Tag Archives: preston

Now open in Preston: The Escape Room

Preston planning application excerptThe above diagram contains part of the planning application for the site under discussion today – though, obviously, it’s been clipped so any parts with potential spoilers are kept way out of view!

The Escape Room in Manchester has been open since mid-December and has become so popular that you often need to book ahead to play any of its five rooms. It has attracted several celebrity players; this site has referred to Manchester United’s number 17, Daley Blind, as its official footballer because he’s a regular there. Anyone can make a single appearance; to go back for a fourth game shows that he must be a big fan. (Wonder if he’s played any exit games anywhere else?)

This site recalls, but cannot immediately find, a Facebook post suggesting that The Escape Room plan to expand to six locations within the UK. The site’s Facebook offers a hint that the third will be in Birmingham, to be confirmed; however, the second site to open will definitely be in Preston. The first couple of team photos have already been posted, suggesting that a soft opening took place yesterday; excitingly, a launch party has been announced for Thursday evening. The Preston location sells food and drink and has a large communal area to enjoy, though doesn’t feature a licensed bar in the same style as the Manchester location.

Escape Room scareIn Preston, you can play five games in the business’s distinctive style that led to photos like the one above, one of this site’s favourite team photos of all time. Preston has the same The Mummy and Prison Break games as Manchester, but Manchester veterans have excellent reason to come back and enjoy three new games.

Gallery is a heist story. “A challenge has been sent out to international art thieves by the self-proclaimed ‘thief-proof’ gallery. You are a Master Art-Thief, and you have assembled a crew of criminal specialists with years of experience to aid you in breaking into this gallery, and your aim is for their most prized possession; the priceless painting being exhibited there for a one-day event. Security in the gallery has been set to its maximum level for this particular event, and you have chosen the very same day to execute your plans. You and your team only have 60 minutes to infiltrate the gallery, bypass the high-tech security system, steal the priceless painting, and escape before you are caught within the act.

The Vampire Chronicles is a supernatural tale without a sparkle in sight. “You hold the key to breaking the deadlock and potentially ending the 1000-year war between humans and vampires, and you have been marked for death by Ambrogio; the Vampire King. His vampire subordinates have killed your family and caught you and your comrades, whilst simultaneously holding you captive in his castle. You are given 60 minutes to navigate your way through his cursed lair to escape and bring an end the war and finally bring peace upon the land.

As for Taken, well, any excuse to link to this QMSM joke is not to be missed. “The boss’s daughter has been abducted and taken for ransom by a mob, consisting of internationally wanted criminals. The authorities have gathered the information needed to pinpoint the place where she is held captive, and you have been entrusted with her safe and immediate return. Now, with time running out, you find yourself in a life and death race against the clock as the abduction begins to spiral towards a terrifying and deadly conclusion. You have 60 minutes to utilize the tools and skills within your disposal to rescue the boss’s daughter and getaway before the kidnappers return.

All five games have 60-minute time limits; the pricing structure is similar to that of Manchester but a little more severe; teams of two and three will pay a shade more in Preston than in Manchester (£22/person and £20/person respectively), the price for teams of four is the same at £18/person and teams of five and six will pay a shade less in Preston (£16/person and £15/person respectively). There’s a 10% discount for booking online as well, at least for now.

Exit Games UK hopes that Preston proves to enjoy its facility just as much as the inhabitants of Manchester have done!

Very late July news round-up

News round-upFor a link to a copy of the premiere of Race to Escape, see the previous post. Other than that, here are some news stories from closer to home.

1) The Escape Room of Manchester recently posted to Facebook that “Preston here we come and it’ll be open to the public in 30 days!” – exciting times. This site interprets the hash tags used to imply that the site will launch with two games already available in Manchester and three other games. Additionally, The Escape Room also commented that “We will announce the 3rd site in 2 weeks” – and no longer can you look for spoilers on the Escape Room International site as to where it might be, curses.

BlogPreston points to a planning application which hints at an address within Preston. Now some of the plans on the application itself (which are, arguably, possibly a little spoiler-y with regards to room layouts) hint at either it being an application for just that site, or perhaps for a second exit game whose rooms have suspiciously similar names. This would surely seem implausible, but, just on the wild off-chance: hey, the more the merrier – and lucky old Preston!

2) Escape Quest of Macclesfield recently posted news of their third game, Bad Clown. This site gets the impression that it’s not the Michael Jackson sort of “bad” either.

This game will be the first 90 minute room escape game in the UK, and the aim of the game is not only to find a way out of Mr Chuckles funhouse, but also to collect as many golden tickets along the way as you can. There will be several ways to gain golden tickets including finding and winning them throughout the duration of the challenge.

Bad Clown is not for the faint hearted, it will be played in very low light or occasionally complete darkness, and will be full of fun and frights. Mr Chuckles enjoys making his visitor jump and squirm. As such we recommend an age limit of 15+ with one adult accompanying every player under 18. It also means that pregnant ladies and people with heart conditions will be unable to play.

Advanced booking is now open from the 10th October 2015 onwards, and to celebrate our biggest, scariest and toughest challenge to date we have decided to dedicate Halloween 2015 at Escape Quest to Mr Chuckles with an exclusive chance to book one of a limited number of 13 games over the Halloween weekend, including a late night game on the 31st October which will see your team play well into the midnight hour.

Exit Games UK understands that this late-night scariest-of-scary games has already been booked by the Escape Game Addicts team – who were, incidentally, the first team to beat Breakout Liverpool‘s Wild West-themed Wanted room, when played from the perspective of the Indians.

3) You’ll hopefully understand and accept the reasons for the brief and somewhat detached coverage of these following announcements:

Colin Baker (no, not Six!) of Thames Underwriting wrote that they had “had a high level of enquiries recently which we have been able to help with as apparently most markets will not provide cover“. This site isn’t in the position to know whether exit games really are struggling to find insurance, or whether the thought of an insurer who is willing to specialise in the concerns of exit games would be valuable, or how good any particular insurance company is. Nevertheless, if it’s an issue, consider mailing Colin directly.

John Jacobs of Quirky Caches also got in touch. The titular caches refer to bespoke containers for geocaches, both sufficiently rugged to deal with the outdoor conditions and original in their design, featuring puzzles that must be solved to be opened. He’s clearly a highly skilled craftsman and has apparently already been supplying UK exit games with bespoke props. His site and social media have examples of his work; whether you’re looking for something for your room, or just for your own unusual storage requirements, he might have something relevant to your interests.