Present, August 2019, were: Aunty Ant, Lioness, Parker, Amazing J.

Hi! Aunty Ant here, with my first blog review. I’ve been out and about doing a few rooms over the holidays and The Ant asked if I would like to let you all know what I thought of them.

I don’t get to see Lioness, Parker & Amazing J very often, but when we all get together it’s become a bit of a tradition to do an escape room; hence we found ourselves at Locked In North Wales in Abergele, Conwy at the end of an action-packed few days in Snowdonia. Having spent two days zipping, bouncing and swinging our way around the various activities that the Zip World parks offer (definitely worth a visit if you have an adventurous streak or have children with boundless energy) we decided something more cerebral was needed for a few hours.

And we needed to be sharp as the CSI Crime Scene game was certainly jam-packed with plenty for the four of us to do. The 13% success rate was slightly daunting, but the enthusiastic GM explained that the theme made it a very popular room for wannabe-Grissom Escape Room newbies (we’d chosen that room purely because the timings worked best for us, honest!) and it wasn’t really a first-timers room so that dragged the percentage down.

I really enjoyed this game. First impressions count for a lot and although the game foyer was just functional, we got a marvellous welcome from the host who was passionate about the rooms and also clearly wanted us to enjoy the experience. I’ve had some very underwhelming room introductions and while I’m not expecting Oscar-worthy speeches, and some role-play characters can veer too much on the cheesy side, a pleasant greeting is not too much to ask! 

The room itself wasn’t enormous, the maximum 6 players is sensible and the four of us moved around fairly comfortably. The problem with a ‘who-dunnit’ house-based theme is it doesn’t give much scope for a particularly unique set, although there was a nicely done first phase of play. I thought there was a really good mix of puzzle styles here, including a little bit of tech, without anything being particularly ‘wow’. The structure isn’t too linear and there was plenty to do, keeping us occupied in pairs most of the way through, and it all came together nicely for the conclusion. One fairly large niggle that is one of my game bug-bears – at least make the clues clear enough to be able to read! Not being able to identify the answer even when you have all the info in front of you doesn’t enhance the experience of trying to solve a puzzle in my opinion! 

Despite that, this room definitely gets the thumbs up from the GATAPAE 2nd team and it’s a shame it’s too far away to go and try the other rooms on offer.

• Storyline:  Solid (if unoriginal) and the tasks follow the narrative well.
• Theming and Set: Done as well as they could for a ‘house search’ theme.
• Searching: A reasonable amount, although we found some things ahead of ourselves .
• Puzzles: Good variety and plenty of them, including a bit of tech that we needed help how to work!
• Physicality: None.
• Scare factor: None.
• Company Age Guidance: 12 and up, under 16’s need accompanying adult.
• Age suitability: Age guidance is appropriate, grown-ups definitely needed, due to the quantity of tasks more than the difficulty of any individual puzzles.

Locked In North Wales website