Present, in July 2023, were: The Ant, Teenage Avenger, Jack-Jack, Aunty Ant

A big gap in our Escape Room CV for a long while has been Blackout in Milton Keynes. Localish to us, well-regarded in the area, with a very kid-friendly room option, it was always a surprise to me that we hadn’t made a visit. So, with Teenage Avenger booked into indoor skydiving nearby (recommended, as an observer anyway) we finally got ourselves sorted and into Blackout’s Bletchley base.

Our backstory is the classic forgotten recipe narrative – gather all the missing ingredients to make Jessie Jelly’s signature sweeties before the shop opens. Blackout have gone the route of a more regular sweetshop, rather than full Willy Wonka madness, but have remembered to include a little bit of magic as well. They have also been very vigilant with the main appeal of Candy Shop rooms – plenty of bonus sweets to be found!

First impressions – the room was cute (and smells amazing!), but quite small and quite warm, despite the provided fan. Our lovely GM Rachel explained there are plans to move the game to elsewhere in the sprawling office complex to update the game in a larger space, as it is one of their older designs. So bear that in mind for this review! They have put a lot of care in decoration, with genuine accessories and tubs of sweets, and the immediate draw of several accessible, intriguing puzzles. It is fun and cheery, but probably not the most immersive of rooms. Funnily enough, this is a similar impression to some other sweetie games we’ve played – plenty of love but not a lot of wow.

The puzzles are generally entertaining and our youngest team member was able to contribute. Blackout have employed a child-friendly signposting system to link the puzzles with their locks, which was definitely a winner with Jack-Jack and makes this one of the most accessible games we have played for under-10s. There’s a bit of maths, a bit of searching, some word stuff (I liked that one) and some more practical tasks. Some of it drifted into “busy work” which suits inexperienced teams more than practised escapers (one sequence in particular we thought was far too long), but it has the advantage of rewarding teamwork. We were also able to work on more than one puzzle simultaneously, so no-one should feel left out.

I loved the sweet ending, and Jack-Jack was suitably wowed and delighted (the cynical teenager had to be shushed to avoid spoiling the magic…). I’d very much like to see what Blackout can do with a bigger space for this charming game. I’m not sure we can summon a courageous team to try their more alarming-sounding offerings (the teenagers might talk a good game…) but Blackout is definitely a venue worth a return visit.

• Storyline: Find the ingredients, make the sweets (then eat the sweets, yay).
• Theming and Set: Bijou and tasty. Would be a squish with 6, unless several of them are small humans.
• Searching: More observation than searching for stuff, good for eagle-eyed youngsters.
• Puzzles: Fairly straightforward.
• Physicality: Only chewing. A decent jaw workout.
• Scare factor: None, although occasionally (maybe twice, for us) some screaming/banging does leak through from the nearby horror rooms.
• Company Age Guidance: “Recommended minimum age: 8”.
• Age suitability: A sharp 6 or 7 year old would be fine in here. There are small objects, so not toddler-safe. Teenagers might be a little less engrossed, but can usually be bribed with chocolate.

Blackout website