Room Story - from Escape Quest
The S.S.B (Special Scientific Branch) work undercover for the government and have been called in to help.
Setting up a covert operation to watch and track a selected number of scientists they have now located an area of suspicious activity, an old mill building on the edge of town where these scientists were seen to go in but never came out.
show more.... We sent in a team of our best undercover agents and managed to get a little information about what’s going on inside. It seems that the person responsible for these disappearances is a man known only as Dr Argon.
After taking the scientists prisoner he is forcing them to attempt to harness the power of 12 rare elements, combining these will activate and power the rarest element of all - The 13th Element, this is the element of immortality and its power can only be used by one person.
Your task as agents working for the S.S.B is to enter the building, infiltrate the lab and work together to harness the power of these 12 elements, once the 13th element is activated you need to enter Dr Argon's office, initiate the self destruct sequence & get out fast.
You will need to work quickly as the extremely high levels of electromagnetic energy inside the building will render our equipment ineffective after 60 minutes and all communications will be lost. If this happens you’ll be trapped inside and at the mercy of Dr Argon.
...show less
Key Stats
Review
On a high after completing Mr Chuckles Funhouse, we next went to play The 13th Element. This is billed as Escape Quest’s most difficult game and has a 4 player minimum, however, we were allowed to play with 3 people. The rationale behind the minimum is due to the sheer volume of puzzles in the room. We therefore entered with trepidation after our briefing.
The room starts in a very simple space with a handful of puzzles to progress to the main part of the game. We faltered at the first hurdle and took miles longer than we should have done to complete the first few puzzles. One observational puzzle hiding in plain sight is the key thing that threw us. When prompted by a clue, we were very annoyed at ourselves.
After gaining entry to the main setting of the room, we immediately understood why the game was rated as their most difficult. In an immersive lab style setting, you’re surrounded by lots of interesting and varied looking puzzles. It’s not often that a game presents you with the majority of its puzzles at the beginning of the game and with such a clear way to measure your progress. Each puzzle essentially provided one of the 13 elements you’re attempting to retrieve. The puzzles are very varied with a mix of logic, observation and physical puzzles, all themed around various amusing laboratory experiments.
Once you get started you quickly realise that you don’t have all the information you need to solve all of the puzzles. The challenge then becomes finding out what you actually can solve. It took us a little while to get going and a couple of us wasted quite a bit of time trying to solve things we didn’t yet have all the information for, but once we got into the flow we steadily progressed through the room with a few hints along the way.
Once we’d retrieved all of the elements, we were left with about 5 minutes to complete the final tasks and escape the room. A little surprise was thrown it that massively upped the pressure and led to us dashing about frantically to find the last bits we needed. We had a few last minute hints thrown in to help, but thankfully we escaped with only just over a minute on the clock.
This was a very fun game that required large amounts of parallel working and team work to ensure a successful escape. The game sticks with its theme throughout, allowing the story to unfold in a humorous way throughout the game. We really enjoyed the game, but we must admit, it was one of the most difficult we’ve played.
Ratings
The S.S.B (Special Scientific Branch) work undercover for the government and have been called in to help.
Setting up a covert operation to watch and track a selected number of scientists they have now located an area of suspicious activity, an old mill building on the edge of town where these scientists were seen to go in but never came out.
show more.... We sent in a team of our best undercover agents and managed to get a little information about what’s going on inside. It seems that the person responsible for these disappearances is a man known only as Dr Argon.
After taking the scientists prisoner he is forcing them to attempt to harness the power of 12 rare elements, combining these will activate and power the rarest element of all - The 13th Element, this is the element of immortality and its power can only be used by one person.
Your task as agents working for the S.S.B is to enter the building, infiltrate the lab and work together to harness the power of these 12 elements, once the 13th element is activated you need to enter Dr Argon's office, initiate the self destruct sequence & get out fast.
You will need to work quickly as the extremely high levels of electromagnetic energy inside the building will render our equipment ineffective after 60 minutes and all communications will be lost. If this happens you’ll be trapped inside and at the mercy of Dr Argon.
...show less
Key Stats
| Room Name | The 13th Element |
| Venue | Escape Quest |
| Location | Macclesfield, UK |
| Date | 06/05/2018 |
| Escape Time | 58:42 |
| Team Size | 3 |
| My Recommended Team Size | 4 - 6 |
Review
On a high after completing Mr Chuckles Funhouse, we next went to play The 13th Element. This is billed as Escape Quest’s most difficult game and has a 4 player minimum, however, we were allowed to play with 3 people. The rationale behind the minimum is due to the sheer volume of puzzles in the room. We therefore entered with trepidation after our briefing.
The room starts in a very simple space with a handful of puzzles to progress to the main part of the game. We faltered at the first hurdle and took miles longer than we should have done to complete the first few puzzles. One observational puzzle hiding in plain sight is the key thing that threw us. When prompted by a clue, we were very annoyed at ourselves.
After gaining entry to the main setting of the room, we immediately understood why the game was rated as their most difficult. In an immersive lab style setting, you’re surrounded by lots of interesting and varied looking puzzles. It’s not often that a game presents you with the majority of its puzzles at the beginning of the game and with such a clear way to measure your progress. Each puzzle essentially provided one of the 13 elements you’re attempting to retrieve. The puzzles are very varied with a mix of logic, observation and physical puzzles, all themed around various amusing laboratory experiments.
Once you get started you quickly realise that you don’t have all the information you need to solve all of the puzzles. The challenge then becomes finding out what you actually can solve. It took us a little while to get going and a couple of us wasted quite a bit of time trying to solve things we didn’t yet have all the information for, but once we got into the flow we steadily progressed through the room with a few hints along the way.
Once we’d retrieved all of the elements, we were left with about 5 minutes to complete the final tasks and escape the room. A little surprise was thrown it that massively upped the pressure and led to us dashing about frantically to find the last bits we needed. We had a few last minute hints thrown in to help, but thankfully we escaped with only just over a minute on the clock.
This was a very fun game that required large amounts of parallel working and team work to ensure a successful escape. The game sticks with its theme throughout, allowing the story to unfold in a humorous way throughout the game. We really enjoyed the game, but we must admit, it was one of the most difficult we’ve played.
 |
| The team were Beth, Daniel and Becky. |
Ratings
| Overall |  | A fun and immersive game packed with puzzles from start to finish, with lots of variety and surprises to keep you entertained. |
| Difficulty |  | This is a difficult room. There is a 4 person minimum, but we were lucky enough to be allowed to play it as a team of 3. It required lots of parallel working. |
| Fun | | It’s a very amusing game, with lots to see and lots to solve. There’s a good storyline and a real sense of drama that unfolds throughout the game. |
| Puzzles | | There are lots of puzzles in this room and a real variety. You see almost everything you need to solve at the beginning of the game, but all the puzzles are cleverly intertwined to slowly reveal the clues you need throughout the game. |
| Immersion | | You feel very immersed in the rooms storyline, with good theming throughout to make it feel like you’re in a laboratory. |
| Surprises | | This game gave us lots of surprises from the beginning to the end, particularly in the frantic final moments of the game. |