Company:
Trapped Escape Rooms

Location:
Corner of Honour Lea Avenue & Sunrise Close, East Village, Stratford, London, E20 1DU

Synopsis:
You’re normally so careful. Or, maybe you’ve just been lucky up until now. You never thought you’d get caught. And yet, here you are, on your way to Pentonville. Well, you can’t have that, can you? Prison orange really doesn’t suit you… First step: Stop the van. Second step: Escape. Third step: Retire to the Bahamas. Simple enough, isn’t it? Well, let’s just hope that luck sees you out. You and your gang have been arrested and found guilty. A life sentence at HM Prison Pentonville awaits you all. Can you stop the van and escape within 60 minutes or will you be trapped forever behind bars?

Date we visited:
23 May 2018

Price at time of visit:
£25 per person for a group of 4

Goats attended:
Daiman, Jenny, Paul, Bharath

Did we escape?
No

Value for money

8/10For what these guys offered, you got a lot for your money – over the course of the hour, we encountered three actors and a unique, genuine location which increased the production value immensely.

 Daiman

8/10The value for money in this game was brilliant as we were lucky to get a room with just the four of us. More than four may make it even more difficult to walk around (more on that later). When you arrive you see the police van in the car park and soon enough your host meets you for your sentencing. I loved the additional value elements with the required clothing and the use of multiple staff.

Jenny

8/10For a really realistic and authentic experience with a surprisingly high number of staff/actors, this room is a bit of a steal, excuse the pun, at £25 each. However, it’s for up to 8 people and you may get joined with strangers. Thankfully we weren’t as it would have been extremely cramped and far less enjoyable, which would have lowered my score to around 5/10.

Paul

8/10In terms of price, it’s middle of the scale for cost, compared to other escape rooms. There is value due to the realism of the room.

 Bharath

Theming

9/10It’s an actual prison van so, yeah, the theming was pretty good! There were some other little touches that contributed to the experience, such as our entrance to the game. It was a pretty immersive experience. However, have to add that this made the escape game elements stick out a mile – I would’ve loved the game to be full of logical tasks which the opening then promised but slightly betrayed as the game went on.

 Daiman

10/10I feel like I am being a bit generous here but there was nothing more they could have done on making this experience any more on point than they did. From the orange jumpsuits, to the handcuffs, to the van itself when we were locked in the cell for transport. The acting was excellent and made this game really stand out for me.

Jenny

9/10They have excelled at the theming here. Obviously being set in a real prison van helps, but they’ve done really well tying the puzzles into the story, as well as adding extras like the chain link fence, handcuffs, boiler suits and acting. You don’t ask for clues, they are (sometimes) given to you by the convicts in the van with you when they can see you’re struggling. As everything is self-contained in the van, it helps get you properly immersed in the task of trying to break out of the van before the prison guard returns.

Paul

8/10The theming is where I feel quite positive about this room. You are put in a prison suit and cuffs at the start of the experience. To get out of the van you had to use realistic ways and measures to get out as if it was a real life situation, however half way through you started to use codes and padlocks which made it a little less realistic.

 Bharath

Uniqueness

8/10The location, the number of actors and the theatric opening all combined to make for a game that feels pretty unique. As noted above though, the devolution into standard escape game tropes let down what was a great set up.

 Daiman

7/10This was my first experience at being locked in a prison van, however I feel after playing The Executioner that the overall idea is not completely unique. That being said, the way they deliver clues is unique but may not be popular for all gamers.

Jenny

9/10You play this game inside a real prison van with all of your limbs cuffed together. There are actors playing the role of other convicts in the van with you, who both help and hinder you. I’ve not played a game with this level of realism before and it really made the difference.

Paul

8/10This escape room is a bit different from other escape rooms as it’s held in a real life prison van and the puzzles were more realistic to the nature of the room.

 Bharath

Puzzles

5/10This is where the game lost me. I’d say that they were logical but they mostly weren’t that fun and felt like they existed merely to get you from A to B. There are some great moments though where you need to do things that you would actually have to do if you needed to break free from a van. They just need to cut back on the cryptic stuff as it doesn’t fit the theme at all.

 Daiman

5/10I loved this game, however, I feel the puzzles were quite weak. It had the usual hunting element, logical puzzles and a brain teaser! Nothing really stood out here for me.

Jenny

7/10They did well to fit in as much as they did in such a confined space. The puzzles are on the basic side, but I don’t begrudge them of that because of the limited space available and also because they fitted the premise perfectly. You need to do a lot of searching and work well together as a team. Although basic, some of the puzzles were very tricky – there were two that I don’t think we would have ever solved without help.

Paul

7/10The puzzles itself were medium to tough complexity, which were made harder by being in cuffs. They were in line with the room.

 Bharath

The good

The overall experience. This is a fun game and will completely immerse you for the whole hour. I was genuinely surprised at the level of effort that they went to here – they could have very easily just left us in the van for an hour but they considered the whole experience which was great.

 Daiman

For me, the set design was outstanding, the cast were excellent and I was really impressed that they managed to make such a good experience out of a prison van!

Jenny

I’m surprised at how much they fit into one van. I expected it to be quite basic and simple because of the tight space and limited options available, but it was far from it. The theming was fantastic, with every part of the experience linking to it perfectly. The male convict that was in the van with us was really convincing and added a lot of humour, banter and cockiness to the experience, which helped make the game for me.

Paul

There were live actors in the room which made the experience different for me. They added the comedy factor and were the clue system for the room. They made you question whether to trust them or not. I liked also how each individual team member was given a criminal backstory, though it was not used much in the actual game.

 Bharath

The bad

The ‘escape game’ puzzles spoiling everything else around the game. I know it’s very easy to say that from this perspective but there were a number of instances where we performing logical tasks and this is where the game shined, complementing the location and acting to make it feel like a genuine prison break!

 Daiman

The puzzles were really weak for me, and I was also frustrated that we played the whole game in handcuffs as we couldn’t find the damn keys! Lastly, I strongly advise you put the handcuffs over the jumpsuit and not straight on your skin! I had marks for days which was hard to explain to my mum!

Jenny

Some of the puzzles were a bit too tricky. Even though we knew what we needed to do, we couldn’t work out the logic needed to get the answers. Once we were given the answers, I didn’t feel cheated but I was left thinking that we would never have got there without clues. The female convict didn’t add a lot, staying pretty quiet throughout. The cuffs may start hurting you after a while!

Paul

Though the live actors brought the comedy factor, the clues that were given were not always clear and at times I wasn’t sure if they were actual clues or whether they were being a nuisance. For me personally this was annoying at times. However, these live actors were given these personas. My wrists and ankles did feel a little sore at the end of the room due to the cuffs.

 Bharath

Overall scores