Room Story - from Breakout Manchester
It's time to play a game. Some people are so ungrateful to be alive. If you survive this room you won't be. One minute you are leading a normal life, going about your daily business, the next minute you have been captured. You wake up in an abandoned basement with no idea how you got there. A video begins to play and the clock starts to count down. You have 60 minutes to escape, or your life will end…
Key Stats
Review
Back in June I attended a meet-up of escape room owners and enthusiasts in Manchester organised by Ian Pownall, the director of Lucardo Manchester. It was a really great night meeting lots of fellow enthusiasts and talking all things escape rooms. As part of the event, the guys at Breakout Manchester were kind enough to offer enthusiasts the opportunity to play one of their games for free. Based on availability and the time I could play, my choice of games was made for me – Captured B at Breakout’s new Church Street site in Manchester.
The unusual thing for me was that I booked the game as a single person and then sought a team. I ended up playing the game with 4 other people who I’d never met before. I’ve only ever played with friends and family so this was a new experience!
We started the game with an enthusiastic briefing from the host who did a good job of getting us all properly introduced to one another. We then headed off to the room and entered it blindfolded. Captured B has a bit of a SAW-like theme to it with appropriate creepy laughter to signal clues delivered by the screen, tense music, creepy props and the mandatory bloody writing on the wall!
Not being a team familiar with each other it felt a little bit chaotic at first with people dashing around the room and shouting things out, but we quickly settled into the game and began solving puzzles. Most of the puzzles were based around solving codes to unlock various padlocks in the room. There were a few tricky puzzles here that tried to catch you out and did succeed for a little time until we received some gentle nudges from our host. All the puzzles flowed together well and the answers made sense to us.
We eventually made our way into the second room which was quite a large space but a little bit sparsely decorated. With greater space, we spread out a little bit more and quickly solved a few puzzles in parallel. They’ve done a good job in this room of linking the puzzles to the theme of the room. There was a nice story-based puzzle that I particularly enjoyed. I will say however, despite the fact it is SAW-like, it isn’t a scary room at all.
We worked together well as a team and managed to escape in a very quick time of 35:20. Captured B is a solid escape room with some good and tricky puzzles that will test you. It’s not one of the most elaborately themed rooms, but it’s a fun room that most teams will enjoy.
Disclaimer: I wasn’t charged to play this game.
Ratings
It's time to play a game. Some people are so ungrateful to be alive. If you survive this room you won't be. One minute you are leading a normal life, going about your daily business, the next minute you have been captured. You wake up in an abandoned basement with no idea how you got there. A video begins to play and the clock starts to count down. You have 60 minutes to escape, or your life will end…
Key Stats
| Room Name | Captured B |
| Venue | Breakout |
| Location | Manchester, UK |
| Date | 17/06/2019 |
| Escape Time | 35:20 |
| Team Size | 5 |
| My Recommended Team Size | 2 - 4 |
Review
Back in June I attended a meet-up of escape room owners and enthusiasts in Manchester organised by Ian Pownall, the director of Lucardo Manchester. It was a really great night meeting lots of fellow enthusiasts and talking all things escape rooms. As part of the event, the guys at Breakout Manchester were kind enough to offer enthusiasts the opportunity to play one of their games for free. Based on availability and the time I could play, my choice of games was made for me – Captured B at Breakout’s new Church Street site in Manchester.
The unusual thing for me was that I booked the game as a single person and then sought a team. I ended up playing the game with 4 other people who I’d never met before. I’ve only ever played with friends and family so this was a new experience!
We started the game with an enthusiastic briefing from the host who did a good job of getting us all properly introduced to one another. We then headed off to the room and entered it blindfolded. Captured B has a bit of a SAW-like theme to it with appropriate creepy laughter to signal clues delivered by the screen, tense music, creepy props and the mandatory bloody writing on the wall!
Not being a team familiar with each other it felt a little bit chaotic at first with people dashing around the room and shouting things out, but we quickly settled into the game and began solving puzzles. Most of the puzzles were based around solving codes to unlock various padlocks in the room. There were a few tricky puzzles here that tried to catch you out and did succeed for a little time until we received some gentle nudges from our host. All the puzzles flowed together well and the answers made sense to us.
We eventually made our way into the second room which was quite a large space but a little bit sparsely decorated. With greater space, we spread out a little bit more and quickly solved a few puzzles in parallel. They’ve done a good job in this room of linking the puzzles to the theme of the room. There was a nice story-based puzzle that I particularly enjoyed. I will say however, despite the fact it is SAW-like, it isn’t a scary room at all.
We worked together well as a team and managed to escape in a very quick time of 35:20. Captured B is a solid escape room with some good and tricky puzzles that will test you. It’s not one of the most elaborately themed rooms, but it’s a fun room that most teams will enjoy.
Disclaimer: I wasn’t charged to play this game.
 |
| The team were Nicola, Tom, Daniel, Keri and Mike |
Ratings
| Overall |  | A fun game with logical well flowing puzzles. This is the first time I’ve played a game with a group of people I don’t know! |
| Difficulty | | It’s not a difficult game – most teams will comfortably escape. |
| Fun |  | It was a fun game – we had a good time. The host was really great, giving us a really up-beat and enthusiastic intro to the game. |
| Puzzles |  | All the puzzles were solid and unambiguous. There wasn’t anything particularly different or novel, with most puzzles relying on padlocks and codes. |
| Immersion | | The room is a decorated in a style fitting the theme and has some decent props. The 2nd room is quite large and a little sparse. |
| Surprises | | There’s one nice surprise moment that’s quite amusing, but there's not many hidden surprises or moments of wow factor in this game. |