Room Story - from Lucardo
You are a bunch of cops working on an operation to bust a notorious criminal gang known for car theft, robbery, kidnap and murder. Police headquarters have been tipped off about a hideout and will conduct a raid in 60 minutes’ time. The only problem? You’ve been corrupted and are working with the gang. You’ll need to sabotage the hideout, dispose of incriminating evidence and plant clues to lead your colleagues in another direction. Can you stay one step ahead of the law and escape without a prison sentence?
Key Stats
Review
Last time we visited Lucardo Rawtenstall, they told us a little bit about their new game that was opening soon and it sounded really interesting and different. So shortly after it opened, we went along to give it a go!
The storyline of Corruption is centred around a group of corrupt police officers whose crimes are about to be revealed. You play the role of one of these corrupt officers and have 60 minutes to clean-up the evidence of your crimes before your honest colleagues arrive to investigate. The action all takes place in an MOT garage that has been used as the base for your nefarious deeds. The clean-up element of the game gives a very different style of gameplay and provides a really good reason for why you’re solving the puzzles in the room – most escape rooms struggle to explain away why there are a series of locks and challenges in the room.
This game has a really great sense of theatre and immersion. I won’t give anything away, but this game doesn’t have a traditional start - the action begins before you even enter the room. It left us a little bit confused at first, but we soon knew what to do! By the time you’re in the room, you’ve been fully briefed on what’s going on and how you should clean-up the evidence of your crimes. This is all done in a very immersive way, drawing you into the storyline.
The main room you enter is an MOT garage which is superbly themed with a great centrepiece in the room and lots of authentic props. The room even smells like a garage! We were very impressed and set about our task, with the dramatic music spurring us on. You start initially in the dark and one of the first tasks is turning on the light. It took us far longer than it should have done. Once we had the light, we started to make real progress.
There were quite a few observational puzzles in this room and a little bit of searching required to make progress. There’s also a really great skill based physical puzzle that’s a really satisfying one to solve. As you progress, you do find quite a lot of items – not all of them relevant to escaping the room. We got very caught up on a series of items we found and attempted to make sense of them. By the end of the game, we knew they were a red herring. But we did come back to them quite a few times throughout the game.
It took us a long time to complete the first area of the game. We needed a few clues to help us along and cover some of our observational deficiencies (these were delivered via a screen in the room). The final puzzle was great, making clever use of the props in the room to give you the information required to progress to the next part of the room.
We were very surprised to discover what lay ahead beyond the first game area. You’re confronted with a grisly scene. It is very on theme and executed really well.
We split up and completed some tasks separately, me focusing on a particular task and my team mates exploring the room more widely. There was quite an amusing moment where I found 6 items we required in the space of a minute when my team mates had already spent 5 minutes exploring the room extensively – they couldn’t quite believe it. I couldn’t either, my observational skills are usually rubbish!
With time rapidly counting down, we reached the final task and spent a frantic few minutes running around the room until a great bit of observation from Becky found us the clue we needed. With the final task complete, we rushed to the exit forgetting the need for a 4 digit code to escape. We spent a minute or so with the red herring from earlier in the game before finding the real answer and escaping. The game doesn’t end there – there’s a little bit of theatre left before the debrief commences.
The team at Lucardo have created a very special, immersive and unique game that gives you a starring role in the action. The storyline is great and developed throughout the game, with many theatrical elements bringing the room to life even further. After playing Gem Runner, we knew this game would be good, but it completely surpassed all expectations to become one of our favourite games we’ve played. We highly recommend this game - they’ve set the bar high and we can’t wait for more new rooms in the future.
Ratings
You are a bunch of cops working on an operation to bust a notorious criminal gang known for car theft, robbery, kidnap and murder. Police headquarters have been tipped off about a hideout and will conduct a raid in 60 minutes’ time. The only problem? You’ve been corrupted and are working with the gang. You’ll need to sabotage the hideout, dispose of incriminating evidence and plant clues to lead your colleagues in another direction. Can you stay one step ahead of the law and escape without a prison sentence?
Key Stats
| Room Name | Corruption |
| Venue | Lucardo |
| Location | Rawtenstall, UK |
| Date | 09/07/2018 |
| Escape Time | 51:37 |
| Team Size | 3 |
| My Recommended Team Size | 3 - 5 |
Review
Last time we visited Lucardo Rawtenstall, they told us a little bit about their new game that was opening soon and it sounded really interesting and different. So shortly after it opened, we went along to give it a go!
The storyline of Corruption is centred around a group of corrupt police officers whose crimes are about to be revealed. You play the role of one of these corrupt officers and have 60 minutes to clean-up the evidence of your crimes before your honest colleagues arrive to investigate. The action all takes place in an MOT garage that has been used as the base for your nefarious deeds. The clean-up element of the game gives a very different style of gameplay and provides a really good reason for why you’re solving the puzzles in the room – most escape rooms struggle to explain away why there are a series of locks and challenges in the room.
This game has a really great sense of theatre and immersion. I won’t give anything away, but this game doesn’t have a traditional start - the action begins before you even enter the room. It left us a little bit confused at first, but we soon knew what to do! By the time you’re in the room, you’ve been fully briefed on what’s going on and how you should clean-up the evidence of your crimes. This is all done in a very immersive way, drawing you into the storyline.
The main room you enter is an MOT garage which is superbly themed with a great centrepiece in the room and lots of authentic props. The room even smells like a garage! We were very impressed and set about our task, with the dramatic music spurring us on. You start initially in the dark and one of the first tasks is turning on the light. It took us far longer than it should have done. Once we had the light, we started to make real progress.
There were quite a few observational puzzles in this room and a little bit of searching required to make progress. There’s also a really great skill based physical puzzle that’s a really satisfying one to solve. As you progress, you do find quite a lot of items – not all of them relevant to escaping the room. We got very caught up on a series of items we found and attempted to make sense of them. By the end of the game, we knew they were a red herring. But we did come back to them quite a few times throughout the game.
It took us a long time to complete the first area of the game. We needed a few clues to help us along and cover some of our observational deficiencies (these were delivered via a screen in the room). The final puzzle was great, making clever use of the props in the room to give you the information required to progress to the next part of the room.
We were very surprised to discover what lay ahead beyond the first game area. You’re confronted with a grisly scene. It is very on theme and executed really well.
We split up and completed some tasks separately, me focusing on a particular task and my team mates exploring the room more widely. There was quite an amusing moment where I found 6 items we required in the space of a minute when my team mates had already spent 5 minutes exploring the room extensively – they couldn’t quite believe it. I couldn’t either, my observational skills are usually rubbish!
With time rapidly counting down, we reached the final task and spent a frantic few minutes running around the room until a great bit of observation from Becky found us the clue we needed. With the final task complete, we rushed to the exit forgetting the need for a 4 digit code to escape. We spent a minute or so with the red herring from earlier in the game before finding the real answer and escaping. The game doesn’t end there – there’s a little bit of theatre left before the debrief commences.
The team at Lucardo have created a very special, immersive and unique game that gives you a starring role in the action. The storyline is great and developed throughout the game, with many theatrical elements bringing the room to life even further. After playing Gem Runner, we knew this game would be good, but it completely surpassed all expectations to become one of our favourite games we’ve played. We highly recommend this game - they’ve set the bar high and we can’t wait for more new rooms in the future.
 |
| The team were Becky, Daniel and Beth. |
Ratings
| Overall |  | A really unique and theatrical game packed with puzzles and atmosphere. Extremely unique amongst the games we’ve played and highly recommended. |
| Difficulty |  | There’s a lot to get through and quite a number of observational puzzles that aren’t immediately obvious, it’s definitely not an easy one. |
| Fun | | It was one of the most engaging rooms we’ve played with a great storyline that leads to a really fun style of gameplay. |
| Puzzles |  | This room has a heavy emphasis on observation and searching, with a few skill based puzzles thrown in for good measure. All of the puzzles flow well and make sense, with some really satisfying moments. |
| Immersion | | One of the most immersive games we’ve played. The room has a great storyline that really draws you in. Combined with the excellent theming and soundtrack, this is a really immersive room with a great sense of theatre. |
| Surprises | | There are surprises throughout, starting before you even walk into the game. |