Tag Archives: lockin escape

Now open in Manchester: Lockin Escape

Lockin Escape logoThis site has been beaten to the punch – and this site loves it!

As hinted at in the most recent League Table update, while searching TripAdvisor for exit games’ rankings, this site discovered that Manchester has four different exit games open, rather than three. This resolves the issue of “which will be the first city outside London to get to four games” once and for all… and it turns out it may have happened a couple of months earlier than expected.

The fourth site to have opened in Manchester actually turns out to have been The Escape Room, for the third site to have opened is Lockin Escape. Fresh from her detailed, must-read write-up of attending The Escape Room’s recent event – with, notably, a suggestion as to where The Escape Room might be expanding that this site hadn’t seen before – Girl Geek Up North yesterday was the first known site to review the Lockin Escape site.

The site opened in early January, though this was something of a soft launch with the official opening only happening on Sunday. The site is launching with three games: Treasure Hunter, Jail Break and Mission 60. There are all sixty-minute games, designed for teams of three to six.

The site has set some instant best practice in terms of helping people find which of its three games is most appropriate for their team by illustrating each of the three games’ demands not just with a single difficulty rating but with more specific radar charts, illustrating the extent to which the challenge each game poses in five different aspects.

  • The tense Jail Break particularly tests co-operation as “You and your fellow team members have carefully devised an escape plan. To execute the escape plan, you are now disguised as an officer and have gained access into the cell where your targets are held. Your goal is to interact with the secret prisoner and ensure that everyone successfully tunnels out of the cell before the alarms sounds and the guards return“.
     
  • The more difficult Mission 60 has an emphasis on observation when “After weeks of intensive investigation, the security forces remain unable to locate the whereabouts of the President’s son, who has been secretly abducted a month ago. […] As time passed with no word from the kidnappers, the President is becoming increasingly nervous and is losing patience. The President has instructed you and the Hostage Rescue Team to take on this rescue mission and to reveal the plot behind it“.
     
  • The last game, Treasure Hunter, has a high emphasis on mathematical and primarily physical ability. (There may be a clue in the graphic as to what sort of physical challenge is to be faced in the graphic.) “Le Espoir is the world’s most valuable piece of jeweling. This magnificent diamond necklace, unknown to others, is said to have mysterious power that could change the fate of the world. Reliable sources have disclosed that a number of top criminal enterprises have plotted to steal this jewel. Concerned for the future of the country, the State has teamed you up with group of treasure hunting talents to steal this extraordinary necklace before it’s too late. Your mission is to break into the chamber where Le Espoir is and to decode the series of high security systems guarding the jewel to find the greatest treasure in history“.

Which game best suits you? What sort of game are you in the mood for? There’s so much happening in the North-West; the more reports of just how these games compare to the others out there, the merrier, but the first report is extremely promising!