September 2023
Trapped Escape Rooms- Okehampton
The Deeds
Overview
We had booked all 3 rooms at Trapped fully expecting the most difficult day we’ve had as escape room enthusiasts judging by other review sites and the apparent escape rate of their rooms being around 7%. The building itself is set on a small industrial estate on the outskirts of Okehampton but is easily found. There is plenty of parking onsite and when we pulled up there was a man dressed in costume at the top of the stairs outside of the main entrance. We were aware of having to arrive 10 minute before the start time and as we pulled up at 12:20 for a 12:30 start, I received a text message from the host stating we should have arrived at 12:20 and if we were going to be any later then he would to re-schedule, not the most friendly of welcomes in our opinion.
None the less, we entered the small waiting area and filled out the relevant online form on a tablet. Again, emphasis was focused on the negative. The form was completed and handed back but it was re-affirmed to us that any breakages will be charged and made the assumption that I was signing something I wasn’t happy with.
It seemed a strange introduction to Dan, whom we were told by other escape room owners that he will be in character from the second you knock on the door. We weren’t sure what the character was supposed to be and he appeared to break this character in and out of the introductions, making jokes towards us pointing out house rules.
All in all, the first impression of Trapped was not what we expected and we all entered The Deeds a little flat.
Putting the first few niggles from our point of view aside, it is clear that Dan has put an enormous amount of time and effort into designing the whole venue and the rooms. They were some of the best that we seen and you are completely immersed as soon as you enter. The Deeds is definitely supposed to be a spooky room. We weren’t given any real warning into this but as soon as you walk into the old creepy lounge, you know that this game will be a spooky game. There was some jumpy moments throughout that we wouldn’t class as a horror room but there were definitely elements that really made us jump. Like all the rooms here, there are no padlocks and this certainly helps you immerse yourself into the theme of trying to find the deeds in a haunted house.
As mentioned, there are no padlocks in any rooms. Dan made it very clear throughout the day at Trapped that we had to follow the clues and do not deviate. Unlike a lot of escape rooms where you have to scramble around for clues, you are given the first one and we were told not to deviate away from that. This made the game completely linear. It seemed peculiar to us that to move on from the first puzzle, you do have to search for further aides after the apparent hints from the room, didn’t appear to highlight what we were supposed to do. This put further doubt into our heads that if we had continued to focus on what we were being told, we wouldn’t have got past the first puzzle. Again, putting our opinion aside, the puzzles were very good indeed. Some of the best immersive puzzles we have come across and it’s a credit to Dan for putting it all together.
There is a TV in the room where the timer is showing throughout. It’s important to mention that the GM will not give you any clues unless you ask for it. There was an old telephone in the corner of the room where you can ring and ask for help. Again, you can’t just pick up the phone and say you are stuck because you will not receive any help for this. You need to state what you are actually stuck on or what you would like. Dan will not give you an easy hint, the clue will be cryptic and it is up to you to work out. We had to ask a couple of times, especially the first puzzle where we just couldn’t get going. The way the clue system works wasn’t great for us. Not being able to have a GM give you a nudge in the right direction puts you in the position that you have to get to a point where you have kind of given up on the puzzle and you need to break away and ask for help. It ruined our flow in this game and the others that followed.
Round Up
The Deeds was the most enjoyable room of all of the rooms that we had completed on the day at trapped. Once we had escaped the room in time, it did appear strange that Dan walked us back through the room to show us what we didn’t do well and what we had missed. We were elated at escaping the first room in what was going to be a very challenging 3 rooms and being walked back through telling us what we didn’t do well made us feel like school children that weren’t get getting the subject. We weren’t given a time of completion, a congratulations for escaping or given a completion badge (that Dan was wearing) to add to our collection. These little things are certainly not the end of the world but it’s the little things you remember.
Writing this reviews and others to follow for Trapped has proven really difficult because the design and puzzles of The Deeds was brilliant and is a must to try. We don’t think we gelled 100% with Dan throughout the day and there is more evidence of this over the next 2 rooms.
Team: 4 Players
Time Escaped: 54:00
Success/Failed: Success
Company Details:
September 2023
Trapped Escape Rooms- Okehampton
Templars
Overview
Templars was the second attempt of the day for us having just successfully completed the Deeds. The building itself is set on a small industrial estate on the outskirts of Okehampton but is easily found. There is plenty of parking onsite and when we pulled up there was a man dressed in costume at the top of the stairs outside of the main entrance. We have previously described our welcome from the host, Dan in the review for The Deeds……
None the less, we entered the small waiting area and filled out the relevant online form on a tablet. The first impressions of Trapped were not what we expected but we we buoyed by our performance in The Deeds so we were looking forward to taking on the next room.
Whilst being given our brief, we could see into the shop window, so we knew what we were walking into. As soon as the brief was finished, we walked up the steps and into the Tailor shop.
As oil the previous game we had played, it is clear that Dan has put an enormous amount of time and effort into designing the whole venue and the rooms. The Tailor shop was very well decorated and we were quickly immersed in the game but we really did struggle to get going and when we did get going, it was in different stages throughout the game, we never found our rhythm in this one. The different elements to the game were interesting but one sticking point was towards the end of the game when we were on the last puzzle, some of the team had to split up and go back to another room. However, the door shut behind them and they were stuck in an old room and we had no way of getting all back together. This seemed to be a design fault if we had shut the door behind us, we should still be able to get back to each other. Again, seeing how the host was with us, could he have let us through? We will never know.
As mentioned in previous reviews, there are no padlocks in any rooms. Dan made it very clear throughout the day at Trapped that we had to follow the clues and do not deviate. Unlike The Deeds, we never really got going and whether it was us not connecting with the game or not but we couldn’t seem to find the clues that easily. When we did find them, they didn’t seem to make much sense to us. When we did ask Dan for a hint, the hint seemed to confuse us even further and the GM’s clues just didn’t help us. We do have a tendency to over think some puzzles, but we just didn’t understand quite a few puzzles in this game and even when we did get some of the answers, we weren’t too sure how. The fact that this room has a 7% success rate may have had something to do with it but we didn’t really get to grips with this. Puzzle wise, there wasn’t much searching it was all quite logical and coded.
Dan stays in character throughout the day and you can’t just pick up the phone and say you are stuck because you will not receive any help for this. You need to state what you are actually stuck on or what you would like. Dan will not give you an easy hint, the clue will be cryptic and it is up to you to work out. On one occasion the phone rang in the shop and we were advised that another group was entering the building and he was going to be unavailable for the next 5 minutes or so. Whilst this can’t be helped, receiving a call during the game deflated us a bit and broke the immersion of the room straight away. It’s not the point that the GM would have been unavailable for a short period of time, it was more the fact that a call like that had to be made and it did annoy us that he made that call to us.
Round Up
As the day went on at Trapped, we just felt our rapport with the GM wasn’t flowing as well as perhaps it should. We felt the Dan was annoyed with us being there and when we didn’t escape Templar, running out of time on the last puzzle, Dan gladly walked us back round the whole room, showing us all the things we had missed (which was nice). Templars is a very challenging room and we only missed out by a minute or two and we would have had another success on our hands but writing this review and others to follow for Trapped has proven really difficult because the design and puzzles of Templars was brilliant and is a must to try if you are serious escape room goers.
Team: 4 Players
Time Escaped: N/A
Success/Failed: Failed
Company Details:
September 2023
Trapped Escape Rooms- Okehampton
Bletchy Blueprints
Overview
The Blueprints was the final room of the three at Trapped and after the frustration of Templars still fresh in our minds, we weren’t overly looking forward to taking on the hardest room, in the hosts words! The building itself is set on a small industrial estate on the outskirts of Okehampton but is easily found. There is plenty of parking onsite but please be aware, there is no waiting area or anywhere to sit and have refreshments, even a glass of water, so bare that in mind in the summer!
We were taken into a reception area and given the instruction to wait. So we did, for quite a few minutes and we don’t really know when our time started. We were told to listen to the message, which we did and then when one of us on the phone couldn’t hear the message that clearly, we asked for it to played again and we were met with a chunk of sarcasm from the GM telling us to listen, abruptly.
The room design was brilliant, as was all three rooms at Trapped. The owner is passionate about his product and seems to defend it no matter what. It’s a credit to him for designing the rooms and creating 3 very challenging rooms. We were immersed completely in this room and although some of the puzzles took a very long time, we did enjoy it and it was very well decorated during the 20/30’s era. There was good background music in the room for this game but having other local escape room companies being advertised in the room felt a bit strange?
As mentioned in previous reviews, there are no padlocks in any rooms. Dan made it very clear throughout the day at Trapped that we had to follow the clues and do not deviate. Although 2 of the puzzles rook a long time, we actually quite enjoyed this room and got to grips with it quite quickly, compared to Templars anyway. There was quite a bit of searching to do and decoding but as mentioned, 2 puzzles took so long that it was unnecessary. If you made a mistake on any one of them, you had to start again! Luckily we didn’t make a mistake but one of them still took us over 15 minutes to complete. The last puzzle infuriated us beyond belief and it is taking a lot of will power not to ruin the ending of the game on this review as it’s not in our nature to do so but that’s how passionate we feel about it.
As we have said throughout our reviews of Trapped, our relationship with the host seemed to go downhill the more the day went on. It’s as if our first room success seemed to annoy him and he wanted to prove a point for the next 2 games. Once we did get through the last room, thinking we had completed the game, the GM was waiting for us saying we needed to keep going and was counting down in seconds for us to finish. In no exaggeration, the GM was a complete hindrance and it made no sense why he was there at the end of the game? We were annoyed and at this point, we had enough and just wanted to leave but Dan yet again, wanted to walk us through every little detail that we had missed to show how we could have done better. Do we think that is the normal end of the game? Not at all, and if it is, what would have happened if the GM had another group in another room (like what happened during Templars), would he have been able to do what he did with us? Not at all……
Dan stays in character throughout the day and you can’t just pick up the phone and say you are stuck because you will not receive any help for this. You need to state what you are actually stuck on or what you would like. Dan will not give you an easy hint, the clue will be cryptic and it is up to you to work out. There is a phone for you to use and with no clock in the room, you are guessing a bit but Dan is there if you need an idea of how long left you have.
Round Up
The three reviews we have written for Trapped have been extremely difficult to write. They are some of the best designed rooms we have taken on and the puzzles are very challenging, especially with no padlocks! We give Dan a lot of credit for creating a cracking set of rooms. However, we just didn’t get on with him. We never got our team photo sent to us after the day, not even uploaded on his Facebook page to show how we had done throughout the day. It is us being picky but the little details do add up and when there are so many phenomenal hosts locally that we really do get on well with, it just felt strange that Dan wasn’t that welcoming with us. He might have been having a bad day? To summarise, if want to challenge yourself, visit Trapped, 3 great rooms that are the hardest we have done.
Team: 4 Players
Time Escaped: 59:59
Success/Failed: Sucess
Company Details:
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