

Once we moved on to the second room, the lab feel had gone. It was just a very large room with the odd puzzle scattered about, nothing special in here. When we entered the final room there was at least attempts to the theme due to the machine in the centre of the room. Again I felt the ending was anticlimactic considering we’d just saved the parallel universe.

We got briefed on our mission from the separate reception area outside the room. It was a long introduction that wasn’t performed with much gusto. The theming is OK, but not particularly strong. All the rooms are uncluttered with almost everything inside having a purpose. The first one does look like a lab with clinical white walls and science stuff. The second is very different to this, being dark with low light and a graffiti style wall. I’m not sure how this space fitted into the theme. Torches are required here but they didn’t provide us with any, instead telling us to use our phone torches. The final portal room had a vague time travel feel to it, but that was it. More could have been done here to make it more immersive and exciting, to end the game on a high.

[score only]

The puzzles in this game were a lot better than Beyond Zero. This may be due to the difficulty of the room. There was a nice mix of logic games and less hunting involved. Most of the puzzles are automated with a few sections to put a code in. There are a lot of challenges in the room and it’s hard to note everything that’s going on as you find yourself playing solo in parts, although you do come together when stuck and for the finale game. There was a slight flaw in the game where we were able to advance to the last room without completing all challenges, but we couldn’t use it to our advantage as we needed an item still locked up.

This is the hardest of Escape for Real’s two rooms, with a 5/5 difficulty according to their website. It was tricky but nothing too taxing for enthusiasts, as shown by our escape time of 47 minutes with one clue. Portal is full of techy hands-on logic puzzles along with some observation and audio based challenges. Expect robot manoeuvring, button pressing, object lifting, laser DJing and more! All the games made logical sense and some required teamwork. They are mostly linear but I did find myself splitting up from the team and solving one or two before we had unlocked the instructions for them by using educated guesswork. The puzzles are automated, using electromagnets to open locked spaces. There’s also a walkie talkie allowing us to talk with our host.

[score only]

This game was more enjoyable than their other room. I think it’s down to the variety of games and that the theming is stronger. I still felt the room was missing a climactic ending but I appreciate budgets may be tight. I may have scored the room higher but I found our host to be poor. It was hard to understand them on the radio and after we had escaped I felt they were not interested in how we enjoyed the game etc.

The long boring intro was not a good start to the game, but things improved once I entered the room and came face to face with big colourful buttons that I couldn’t resist pressing immediately! I liked the interactivity of the puzzles which brought my inner child out as I ran around pressing buttons, controlling robots, watching colourful lights and playing with lasers and sounds. Whilst I enjoyed the gameplay, the theming isn’t strong enough and I soon forgot what the story was. They told us that if a team doesn’t finish in 60 minutes, they will let them carry on until they do so that they get to experience the whole game, which I thought was a nice touch.

[score only]

The price for this game is average for a room of this calibre. There was a lot to do, and when there’s multiple tasks I feel like I always get my money’s worth. I feel if the host improves on the warmth of a welcome/farewell then most people will enjoy this game. It may be a bit tough for a newbie though.

£20 per person for a team of 4-6 people, or £22 for a team of 3, is a decent price for a high tech escape room that contains lots of fun hands-on puzzles and brainteasers. The theming doesn’t wow, but it’s a very playable game. They should have offered us torches though so we weren’t forced to use our phones and risk draining our batteries. As some of the puzzles are quite tough, I wouldn’t recommend playing this room unless at least one of you is an escape room regular. Escape for Real are unusually based in an out of the way business centre so driving there is easiest. Finding their entrance confused us. It turns out each room has its own reception area so don’t be afraid to open the door with ‘Portal’ written on it!

[score only]