Along the M3 from London, out to its west-south-west, is the town of Camberley at the very north-west tip of Surrey. On Saturday, the town saw its first exit game open, Mystery Room UK. The site has opened between a Chinese restaurant and a Co-Op with a single game to begin; this has a 60-minute time limit and has been designed for teams of two to five.
The first game, The Suspect, sees you play as “detectives on the hunt for a missing woman, Jennifer Summers. A cryptic letter was recently received but there’s been no ransom. It doesn’t make any sense! The intelligence team have been trying to crack the code and solve the mysterious disappearance but have been unsuccessful. They need your help!! The prime suspect has been identified and is being monitored. You and your team are to enter his office and search the area for clues whilst he is away. You must try to find evidence linking him to the disappearance and ultimately, find where Jennifer is so we can rescue her! We don’t know what you might find so you must be prepared for anything. Time will be short so work quickly to find all the evidence against – The Suspect!”
Unusually, once you’ve booked to play, “your team are given a password to the player access area. There you will find a starter clue and a game briefing. This gives you a taster of what to expect from the room when you arrive on the day. ((…)) Although the clue is fun to puzzle over, it won’t stop you from playing if you don’t have time to solve it before your game. When you arrive you will have time to discuss the online clue to see if you were correct, or to be brought up to speed if you haven’t had time to work on it. It does have a bearing on the story so we would suggest that you take a look at it before you play if you are able to. It might just get you off to a better start!” A lovely touch, and one that only adds to the anticipation of the joy of playing.
Games are offered starting between 10am and 6pm on Fridays, Saturdays and alternate Sundays. (There are sporadic weekdays where games are offered as well, suggesting that additional arrangements are possible.) The price is £38 for a team of two up to £65 for a team of five. On top of that, the site has had one of the more remarkable opening offers; the first ten teams to book got to play for free, with the next forty playing at half price. Keep an eye on the list of sites announced but not yet open (towards the bottom of the page) and if anything is local enough to catch your eye, register with it and see if you can catch a deal like that in the future!
