TimeTrap Escape Rooms – Imaginarium

Summary
Take lots of lights, one large dose of Lewis Carroll, and a range of puzzles, and you’re somewhere in the right direction. TimeTrap let their imagination run wild… did it work?

Review
Previously satisfied customers of TimeTrap’s Rebellion 1136, we returned for another go at the newest addition to the stable.

The premise of this room was that Lewis Carroll had had an accident and we were intrepid time travellers to 1863, ready to be shrunk down inside his brain and help him recover, making sure he proceeded to write Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on the way.

Imaginarium presented us with a lot of options and a wide range of challenges from the get-go, giving the team the ability to spread out and try different challenges. There was little linearity, though some puzzles only opened up upon solving prior ones, as you might expect. We didn’t do ourselves a lot of favours on searching and spotting things, but quickly picked off some of the (arguably) more complicated puzzles and gave ourselves a fast start.

Whilst I wouldn’t say we ground to a halt, we did make very heavy weather of an image puzzle before unblocking ourselves and making more progress. This speed stayed strong into the next block of puzzles and indeed most of the way through.

I didn’t actually knock out many puzzles myself, being beaten to the punch by the rest of the team, but that’s sometimes how your day goes.

Hints were delivered over audio voiceover, and both of the hints we used were for failing to spot things that we probably ought to have done.

Outcome
We successfully escaped with sanity intact and just under 13 minutes to spare, having used two hints.

In numbers
Overall: 8/10
Difficulty: 7/10
Theming: 9/10
Host: 8/10
Wow: 8/10

This was solidly enjoyable as well as being just the right level of difficulty. The range of puzzles meant something for all of us to do. The design was top-notch and extremely well thought out, and we left very happy.

Other details
Accessibility: 3 flights of stairs to the entrance, no lift.

Alerts: There’s some flickery lights.

Capacity: This room is sold as a 4-8 player game, but I think more than 5 and you’d have several distinctly bored players for a lot of it.

Cost: The price ranges from £88 (4 players off peak) to £168 (8 players peak). Off peak is before 4pm on weekdays.

Photo: Yes, outside the room, and uploaded onto Facebook promptly.

Getting there: Reading station (National Rail) is a leisurely 10 minutes away on foot.

Website: www.timetrapescaperooms.com