Present, in September 2021, were: The Ant, Aunty Ant

Our second room of the day at Agent Brains in the pretty garden city of Letchworth. We’d bopped our way through Back To The Future earlier and, after refreshing tea, toasties and cake at Esquires Coffee opposite (very nice), we were ready to be locked up again.

And this time, rather than the cheery home comforts of Back To The Future, we were being actually locked up – captured by ruthless mercenaries deep in the Letchworth jungle, we were slammed away into separate jail cells. (As always with split starts, be aware of this if you are a team with kids/total newbies – no fun being stuck in a cell while your clueless team-mates fumble helplessly around). Fortunately, for those with younger kids, this isn’t a full-on terrifying prison experience, with the emphasis very much more on a swashbuckling adventure. So don’t be too put off if you are of a nervous disposition, it is never dark or claustrophobic.

I have to admit, I was sceptical about how jungly this game was going to feel. It is a hard vibe to recreate indoors. But Agent Brains in my opinion do a fantastic job, right from the start. The set is quite simple but clever and immersive. No prop feels out of place and clearly a huge amount of thought and love has been put into creating a specific jungle atmosphere. Think “I’m A Celebrity”, without the kangaroo testicles or Z-list talent (depending on your team, I suppose) and you’ll be there. If you or your team have an extreme bug phobia (would have to be quite bad), you might not be enamoured with parts of the set, but as I said before, this isn’t a deliberately horror-filled game.

In terms of puzzles, it is a little harder than their Back To The Future room, with less observation and some more cryptic coding. One particular puzzle stumped us for ages, mainly a case of me not correctly reading the instructions! Mechanically, that task wasn’t perfect though, and Agent Brains did suggest they were looking at way of making it more robust. That was pretty much our sole frustration though, and a rare weakness in a high quality set.

I don’t like comparing rooms within a venue as to which is “better”, it is too difficult! For pure fun, I maybe enjoyed Back To The Future more, with the soundtrack and nostalgic vibe. But I really love the immersion and puzzle quality in Jungle Jailbreak, so probably from an Escape Room enthusiast’s viewpoint this game just edged it. Either way, you’d be assured of a great experience at Agent Brains and we’re keen to return for their lab room, Something In The Water.

• Storyline: Straightforward escape mission, well thought through to cover the “outside” location.
• Theming and Set: A fun jungle camp, nicely done.
• Searching: Not a priority, still something we managed a fail on though.
• Puzzles: All appropriate for the theme, quite mathsy but not in a homework-type way.
• Physicality: We did some possibly unnecessary crawling.
• Scare factor: Some tension, some mercenary jungle camp elements that could cause discomfort, but no actual scares.
• Company Age Guidance: “Whilst our games are not designed specifically for children and some of the puzzles may be tricky and confusing for the younger ones, our games are family friendly. Suitable for players aged 12+”
• Age suitability: A more mature room, in both theme and puzzle difficulty level, but still child-friendly. Most 12yos would probably love it.

Also at this venue: Back To The Future

Agent Brains website