We love escape rooms. The more challenging the better, but we are also super competitive, so we have to succeed! We’re on our tenth room now, and we’ve come closer to home to the Lucardo at Rawtenstall. This time, for the first time, we’re doing it with somebody else, our Joshua!
Joshua chose a historical escape room – Treason. This is all about Guido Fawkes and his Gunpowder Plot. The premise is that we are would-be conspirators and we need to help Guido to arm and detonate the gunpowder beneath the Houses of Parliament in 1605. The puzzles are all about finding the sticks of dynamite and then positioning them correctly.
From the first moment we arrived we were blown away by the energy of the staff. Other escape rooms we have been to have been manned by bored employees who didn’t really add to the experience, but at Lucardo every person there was full of character and was having just as good a time as us. The thing that really set it apart, though, was the intervention partway through which involved us playing a role in order to progress.
The puzzles were fairly difficult, although there were a few things to work on at a time. It wasn’t a strictly linear route, but obviously some items were needed to progress to the next.
The two rooms were beautifully laid out and decorated, although there were some anachronisms with wine bottles and other items dated centuries after the actual setting (this in no way detracted from the effect). While there were a lot of locks to open, the puzzles were all different and each required a different way of thinking. As with other venues, Lucardo use a TV screen with the timer on, and if required clues appear on there. Sound is also used to great effect, with warnings of approaching danger and atmospheric noises.
Including the Treason room, there are four escape rooms in Rawtenstall and a fifth is apparently being constructed. We each said then and there that we must re-visit to try each of the rooms. If this one was anything to go off, Lucardo is the best escape room venue that we have visited.