Hansel and Gretel

Please note: Before I begin, I want to preface this by saying that this room is brand new. It literally opened just over a week ago, therefore it will be refined and improved over the coming months. We did experience one very minor technical issue and a couple of breakages (didn’t impact gameplay), but on the whole the room played well. — After an enjoyable trip to Riddlr earlier this year, we vowed to come back once their latest room was open. Loui, our GM, was fantastic. He was really passionate about the room, very accommodating with our requests and extremely open to feedback. He talked us through the hint system and explained that the room we were playing was less of an ‘escape’ room and more of a narrative journey. I think the slightly unfortunate thing, is that the narrative doesn’t deviate from the well-known story and therefore there was nothing particularly new about it. Some twists or turns would have kept us more invested in the story. The room is clearly a labour of love and this shows as we enter the first room, a magical forest complete with a candy-covered cottage. We were surprised as leaves crunched beneath our feet, a seemingly small detail but with a clear intent to increase immersion. It’s a beautiful room that fully captures the essence of the fairy tale. With plenty of space for our team of four to move around, we quickly set to work on finding a way into the cottage. The puzzles in this game are predominantly linear and feature mainly traditional padlocks, with only a couple of electronic locks. A digital keypad late in the game didn’t feel particularly in line with the game’s setting and slightly broke the immersion. There were a mix of more physical challenges, along with thinky puzzles. We each had our moment to shine throughout the games, as puzzles targeted different skill sets. There is a final bonus puzzle once you finish the room, which if completed before the timer runs out will unlock a reward. This was a nice touch! The hint system follows the standard Riddlr M.O., which is a flow chart showing the order of puzzles to complete and a corresponding hint button to press if needed. Hints in this room are contained within the pages of a magical storybook - which felt like a perfect match for the room. We still feel like using the flowchart is cheating, even though its use is built into the runtime - so we tried where possible not to look at it. I feel like this room has a lot of potential and will hopefully evolve and improve over time. It is clear that the folks at Riddlr really care about getting it right, so I have no doubt they will tweak and improve over the coming months. Don’t miss: we played this room as part of the two rooms back-to-back for £30pp offer, which is an absolute bargain!