The Game: The Kidnapping review

Published by Escape Goats on

Company:
The Game

Location:
Paris, France

Synopsis:
It’s Paris in 1959 and Lise, a young cabaret dancer idolised by many, has been kidnapped. The criminals want a specific item to free her but the family can’t find it. You are the hired investigator whose job is to find the mysterious item and rescue Lise.

Date we visited:
26 November 2017

Price at time of visit:
€28 per person

Goats attended:
Daiman, Jenny, Paul, Bharath

Did we escape?
Yes – in 50 minutes with 3 clues given but not asked for

Value for money

7/10For a well crafted room with prices comparable to other games, The Kidnapping offers good value. However, the room isn’t incredibly flashy though this is a minor point all things considered!

 Daiman

8/10At €28 this was at the upper end of pricing. With the added hospitality of the free drink on entry, the friendliness of the staff and the quality of the rooms this is definitely worth the money.

Jenny

7/10At £25 each once converted to pounds, it’s an average price. It’s not a big budget room, but it’s very enjoyable, which makes this worth the money.

Paul

7/10At €28 per person, it felt like good value for money.

 Bharath

Theming

7/10The story takes place in an apartment and it certainly looks the part. The fact that it is set in an apartment though means that it isn’t the most exciting set.

 Daiman

8/10Even though the room is basically someone’s apartment the quality of the room is excellent. The design had a real feel that you were literally in someone’s bedroom trying to find clues as to where the missing person was. I loved the added perks of the photos and keepsakes scattered around. The host was also brilliant on the delivery of the story of the room and kept the passion going throughout.

Jenny

7/10They did a decent job with the theming. As I mentioned above, they haven’t spent a lot of money on the set design, but they did well with the smaller budget. Linking the safety talk to the theme was a nice touch.

Paul

7/10The puzzles as a collective suited the room well and seemed logical. It felt like you were in a French apartment.

 Bharath

Uniqueness

6/10It’s a very simple room with one or two surprises but definitely nothing that you won’t have encountered before if you frequent escape games.

 Daiman

6/10As we were literally in someone’s room, there was no real difference to the other places we’ve visited. However the way the company focus on every aspect of the ‘escape room’ experience it didn’t matter to me that we’ve played similar games and scenarios before.

Jenny

5/10There is nothing particularly unique about the room, theme or the games. It’s all pretty standard fare.

Paul

5/10I wouldn’t say the room was that unique, I have seen these puzzles before in other escape rooms.

 Bharath

Puzzles

8/10This is where The Kidnapping shone. Whilst, again, there wasn’t much that was particularly fresh about the puzzles, they were extremely well crafted, logical and on theme. It was a joy to play through.

 Daiman

8/10All the puzzles had a logic to them and were solvable. There was still the general hunt for items but I liked the added perk of where clues were hidden. I particularly liked the musical element to the game. The company really outdid themselves on the games to deliver a great experience.

Jenny

8/10There are no standout games and there’s nothing unique about them, but they are all well designed logic games that are really enjoyable to solve.

Paul

7/10You need to be good at searching as you need to check everything. The puzzles mainly required logic with little skill required, there was only one skill game. They were not particularly hard, especially for someone who has done escape rooms before but were fun to play.

 Bharath

The good

The Kidnapping is a wonderfully put together game with a great flow and puzzles that are perfectly balanced.

 Daiman

I found the host Tommy really friendly and the delivery of the story was excellent even though English is his second language. I also like how the company delivered a basic theme and puzzles to such a high standard.

Jenny

Great selection of puzzles and there was always something for all 4 of us to be able to do. All puzzles were solvable and I didn’t feel cheated by the three that we needed help on.

Paul

The host got into character and was passionate about the game. After we got out we had a good 10 – 15 min chat with him about the different elements of the room.

 Bharath

The bad

On paper, there is nothing exceptional about this game at all. This doesn’t hinder it however because the design overcomes the basic nature of the room.

 Daiman

I liked this room so much I can’t think of a negative. Perhaps there could have been more difficult puzzles?

Jenny

None of the puzzles were particularly original and I’ve played variations of them before. But because they were all so enjoyable and well made, this is only a minor negative.

Paul

Even though I prefer the logic games, maybe a couple more skill games to balance the room out would be good.

 Bharath

Overall scores

  • Value for money - 7.25/10
    7.3/10
  • Theming - 7.25/10
    7.3/10
  • Uniqueness - 5.5/10
    5.5/10
  • Puzzles - 7.75/10
    7.8/10
6.9/10