ITSMYYARD

It is human nature to have an addiction. For me lately it has been doing escape rooms. For the past year I've dotted about Scotland doing multiple escape rooms, with a perfect record of escaping them all with my fellow comrades. This was going to change though as I ventured down south on holiday this past week. I've known for quite some time that the escape rooms down south are a lot more advanced than the rooms up here in the North East of Scotland. With only Dundee having one company so far, and Aberdeen having three, there isn't much you can do before you have to venture much further afield to get a fix.

At the time of writing I've done more than 50% of all possible rooms up in this area, although that will quickly change in the next few weeks with another two booked for Breakout Aberdeen. None of the rooms done in Scotland have been bad, but when you compare them to the room we did in Derby, they're just pale in comparison. All the rooms we've done here have been beginner friendly and while that's great to start with, you don't get sucked in to the atmosphere. This can be because of the rooms still feeling like office blocks more than anything, this is where Game Over excels at... Having just done an escape room a mere couple of hours earlier in Mansfield (which i'll cover in another post too.)

Me and my fellow bear spotted a discount voucher for Game Over Derby for 2 people for only £19 (BARGAIN!). There was some constraints, Mon-Thurs til 9pm. That was no problem for us as it was Thursday afternoon. What was even more fantastic was we were able to book straight away. The drawbacks with a lot of Scottish rooms is having to book 24-18 hours in advanced. With less population and popularity up North, from a business standpoint I completely understand why companies do this but it does limit spur of the moment opportunities. A quick phone call asking to book a room in 90 minutes time was not a problem, so we quickly drove down, ready and willing to face their most difficult room. Of course I didn't tell my friend that we were doing the hardest room possible until after I booked it... ooopsies!

Following the Sat Nav to the destination was easy enough, with plenty of parking available near-by, albeit short term pay and display being £3 for 90 minutes...we're Scottish we find anything too expensive! The sign for Game Over was clearly visible, a simple buzz of the door and we ascended up the stairs to the second floor of the office building. Once entering their domain however... it didn't feel like an office building any longer. Standards on this room compared to any other room went up ten notches and my expectations went up increasingly. We were greeted handsomely by a gentleman named Bryan if I recall (if I've got this one I do apologise!) who was our Games Master for this evening.

Big Tip for anyone who does escape rooms. If you see an advert on any discount code site for an escape room, it's always an idea to contact them directly first before buying any vouchers or discount codes. While you probably won't get it any cheaper from them, any time you buy a voucher, the escape room will not receive the full amount in most cases of the voucher price, where as going directly means they get 100%.

Our GM explained the normal jibs and jabs of the escape room in question, before telling us the exciting success rate of their new room... Of 60 attempts... only 2 had escaped in time... gulp. 'Can we just leave now then?' Too late! We venture forth into the darkness. The room itself had a self-help hint system in place. If you were stuck you could press an automatic help button to be given a hint. The hints wouldn't be game breaking, but can be enough to push you through any potential problems you have. There was also a big red button to directly contact the GM if you were stuck as well, although he would never tell you anything directly obvious either.

I won't give any puzzles or obstacles away, but I will say that this room would be a tad easier if there were 3 people and not two for a couple of puzzles, although both me and my friend were able to get through them with a bit of improvisation. The atmosphere was fantastic, a lot of time, effort and money was spent on the room to give full immersion. The speakers bellowing out our GM's helpful offerings was like a God playing with his food, it didn't hurt the atmosphere, in fact it probably embraced it even more.

As time was etching closer we knew were on the very final puzzle of the room. If it wasn't for our own blind stupidity not spotting one vital thing which we should've seen we may have stood a chance at escaping. My friend begged to differ at the time but on further reflection agrees with me that we had enough time to complete it. When the GM showed us the solution I was gutted... but that made me love the room even more. The Montezuma room is definitely a challenging room but certainly possible and the puzzles are very well integrated and show good synergy, something some rooms our lacking.

If it wasn't for being over 7 hours drive to get to Derby we would happily go again as soon as possible to try out their other rooms. Hospitality before, during and after was impeccable. For escape room junkies this room is an absolute must!